Augusta Follies (Falmouth: office, area, permit)

[Northern Maine Land Man]

Today I received from the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife a "corrected boat registration". The IF&W has decided my boat is 16 feet long, not 18. I own a Maritime Skiff Model 1890 It is 18 feet long and 90 inches wide. It's a seaworthy dry riding boat.

I called IF&W and told the nice lady that there was an error. She put me on hold for quite a while and finally a man came on the line. He was very unhappy with his any deer permit. I sympathized with him. He ranted on a while and I told him his deer permit problem was nothing compared to my problem. IF&W had shortened my boat by two feet!.

I said that it must be time for a coffee break in Augusta and the nice lady just put these two sportsmen together like dropping two tomcats into a burlap sack to see what happened next. We said our polite goodbyes and we each called IF&W back. The phone rang a while and finally the nice lady answered. I told her she would be hearing form a sportsman unhappy with his any deer permit. She wondered how I knew that and I told her we had just been chatting. There are lots of partridge in his area this year too, but I digress.

I told the nice lady I could explain the whole thing. The guy who used to own my boat simply walked into his town office and flopped a yellow boat registration down on the desk and said he wanted to renew his registration. It was an old one from when he owned my boat 8 years ago. The town clerk down there in Falmouth typed in the info and issued a registration.

The nice lady at IF&W told me just to keep my correct registration and forget the whole thing. They would have a chat with the clerk in Falmouth.