January 29, 2026 — Eastern Boat Works of Milton, N.H., builds a pretty tough boat, as Chesapeake Bay oysterman Ronnie Bevans can attest to.
Bevans is one of the largest oyster growers in the Commonwealth of Virginia and owns a fleet of boats that he uses in his large and diverse oyster business. As part of that fleet, he owns two 21-foot fiberglass boats built by Eastern Boat Works and uses them year-round to inspect his oyster beds and as icebreakers in winter.
Larry Jennings of Jennings Boatyard Inc. in Reedville, Va., is putting a new bottom on one of the 21-footers. “These are tough boats,” says Jennings, a fiberglass boatbuilder himself. “Ronnie uses them in the winter to break up ice in creeks so when he is weather-bound on his deepwater beds he can get to oysters in the shallow water beds,” said Jennings. “The rest of the year he uses the boats to monitor oyster growth on his beds and maintain oyster ground stake markers.”