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A thick fog has Andy Johnson motoring slowly, eyes flicking from the windscreen to his instruments, as he navigates around Basin Point and heads up toward Mitchell Field. A couple hours later, under clear blue skies, the captains will only have one thing to worry about: speed.
The 2026 Harpswell Lobster Boat Races attracted competitors from up and down the Maine coast, but Harpswell native Bob Johnson’s Miss Ava Elaine was the fastest boat of the day.
Bob, son of Andy, went into the day confident that victory would be the result. “I’m the guy to beat,” he said.
Bob is over-the-top friendly, in a genuine way. He seems to know everybody, and everybody gets a huge “Hi!”
The Johnsons are a racing family. Andy started the Harpswell Lobster Boat Races almost 40 years ago with Roy Knight, who died just two weeks after this year’s races. They modeled the competition on races happening Down East in Jonesport and Beals. Both father and son raced the first year. Bob was in a little punt with his brother, Dane. He said he finished dead last, but that’s not how Andy remembers it: “I don’t think he’s ever come last.”
In many years, Andy’s boat, Whistlin’ Dixie, was among the fastest in its class. (Races are organized by the size of the boat and its engine, as well as fuel type.)
Not this year. For the first time, Andy isn’t racing. Whistlin’ Dixie is the committee boat, where race officials will judge who crosses the finish line first.
Does he wish he was racing? “Oh yeah,” Andy says. But for the most part, he seems happy as he settles into his new role, pointing out his old competition and cooking hot dogs for his family and the race committee. He says Whistlin’ Dixie is an old sailor’s expression for a big storm. He flies two small Confederate battle flags, one tattered, one newer. They represent his rebellious spirit, he says.
Both Andy and Bob are lobstermen. Andy would head out to his traps the next morning in Whistlin’ Dixie. Bob too, but not on Miss Ava Elaine. He has another boat for his traps.
Bob bought Miss Ava Elaine, then named Starlight Express, from a successful Vinalhaven racer for about $200,000. He renamed it after his daughter, who will start sixth grade at Mt. Ararat Middle School this year. Ava has a student lobster license and 10 traps of her own.
Miss Ava Elaine competes in the working lobster boat class, but the boat is stripped to the essentials so it can make as much speed as possible. Bob’s big hope is to break 50 miles an hour.
An early lead, then trouble
Miss Ava Elaine pulls alongside Andy’s boat at about 9 a.m., as everyone waits for the first races to start. Bob comes aboard with Ava; his son, Christopher, 25; his girlfriend, Ashley Campbell; and Andy’s helper, Mike Reed. Andy says Mike is like another son.
Another of Andy’s helpers, Justin Hart, is on Whistlin’ Dixie, along with his daughter, Autumn, and his girlfriend, Jade Hildreth. Autumn used to be the flag girl for the races: “the Casco Bay queen,” according to Jade.
Across the water, people are starting to fill the pier, beach and lawn at Mitchell Field. Racing boats and spectators’ boats mill around together on Middle Bay.
Bob might have been confident, but he wasn’t relaxed. He tied up to Andy because he saw one of his competitors had turned off his engine. “I gotta shut down too,” he said. Keeping the engine cool now could prevent it from overheating and losing power during the race.
At first, it seems like Bob and Mike will be the only ones on Miss Ava Elaine. Instead, as the first race approaches, Bob is on the committee boat, while Mike, Justin, Ashley, Autumn, and Jade are on Miss Ava Elaine. Bob is concerned about the extra weight. He thinks they’ll lose half a knot of speed for every additional person. But no one gets off. They untie and motor down to the starting line.
Before the first race, announcer Dave Sparks — “like start a fire,” he says — gets on the radio. He sings the national anthem, then asks for a moment of silence for three lobstermen lost this year, including Harpswell’s Chris McIntire and “Lucky” Oppedisano. Sparks is visibly emotional before he gets back on the radio to start the racing. Casco Bay’s lobstermen are the first heat.
