This is a busy time of year for Hansen Boat Co. in Everett, Wash. It’s when a lot of fishing boats come in for their yearly maintenance, which is why there’s been plenty of repair activity, both dockside and in the 140-foot drydock.
But except for the 98-foot tug Malolo, built in 1975, that was in for what Hansen Boat’s Rick Hansen calls “a mid-life overhaul,” the boatyard has been “plugging at maintenance on the usual (fishing boat) customers.” That includes two 58-footers out of Petersburg, Alaska - the Jodi Marie and the Odin, both limit seiners that also longline and crab.
The Jodi Marie’s issue centered on the pilothouse. Much of the interior had to be removed, as well as the pilothouse windows, which suffered from leaking. The cause was pilot house steel that had deteriorated around the aluminum clamp-on windows. “The usual stuff on a 15 to 20 year-old boat,” says Hansen. Besides removing and replacing the windows, much of the interior was removed, repaired and repainted.
The Jodi Marie left in December and when it departed, the Odin was hauled. Hansen Boat built the Odin 30 years ago and the Odin and the Jodi Marie have the same owner. “It’s a family deal,” says Hansen, pointing out that the owner’s two sons operated each boat. The Odin required bottom paint and had its Hynautic engine controls flushed out. “As long as he keeps them flushed out and cleaned they work very well,” notes Hansen.
The Odin has two fish holds. In one of them the catch is frozen, and into that one Hansen Boat installed new freezer plates. Asked what the Odin fishes for, Hansen says, “Everything.” It’s a salmon seiner and a king crabber in Southeast Alaska, and then comes down to Washington to fish for Dungeness crab and longline for halibut and black cod. “So it’s going year-round.”
The 135-foot Beauty Bay, a cod-fishing freezer longliner, required “little stuff all the way around the boat,” Hansen says. That included repairing an exhaust leak, plugging a Raycor fuel filter, pressurizing the sanitary water system, “little stuff in the engine room, and a bunch on deck.”
Then, the 110-foot dragger Mark I, which was launched in 1967 as an early king crab boat, had the bottom painted up to the deck. Bushings on the triple rudder “were shot, so had to tear the rudders apart and put new bushings in.” Hydraulic coolers were replaced, including rebuilding one of the valves. The MSD (Marine Sanitation Device) tank was cleaned and inspected, and two fish hold refrigeration pumps were rebuilt. Both trawl door guards, including the ultra-high molecular weight plastic and the steel guards, needed to be pulled off and replaced.
At the beginning of April, the 135-foot Arctic Fury, a pollock, hake and whiting dragger, was in dry dock for “a little bit of maintenance,” says Hansen. That includes “a little bit of painting,” and replacing bottom plating that was corroding under the MSD tank.
