On a cool October morning in Maine, a man with a foot-long beard sank his foot-long knife into a giant pumpkin. It was a small one, he explained: just 674 pounds, about the weight of a baby grand piano.
The pumpkin was in the early stages of its transformation into a seafaring vessel. Tom Lishness, a Navy veteran who takes pride in his resemblance to the Travelocity gnome, cut a circular hatch. He measured its diameter, and then his waistline.
He added a layer of carpeting to the cabin — for comfort, and also because pumpkin guts are slippery — and bolted on a plywood deck that he was optimistic would support the weight of an eight-horsepower outboard motor. He had a good feeling about this one, but boats made out of pumpkins can always surprise you.
“You don’t know how her personality is going to be until you get her in the water,” Mr. Lishness said.
Mr. Lishness, 67, has been setting off for nearly two decades in the Damariscotta Pumpkin Regatta, an annual race between “squashbucklers” in midcoast Maine. In a town 50 miles northeast of Portland, competitors climb into gourds the size of golf carts and splash around a chilly harbor. Winning is nice, but most participants are just trying to stay afloat.
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