New Bedford Guide Your Guide to New Bedford and South Coast, MA
The 2015 Working Waterfront Festival (September 26 & 27) featured a variety of competitions throughout the weekend. Participants competed in whaleboat races; a tug boat muster; net mending, splicing, link squeezing, and scallop shucking contests; a Nautical Tattoo Contest, and a Seafood Throwdown. Each event showcased a variety of industry skills, engaging the public in learning about different aspects of the fishing industry.
The Buzzard’s Bay Rowing Club hosted Whaleboat Races on Saturday morning. Winners were as follows: Women’s Grey Whale: Crabalots with a time of 13:19.3; Women’s Blue Whale: Margaret’s Oars with a time of 11:47.7; Women’s Right Whale: Mystic Seaport with a time of 13:25.6; Coed Blue Whale: Whalers with a time of 12:03.9; Coed Right Whale: Sea Me After Class with a time of 13:21.3; Coed Grey Whale: Bee’s Knees with a time of 14:18.1; and Men’s Right Whale: Mystic Seaport with a time of 11:48.6. Lorelei won “Best Dressed,” Mystic Seaport won “Most Theatrical” and Oar-e-o’s were deemed “Most Enthusiastic”.
Area tugs converged on the harbor Saturday afternoon for the annual Tugboat Muster organized by Charlie Mitchell captain of the Tug Jaguar and emceed by his brother Bob Mitchell of R. A. Mitchell Company. While not a formal contest, tugs of all sizes showed their skill and strength with demonstrations of hawser tossing, turning, and pushing.
Rodney Avila and Ted Williams of Hercules SLR US presented Safety Demos including a life raft deployment and an “Abandon Ship” demonstration to give visitors a sense of the dangers of commercial fishing and the safety protocol that fishermen practice to remain safe at sea.
On Saturday, groundfishing skills were highlighted with a Net Mending Competition emceed by net designer Tor Bendiksen of Reidar’s Manufacturing and a Rope Splicing Contest emceed by Barbara Merry of Marlinspike Artist. Winners of the net mending competition were 1st place: Steve Wright of the F/V Hunter with a time of 2:22, 2nd place: Sarah Fortin an employee at Reidar’s Manufacturing with a time of 2:35, 3rd place: Ray Lees of the F/V Paula Jean with a time of 2:59. Kevin Curole of Grand Isle, Louisiana won the splicing contest.
On Sunday, scallopers took center stage with back to back contests: Link Squeezing (emceed by Mathieu Lemieux of Blue Fleet Welding) and Shucking (emceed by Richie Canastra of BASE/Whaling City Seafood Display Auction). Brothers Levi Brockman (F/V Starbrite) and Steve Brockman (F/V Instigator) won the link squeezing contest with a time of 1:59. Results of the shucking contest were as follows: Jonathan Hynd of the F/V Horizon took first place with a time of 4:02; Sergey Chadchushkin of the F/V Atlantic took 2nd place with a time of 4:13; and Jeff Swain of the F/V Polaris took 3rd place with a time of 4:19.
Contest prizes were provided by Latti and Anderson LLP, Slave of the Sea, Marlinspike Artist, Buzzard’s Bay Rowing Club, Sinners and Saints Tattoo, Dark Star Tattoo and Body Piercing, Flying Aces Tattoo, the New Bedford Tattoo Company, and the Working Waterfront Festival.
Fourteen individuals competed in the Nautical Tattoo Contest debuting at this year’s festival. Contestants were judged on artistry, concept/creativity, stage presence and the story behind their tattoo. The judging panel included tattoo artists, Neil England and Val G., local sculptor Jessica Bregoli, and Raymond Canastra, co-owner of BASE. Terry Bungay of Newfoundland took home first place. Tanner Tillotson came in second; Bob Vieira came in third; and Sarah Jane Mulvey took fourth.
Sunday culminated with a Seafood Throwdown pitting Chef Chris Cronin of Little Moss (Dartmouth, MA) against Chef Rob Pirnie of Trafford (Warren, RI). With Dogfish as the surprise seafood ingredient, Chef Cronin, who was lucky enough to get an egg bearing dogfish, and clever enough to incorporate the fish roe into his dish (grilled dogfish, sugar pumpkin & lamb chorizo with scrambled roe and peach jam) scored enough extra points for his use of the whole animal to win the day. The Seafood Throwdown is a collaboration between the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance and the Working Waterfront Festival.
The Working Waterfront Festival is a project of the Community Economic Development Center of Southeastern MA, a non-profit organization. The FREE festival, a family friendly, educational celebration of New England’s commercial fishing industry, features live music, fishermen’s contests, fresh seafood, vessel tours, maritime authors, cooking demonstrations, kid’s activities and more. It all takes place on working piers and waterfront parks in New Bedford, MA, America’s #1 fishing port, on the last full weekend in September. Navigate to us at www.workingwaterfrontfestival.org.
