In the fall of 1997, Rich Woodman, a Kennebunkport boatbuilder and owner/captain of the schooner Eleanor, took a "boatman's" holiday with his wife to Gloucester, Mass. Poking around the wharves, the couple were drawn to an old fishing boat, the Phyllis A.

"Kristen actually spotted her first," says Woodman. "We'd been looking at old photographs of my grandfather's yard and some of the boats he had built and she recognized the lines right away."

Woodman comes from a family of Maine boatbuilders. His grandfather, Bernie Warner, apprenticed under Capt. George H. Chick for three years and opened his own shop in 1910 on the Kennebunk River in the building that now houses the King's Wharfe shops. Initially the yard employed four men, including Warner's former teacher and his own father, William. The Phyllis A was built in this yard in 1925.

In the 1930s the Warner Yard was one of the town's biggest employers. Warner continued to build workboats and a smattering of yachts until 1941, when he launched a 92-foot dragger, the largest vessel to be built on the river since 1918.

It seemed unbelievable to Woodman that one of his grandfather's boats still existed, let alone was still working. He looked up the owners, the Arnold brothers of Gloucester. Richard Arnold, the baby of the family at 71, allowed as how he was beginning to think maybe it was getting to be time for him to come ashore too. Woodman asked him what he might do with the boat. "I'm going to take it with me when I go," replied Arnold. "The boat is almost like a brother or a sister. I started on her when I was 8 years old."

The 75-year-old Phyllis A is a 56-foot Eastern-rigged fishing vessel. She was purchased by Albert Arnold, who named her after his only daughter. Arnold had come to Gloucester from Michigan in 1919 with a new way of fishing, called gillnetting. He loaned his boat to another Gloucesterman who ran her aground in the Annisquam River. Arnold had just enough money Ð $4,500 dollars Ð to buy a new boat but not enough to buy nets, so he took on a partner who had nets but no boat and they fished profitably and amicably into the 1950s, when the Arnolds bought the partner out. Phyllis A has been part of this same Gloucester fishing family her whole life.

Eight-year-old Alvin made the trip to Kennebunkport with his father to pick up the boat in 1925. Eventually he became her captain. Richard, Alvin's younger brother was also introduced early to the Phyllis A. "I never cared about anything but fishing," he says. "I used to go with my father on weekends when I was 7 or 8. When I was 16, my father asked me if I was going back to school in the fall or going fishing. I said, 'going fishing.' " Later, Richard spent 20 years in the Coast Guard. When he got out he went back to fishing.

Last fall, Richard and the Phyllis A were fishing for halibut off Jeffreys Ledge when he got a feeling it was time to be done. "When it stops being fun," he says, "its time to quitÉWith all the government closures and the regulations, I decided enough was enough, but I didn't know what to do about the boat. I didn't want to take her out and sink her Ð she's been a member of the family for 75 years. I didn't want to sell her to anybody Ð she's too old." As a matter of fact, she is likely the oldest continuously working fishing vessel in the country.

A couple of years ago, Richard Arnold was interviewed by National Fisherman about fishing, but once the reporter got wind of Phyllis A's career the article changed its focus. "She ought to be in a museum," Arnold was quoted as saying. When Rich and Kristen Woodman recognized the distinctive Bernie Warner hull sitting on the marine railway in Gloucester, it was the answer to the Arnold family's prayer.

This extraordinarily serendipitous event inspired Woodman to save the boat. In the last two years The Phyllis A Maritime Heritage Association has been formed with support from the Kennebunkport Historical Society. Bob Williamson, owner of the Arundel Wharf Restaurant, has provided berth space and the Arnold family has donated the boat to the Association.

"We're all thrilled," says Richard Arnold. "My sister Phyllis is on cloud 9. It's always the first thing she asks when she calls from Pennsylvania: 'How's the boat doing?' We couldn't have imagined anything better."

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