By the time Jarvis Newman delivered his first 36-foot Downeast powerboat in 1971, he had already earned a reputation for building high-quality fiberglass sail and power boats that were lauded for their finish and seaworthiness.
That 36-footer, the Jarvis Newman 36, came from a mold taken off Irona, a classic wooden lobster boat designed by Raymond Bunker and built by Ralph Ellis. Bunker was Newman’s father-in-law, and he let Jarvis make the mold to bolster his business. Jarvis sold many of the hulls—complete with engines and running gear—to builders who would finish them with decks and cabins according to their customers’ wishes.
One of those builders was Ed Gray, who later joined forces with Jarvis Newman to establish the Cranberry Island business that would finish many of those Newman-built hulls.
“Jarvis always installed the engines and ran each boat to ensure that it ran smooth,” said Josh Gray, who along with his brother Seth took over the firm of Newman & Gray when Ed Gray retired in 2014. “He got a lot of people in the area started in the business, like Lee Wilbur and Tom Morris.”
According to Gray, there were 90 Newman-built hulls shipped between 1971 and 2001. Half were finished as lobster boats and half were yacht-finished.
“They go through the water very well,” Gray said. “Going from a plank-on-frame construction to a built-down fiberglass hull, there’s a huge increase of available interior space.” For the 36, that meant that Newman could locate the engines farther forward and twin saddle tanks aft to help minimize the pitching moment.
Gray described the construction as heavy-duty, with a gelcoat outer layer and about 16 layers of hand-laid fiberglass. The Newmans are heavy boats, roughly 16,000 pounds for the pleasure boats and about 14,000 pounds for the commercial boats. There was no molded top for the 36; all got custom wooden, stick-built decks and houses.
Cat 3208s were the power of choice, although Gray remembered that Newman also liked a lay-down-on-its-side Perkins 6.354 six that allowed lower deck heights. Almost all 36s had single engines, although a rare few were powered by twins.
“There’s a local lobsterman whose 36 was built for him back in 1973, when he was 22 years old,” Gray said, “and he’s still pulling traps the year round today, 50 years later.”
This article was originally published in the October 2024 issue.
