Young boat builder realizes dream of creating first vessel

By Ed Pierce

If dreams are the touchstone of our character, then Brysen Sheridan, 10, has a very bright future ahead of him and because of his persistence and determination, his dream of building a boat and taking it out on the water has come true.

Brysen Sheridan of Raymond, 10, right. takes his younger
brother Benny, 5, fishing on his boat 'the unsinkable' in a
small cove near Jordan Bay. He conceived the idea and built
his own boat after working shoveling snow and mowing
lawns to earn enough to buy materials to make the boat.
SUBMITTED PHOTO 

Brysen just completed fourth grade at Raymond Elementary School and will be in fifth grade at Jordan-Small Middle School this fall. He has spent much of the past 10 months designing his own boat and working to pay for materials to build it.

The son of Rob and Chanelle Sheridan of Raymond, Brysen came up with the idea for a small boat last fall.

“I just had the idea and wanted to make it happen,” he said. “I thought of the idea before bed one night and I drew it out and started making it the next day.”

The first obstacle he had to overcome in his plan was figuring out how to pay for the building materials he needed to construct the boat and then saving up to purchase them.

Throughout the winter, Brysen shoveled snow from driveways and sidewalks for his neighbors and helped them with yard work. As the weather slowly warmed up this spring, he earned some additional money from mowing lawns and stacking firewood.

After school officially ended for the summer in June, Brysen discovered that he finally had saved enough money to purchase the materials he needed for the boat.

“We went to the store I bought them with my money,” he said.

Working steadily in his family’s garage and outside in his yard from his initial design, the boat project began to take shape.

“I needed some help with the circular saw, and then I had some leaks when I first put it in the water, but I used Flex Seal to fix that,” Brysen said.

The project was wrapped up on July 11 and resulted in a vessel measuring about 6 feet by 2 feet.

He named his new boat “the unsinkable” and tested it out with his family watching to ensure it was safe to be out on the water.

“I am very proud, and it was so worth it,” Brysen said. “I’d like to build a larger boat sometime or my mom wants me to build a console table for her.”

His mother, Chanelle Sheridan, says the entire family is amazed at what Brysen was able to accomplish with his design and a dream.

“We are so excited,” she said. “He was so determined and worked so hard to finish this.”

During the summer, Brysen has taken his younger brother Bennett (Benny), 5, out on the water for a fishing trip on “the unsinkable” on a small cove near Jordan Bay in Raymond.

He says that looking back at everything regarding his boat project, the hardest aspect of building the boat for him was all the work that he had to do and all of the hours that he put in around his neighborhood to earn the money for the parts and materials.

According to Brysen, his favorite subject in school is writing and he says he would eventually like to become a game warden when he grows up.

But having realized his dream of building a practical vessel, he says he now knows what needs to be done to see a project through from start to finish.

As far as something that he’s learned from building his first boat, Brysen says that’s simple to answer.

“You can do whatever you put your mind to,” he said. “I’d tell other kids wanting to build a boat to stick with it even if it’s hard.” <

Raymond fisherman competes in Toyota Series Bass Championships

Jason Kervin of Raymond competed against some
of the top bass fishermen in the world during the 
2020 Toyota Series Championships held in early
December on Lake Cumberland near Burnside,
Kentucky. He qualified for the championships by
placing in the Top 10 in tournaments in the Northern
United States last year. SUBMITTED PHOTO    

Kentucky event draws more than 221 participants

By Ed Pierce

Jason Kervin of Raymond believes that if people concentrated on the really important things in life, there'd be a shortage of fishing poles.

Kervin, 41, traveled to Kentucky in December to compete in the 2020 Toyota Series Championship at Lake Cumberland. The three-day tournament featured a field of 221 boaters and co-anglers from each of the eight Toyota Series divisions and tournament winners of the past year and included the top professional fishermen and co-anglers from the FLW International Division.

He qualified for the FLW Toyota Series Championship by fishing the Toyota Series Opens in the Northern division during 2020, finishing all three tournaments in the series and placing 25th or better in points at the end of the season. Kervin finished 21st overall in 2020 in the tournaments he fished, making the top-10 during a tournament on Lake Erie in Sandusky Ohio.

