A boat for Eric Henning

Eric---

Saw this boat today in the Seaview North yard in Squalicum Marina (Bellingham).* Thought you might like the look of it (I did).* Unfortunately they had the bottom masked off but you can get the idea.* Sort of a tug/trawler/Monterey herring boat design.

Don't know anything about it other than what you can see in the photos--- wood, double-ended, dry-stack exhaust.* If it's still there next weekend and if anyone is working on it I'll try to find out something about it (unless it's a boat you're already familiar with--- I've not seen it before).

Marin,

Yes of course. An old troller for sure. Probably saw many years in SE. It was in the Everett Marina all last summer* ..* walked past it many times** ..* even down to it at least twice. As I recall the exhaust stack was huge. It looks like they are trying to keep the planking wet* ..* perhaps they are about to caulk the seams. We had one similar here in Thorne Bay the "Susan B". Old Salt will remember her. Better lines, better boat but not in good shape. Didn't catch me sleep'in this time.

Eric Henning

Okay, how about this one? Ever seen her up in SE? She was in the yard today, too. Beautiful example of an Alaska limit seiner even with the tall flying bridge enclosure.* I'm wondering if this is a "new" aluminum boat on an "old" wood plank hull as her hull appears to be aluminum from the rub strake up. I didn't think to walk around behind her to see where she's based but since I've never seen here around here I'm guessing she's an SE Alaska boat. Seaview North seems to get a number of SE Alaska boats for yard work during the year.

I stole the shot of Yankee Boy working off the internet.* It sure looks like SE Alaska to me.....

And yes, I bet you're right, they were keeping the converted troller's planks wet.* That would explain the fact the ground was wet under the boat after two days of solid sunshine.* This explanation would never have occurred to me, thanks.



-- Edited by Marin on Tuesday 26th of May 2009 12:09:52 AM

I guess that's what I love about the great PNW and SE Alaska. Those photos are terrific, Marin....keep em coming. When I see boats like that, I always wonder where they've been. What have they seen?

There was an interesting program on TV (maybe the National Geogrophic cnannel?) about "Cowboy Fishing". There is a herring fishery that is only a couple of hours long, and boats like this race to get nts in the water in a single bay, looking like bunper cars.

Perhaps the program was about the herring fishery off Cordova, AK? This used to be a huge fishery with lots of boats, many with their own spotters in airplanes guiding the payout of the nets. The pilots would get so engrossed in their work that there were lots of near-misses and a few mid-airs over the herring grounds.

I've done net-guiding from an airplane for a local fishing crew in Hawaii who fished for schools of reef fish in the waters around Oahu. Since it's the pilot's job to actually guide the boat pulling the net around the school (we used CB radios for this) it's easy to see how one could get so engrossed in guiding the net that other aircraft in the area are ignored until it's too late.

Note the seine boat in the water behind Yankee Boy in the fishing shot.* Talk about a unique watercraft.....* They are carried tipped up on the stern of the seiner on the way to and from the fishing area.* They are simply brute force with a hull.* Welded up out of heavy aluminum, most of them powered with the biggest gas V-8 the builder can get his hands on.* Usually a Chevy 454 or Ford*460 or thereabouts.* Unmuffled engine, huge three-bladed prop in a protective cage, and a massive Sampson post amidships.* Single-lever*control mounted on a cross-member behind the engine box.* The helmsman is lucky if he has a place to sit.* It's the seine boat's job to pull the heavy*net out and around the fish, hence the need for vast amounts of power.

Using FF's motorsailor performance ratio (with the sail part first) a seine boat is probably a 0/1 unless brute power is factored into the equation in which case it would be 0/infinity *

Note that the helmsman is wearing hearing protection in the photo.* I suspect this is a PR or staged shot because I've never seen anyone running a seine boat (they bring them over to the fuel dock near us from the commercial basin) with hearing protection.* The commercial basin is probably about a quarter mile from us with lots of boat houses between us and it, but we can still*hear a seine boat fire up and then get louder and louder as it comes around to the fuel dock.* By the time it gets into our fairway it's hard to hear yourself talk.

-- Edited by Marin on Tuesday 26th of May 2009 04:07:49 PM

Marin,
How were you to know Walt would want to know where the boats from. Those guys are more common up here than Honda Civics. Really. And old wood seine boats more often than not are aluminum from the gunnel up. the enclosed Fly bridge also typical. Many or possibly most places in SE fishing vessels and other commercial craft way out number pleasure craft. You would love it up here Marin** ..* Heavy duty equipment everywhere. A friend of mine on the west side has a Willard** .. the same size as mine but he has a hydraulic winch fwd, all chain rode including a 60# Forfjord anchor. Not surprisingly my boat floats about 2" (or more) higher. The seine boat helmsman is wearing hearing protection probably because most all of them are deisel w no covers.

Eric Henning

nomadwilly wrote:

Marin,
You would love it up here Marin** ..* Heavy duty equipment everywhere. ....The seine boat helmsman is wearing hearing protection probably because most all of them are deisel w no covers.

Eric Henning

Click to expand...

My wife and I have spent a fair amount of time in SE Alaska over the years, all through the later 1980s and the 1990s.* However we visited by Beaver (on floats), not by boat.* We'd base out of Petersburg and fly up the Stikine deep into the coast range in BC.* We also rented Forest Service cabins on the lakes in Misty Fiords National Monument.* The farthest north we've been is Juneau, the farthest west is Sitka.* The cover of the second edition of the floatplane instructional book I wrote was taken on Walker Lake in Misty Fiords (I know, it's supposed to be "Fjords" but Alaska decided to spell it with an "i").* My wife and I flew this plane up and down the Inside Passage a lot.

The seine boats that are on most of the limit seiners based down here seem to be powered with gas engines.* Doesn't make a lot of sense since the parent boats are powered with diesels, but that's the way they are.* Maybe they get more power for the* weight and the gas engines are cheap so can be replaced much easier.* I assume they get a lot of abuse.


*

Looking at Yankee Boy I'd say she is " A Boat For Marin Faure". Looks like the Coral Sea behind her is all wood and original. Notice the anchor on Yankee Boy. It looks small mounted where it is but it's a real live full blown heaviest of the heavies* ..* a Navy anchor. I see many larger yachts w very small anchors. I think of my 25# Forfjord is too small for my boat and wonder how long I'd think so if I started using it? I've got some ideas about my XYZ and intend to impliment them and start using it again. The book cover looks good marin. I'd like to start flying again and of course up here it would be on floats but even an ultralight is expensive and over land there are no farm fields to land on when the rubber band quits. In my 2000 hrs of flying I didn't have many engine outs (4 or 5) but I always had a nice place to land. I know** .. in general aviation an engine out every 200hrs would be a horrible record but GA aircraft fly over rough terrain that would bloody the cockpit something awful if a landing were made and when the engine quits one does land* .. gracefully or otherwise* ..* and I've done a lot of the prior and a bit of the latter. One can get airborne on 10hp but one does need to land. All you need to do in a good ultralight to take off is to sit in the seat and apply a large ammount of throttle. Talking about it is even funn though. About spelling (no I'm not going to confess) in Alaska we seem to have a need to spell any which way. Thorne Bay was named after an Engilish man named Thorn.

Eric Henning


-- Edited by nomadwilly on Wednesday 27th of May 2009 04:16:44 PM