It is hard to tell when the race starts exactly, but the arcing white bow wakes of the boats heading up the bay soon make it clear. Miss Ava Elaine is way out in front. Then, just a few boat lengths from the finish, she slows. Committee members shout to Andy. They think Mike didn’t realize he hadn’t crossed the finish line yet. Miss Ava Elaine is tossed in the wakes as Mean Kathleen, Whiskey Girl and other boats speed across the line.
Bob says afterward that he knew right away the engine had died. His boat makes its way slowly over to Andy’s. Everyone is shouting back and forth. “What happened, Mike? What happened?” Andy asks. Mike tells him the transmission slipped, then the engine cut out. He is red-faced and soaked in sweat. “There might have been some swearing,” says Ashley.
Andy boards Miss Ava Elaine. He, Bob, Mike, and Justin kneel on the deck, reaching and peering into the engine compartment to try to understand what went wrong.
“Murphy’s law always comes out,” Andy says. “We’ll get it figured out.”
A third boat rafts up to the Johnsons. This is Mark Davis, who had just passed Miss Ava Elaine in Whiskey Girl. “Best mechanic around,” Andy says.
“We love you,” Jade says.
“As long as you get it running,” Andy says.
Mark does. He has to work fast, because his next race is about to start. Mark wins it.
A second chance, and more
It’s a long wait until Miss Ava Elaine races again. The next races are the smallest entries, skiffs, then the competition works back up to the biggest and most powerful boats.
Justin Papkee, of York, didn’t win the skiffs class in his 14-foot Llama Llama, but his toddler daughter, Carmine, took the prize for youngest racer. A replica of the Tidely-Idley, from Robert McLoskey’s “Burt Dow: Deep-Water Man,” is a distant last in its heat.
Matt Clemons, of Harpswell Neck, races his Haylie Elizabeth with the extra weight of the lookout tower and pulpit he uses for tuna fishing, and still manages a third-place finish. Steve Johnson’s Lynn Marie is deafeningly loud, even from a distance. Maybe it was good that she only managed to race once.
Miss Ava Elaine motors away again a little before 1 p.m. Mike, Justin and all three women are aboard once again. “They weren’t getting off that boat,” Andy says.
Her race false starts, and the boats head down to get set again. Like a repeat of the first race, she approaches the line way out in front. This time, she stays there.
Andy and Bob slap hands. “You got first?” Chris asks his dad. “Hell yeah!” he answers.
Ava hadn’t stuck around to see her namesake win. She left in a friend’s boat. Bob tells a committee member he was glad he stayed on Andy’s boat. He has had heart problems before.
Miss Ava Elaine wins again, and again, first in the Diesel Free-for-All, then for the title of Fastest Working Lobster Boat.
The last race was close. Andy Taylor was leading by a few boat lengths. But Mike reeled her in and crossed the finish line a few feet ahead.
After each win, the radio blares with shouts and whoops and barely comprehensible exultations: “Awww yeah!” and “Spank my ass!” Mike makes an exaggerated worshiping motion toward Bob from across the water.
What did Bob win? “My pride,” he says. The winner would get $50 and a trophy. A committee member with a radar gun clocked Miss Ava Elaine at 49.5 miles per hour on her last run. Almost.
When Miss Ava Elaine ties up alongside Whistlin’ Dixie again, it’s all hugs and smiles. Everyone wants a photo with everyone else. Suddenly, Bob shouts from his boat: “Dad, we’ve got water!” Chris, who works at Bath Iron Works, pulls the deck hatch for a better look.
“It ain’t nothing,” Andy says, but the men put their heads in the hole all the same. In the end, it is nothing.
On the way back around Basin Point, Justin says he likes the way the races bring the whole community together. He would be fishing the next day, too.
He has been a helper for four or five years. Will he keep fishing? “I friggin’ hope so,” he says.
Justin wants to have his own boat someday. Does he think lobstering is worth it, given how hard the work is and how uncertain the future may be? “I love the ocean,” he replies.