“I have been fishing since I can remember, age 7 or 8 maybe,” Kervin said. “I’ve been fishing bass tournaments since 2010 and started out with a small bass club, Rocky Hill Bass Anglers, out of Brunswick.”

Having lived in Raymond for just over a year, Kervin says that his favorite local spot to fish is Panther Pond and Androscoggin Lake is his absolute favorite place to fish in Maine.

“It's a beautiful, largely undeveloped shoreline lake, full of quality sized bass,” he said. “The early season high water also makes for some really fun fishing, allowing me to get my boat back in the brush areas to fish the shallow water that is usually marsh or dry land.”

Memorable and challenging 

According to Kervin, competing in the 2020 Toyota Series Championships was memorable, but challenging. 

“Lake Cumberland is very scenic but is a very different lake than anything in the North. They draw the
lake down 30 feet in the winter, and that is when we fished it,” Kervin said. “It's also a flooded reservoir with a huge dam at one end so the shoreline features are very dramatic. It has 1,255 miles of shoreline, covers 65,530 acres, and has an average depth of 90 feet. Coming down for a week to figure things out is no easy task given the size.”

His initial practices on Lake Cumberland were very difficult and Kervin only managed a few fish each day which didn't tell him much about fishing there.

“The tournament went pretty much the same. I finished 200th out of 232 anglers but I didn't bother weighing my fish on the last day,” he said. There was nothing to gain except for a few places, so I tossed it back.” 

Although he was disappointed, just reaching the championships for the year made the trip to Kentucky worthwhile, Kervin said.

“The timing for the tournament was very poor and the fish were not cooperating which made practice very difficult. What fish were up near the bank, were very finicky and didn't stay where you saw them. I learned that I should have been covering more water with a reaction bait to increase my odds but found that out too late,” he said. “Many of the anglers that did reasonably well were moving very fast just trying to get in front of as many fish as they could hoping for a bite. Not the way any of us wanted to fish. Needless to say, it was a disappointing trip for me, but just making the championships achieved a big goal. In the opens, we fish against some of the best anglers in the world who fish professional circuits every year and know these lakes very well. When I can show up and compete at any tournament, I think it's a success.”

On the water

To be at the top of his game each time out in tournament fishing, Kervin said that he needs to spend a lot of time on the water.

“Having a family, a job, and losing four to five months due to frozen water up north, I can only expect to achieve so much,” he said. “I don't believe I will ever stop tournament fishing though. I love the competition and bass fishing too much.”

He works as a service manager at Goodwin Chevy Buick in Oxford and besides fishing in the Toyota
championships in December, Kervin had another important event happen. He and his fiancé Beth had their first child, a daughter, named Brynlee who was born Dec. 30.

To date the largest bass that Kervin has caught was a 6.8-pound smallmouth bass on Lake Ontario at the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River.

“It was caught on a drop shot in 20 feet of water using a Xzone slammer in green pumpkin purple
flake,” he said. “It was caught during practice for an event and released. I didn't find it again during the tournament, but I looked like hell.” 

His dream is to someday become a professional bass fisherman and tournament fishing offers Kervin an opportunity to achieve that dream.

“I did receive an invitation to join the FLW Pro Circuit in 2019, but I was not ready at the time. I would have needed to secure sponsorship in a short time frame as well as being able to pay the bills around the house. It's possible and someday I will be able to make it work, but financially it's just too much having a family and so much in my life in place. If I were able to secure a win at an open, things may change in a hurry. The recognition with sponsors and the added money in the bank would help tremendously.”

But for right now, Kervin says he’s content to just enjoy fishing, being on the water and visiting different lakes to take in an amazing view of nature.

“Our lakes in Maine are some of the most beautiful and scenic places in the world. The serenity and peace I find while fishing is something that I haven't experienced doing any other activity,” he said. “Fishing in tournaments is a bit different given the frantic and intense nature of being on the hunt, but the scenery remains the same and the experience is always a memorable one. I fish a lot of the time with my good friend Shane Hatch here at home. He also fishes in the tournaments and we lodge together and help each other figure places out. That camaraderie is also an aspect I really enjoy.” <