You know when you see the lobster boat sign at Jonesport Realty on Main Street you have arrived in a unique corner of the world. Forget about all the lobsters and high school basketball players that have passed through Jonesport. The sign reminds us that the area is equally famous for boats and boat builders. Enthralled by the beauty and grace of the dangling lobster boat, we embarked on a short search for its builder.

Leaving Jonesport, the traveler crosses the bridge to Beals Island and continues around to Great Wass Island. Another turn and you’ve arrived in Brian Smith’s front yard. It turns out that the committee meeting for the spring model boat show is just breaking up and Smith is ready to receive visitors.

The boat shop certainly doesn’t look like much. Built of hard plastic, the manufacturer had meant it to be a greenhouse, but Smith had other plans. The place is full of woodworking machinery and lobster boats. Inside the shop, different from its larger cousins, condensation is dripping from the roof onto whatever happens to be below when the heater is turned on during a cold snap. It really does remind one of being in a greenhouse.

The shop currently houses The Flash, built and owned by Brian’s son, 16-year-old Gordon. The Flash is “the world’s fastest lobster boat,” taking everything in its class at the Jonesport races last July. For those who thought that Benny Beal’s Stella Ann held that title, there is an asterisk. The catch is that the Smiths’ boats don’t range much longer than 50 inches and the boat shop is about 11 feet by 12 feet. The speedy Flash – little more than 40 inches – flew past other entries in the parallel model boat races held in a local lobster pound.

“If I’d been born 50 years ago, I’d have been a boat builder,” proclaims Smith. These days most lobster boats are built of fiberglass, a material that has much to offer in comparison with the traditional cedar-plank-on-oak-frame construction. Today the staunchest defenders of the traditional materials are yachtsmen who can afford a wooden boat’s more demanding upkeep. Many of those who have sailed both favor the romance of wood. “Wooden boats have character,” is the way Smith puts it.

Not wanting to be involved in the construction of full-sized modern boats, Smith took to his tools three years ago and started producing scale models of actual working boats. Gordon joins him in what has become a father-son endeavor. “I call it therapy,” Brian says with a smile.

For the uninitiated who has the temerity to ask if he builds his models from a kit, Smith points to a piece of cedar plank hanging on the wall. Scrawled on its face is the statement “51-inch lobster boat kit.” That’s a Down East way of saying, “It’s all right here in this wood. All you have to do is use your imagination.”

That’s exactly what Smith, who traces his ancestry back to Tall Barney Beal as well as several of the area’s old-time builders, does. Show him a picture of an old boat and he’ll build a model of it. “I get the lines out of my head. It’s all by eye.” In this day of computer-aided design, it’s comforting to find that some people are still building boats the old way, even if they are models.

The Smiths build in a one-eighth scale, attaching the cedar strips to plywood frames with stainless-steel fastenings. Some of them are finished “down below,” giving a true sense of accuracy. The average boat takes 400 hours of labor from start to launching. Clearly, this is not a hobby for those with poor eyesight or unresponsive fingers.

Currently Brian Smith is building a torpedo stern boat to be named the Lillian M. This is a replica of the first generation of lobster boats that were built to be powered by an internal combustion engine. These old-timers had a curved stern carried over from sailing lobster boats. It is not an easy design to build. Smith had to “bend the planks the whole way around the stern.”

The first boat Smith built, the Lavonne L, was modeled and named after his grandfather’s boat. He built that one with oak ribs covered by cedar planks. It’s a 1950s model and transition boat from the torpedo stern boats. Smith points to the square stern, contrasting the rounded cockpit coaming, a throwback to the older generation. The Lavonne L sits proudly on a stand in the boat shop. Something about this design makes it seem to be doing 30 knots, right there on the shelf.

The Erika Nancy has a handsome black hull with light green trim. Named for Smith’s 14-year-old daughter, it is a boat from the 1970s and shows a wider, higher stern and squared coaming.

The big boys of the Maine Lobster Boat Racing Association are always on the lookout for larger engines as well as ways to get more speed out of the working craft they currently have. The Smiths’ boats have twin electric motors tied to a reduction gear. The motors are powered by 7.2 volt nicad batteries. When asked how many batteries it takes, Brian says, “as many as you dare to run without burning up.” The model builders also have an advantage in that during races they are high and dry on land, controlling their boats by radio.

It’s that need for speed that makes these model boats a double-barreled hobby. When most model builders are finished with a project, it just sits there. When Brian Smith and friends have completed a boat, the racing is yet to come. Talking about the racing causes Smith, who claims to be 29 going on 40, to really light up. After a few minutes of discussing the two “official” races that were held last summer and looking ahead to three or four in 2006, Smith admits to “maybe being 13 going on 40.”

There were 23 boats entered in the second race last year. Smith has pictures of the shore lined with spectators. What really made him happy was “the kids all had big smiles.” Those smiles compare with the satisfaction of building your own boat from scratch. Brian Smith says, “build it from the heart – build it from the stump.”

Check out Brian Smith’s model boats and others featured as part of the fifth model boat show, 7-9 p.m. Monday, April 17, at the Beals Island Elementary School gym. The annual model boat races will be held Saturday, July 1, at the Piero Lobster Pound on Beals Island. For more information about Brian Smith’s models, contact him at 497-3087 and brianandaggie@earthlink.net. Chuck Veeder can be reached at veederc@adelphia.net.