Downeast With a Diesel

The fuel docks in the Manatee Pocket near the St. Lucie Inlet in Stuart, Florida, are hectic on mornings when the sailfish are snapping offshore. Private and charter boats alike hustle for gas, ice and bait before rushing to the deep. Propellers spin on center consoles with triple and quad outboards.

In the midst of the mayhem, Capt. Bob Massey—who has been messing with boats for some 80 years—points the bow of The Ralf, his Maine-built Duffy 31, toward the fuel dock. His gentle wake carves a white crease in the water as Massey pulls the engine out of gear. Near the piling, he reverses the thrust from the single Yanmar diesel. The port side of The Ralf swings to a baby-soft landing at the dock.

His is a sharp-looking rig with its roots in commercial lobster fishing, making it look a step behind the beat amid the modern center-console army, but The Ralf draws attention for its distinctive Downeast style. “I am a traditional guy,” Bob says about why he likes the Duffy 31.

Bob grew up in a boating family on the New Jersey Shore. His father had bought a wooden boat in the fall of 1941. Bob learned all about varnishing and bottom painting, and got a job at the Morton Johnson boatyard in Bay Head. He started on the bottom-painting crew, graduated to topsides work and then to the varnishing team. It was hot, tiring work—not at all like the boat salesmen he saw working in their air-conditioned offices. Soon, Bob applied for a sales position at Comstock Boat Works on the nearby Beaver Dam Creek. In those days, it was a leading dealer for Pacemaker wooden and Alglas fiberglass boats.

From there, Bob moved north to Navesink Yacht Sales and Nauvoo Marina in Sea Bright. Sure, he sold existing boats, but he was also a visionary about designs that would sell. He teamed up with his friend Dave Martin, a South Jersey naval architect known for his work at Pacemaker and Ocean Yachts. They developed what became known as the Ocean Yachts 40+2 trawler.

The boat—built from the mold of an out-of-production Pacemaker—was a trawler-style design. Martin drew an “overhanging stern” to reduce squatting. The +2 designation referred to the extension of bottom lines that came up to the swim platform, becoming an integral part of the hull. The design minimized wake and made for an improved ride in a following sea.

Powered with twin 160-hp Perkins diesels, the boat had a top speed of 15.4 knots with an estimated cruising range of 423 miles at 12.5 knots. At 1500 rpm, the boat had a range of more than 1,000 miles from its 500-gallon fuel supply. Creature comforts included a salon, fore and aft staterooms, and a bathtub in the master head.

With that project in motion, Bob happened upon a nearly wrecked 18-foot Marshall Sanderling catboat. That gave him the idea that he discussed with Martin: a sailboat that would become known as the 24-foot Atlantic City catboat. The first one, built in 1980, had a fiberglass hull, a centerboard keel, a gaff rig with 452 square feet of sail and overnight accommodations for six.

Bob often went sailing after work with his wife, Ralf. Being seen out on the water helped popularize the boat. Some 22 hulls were presold after Hull No. 1’s launch. Mark-O Custom Boats in South Jersey ended up producing 53 of them.

In 1985, having become president of Navesink Yacht Sales, Bob quit and opened Massey Yacht Sales & Service at Winter Yacht Basin on Barnegat Bay in Mantoloking, with a branch office at the Channel Club Marina in Monmouth Beach. He carried Post and Egg Harbor models, along with Jefferson and Pace yachts. He would willingly take a sailboat as a trade-in for a powerboat, which was (and still is) unheard of among dealers. He taught buyers safe-boating skills, too. More than a few clients bought and sold boats with him many times over.

When he retired in 1995 and moved to Stuart, Florida, Bob bought a 28-foot Cape Dory with too much brightwork. All the sanding and varnishing eventually got to him, and he sold that boat, replacing it with the Duffy 31.

“I have had countless boats over a span of 80 years, so I knew what to look for, and the Duffy was at the top of my list,” he says.

The designer was Spencer Lincoln of Cape Neddick, Maine. He drew the Duffy 31 in 1983 for lobster fisherman and boatbuilder Richard Duffy of South Blue Hill. More than 50 Duffy 31s have been launched since then. The Ralf is a 2013 model built in the Brooklin, Maine, yard of the Atlantic Boat Company.

Its raked entry, unbroken flowing sheerline and modest tumblehome at the stern draw attention to its conservative topsides. The semi-displacement running surface is “built down” with a graceful reverse curve below the waterline to the keel. The Yanmar is lower in the bilge, eliminating the need for an engine box. With its 315-hp Yanmar, The Ralf cruises at 15 to 16 knots at 3000 rpm. It has a top speed at 3800 rpm that approaches 25 knots.

“I wanted reliability, and a single-diesel engine was important to me. As I get older, crawling around a tight engine room is out of the question,” Bob says. “A single-engine boat is so much fun, proving you only need one if you know what you are doing.”

With plenty of room on deck, the Duffy 31 is ideal not only for fishing and lobstering, but also for cruising. Bob does it all with The Ralf, typically fishing on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and cruising the rest of the time. “I wanted a boat with good seakeeping ability for offshore, since the Gulf Stream is generally 12 miles to the East of the St. Lucie Inlet,” Bob says. “But I also wanted good prop and rudder protection for bouncing on the bottom in our shallow inshore and river waters. I also wanted the comfort of an enclosed helm station, and a cuddy cabin with some accommodations.”

Buying a used Duffy requires a search, since every one is different from the next. Bob heard about this one from a fellow boater, and trucked the boat from Connecticut to Florida. These days, he also uses it to support the Florida Oceanographic Society, and two or three times a year, he participates with Operation 300, a nonprofit organization that hosts fishing trips for children who lost a father in military service.

It’s all the stuff of a great boating life. The best part, Bob says, is “no more varnish.” 

Specifications

LOA: 31’0”

LWL: 29’3”

Beam: 11’0”

Draft: 3’0”

Fuel: 130 gals.

Water: 50 gals.

Power: (1) 315-hp Yanmar diesel

This article was originally published in the August 2024 issue.