Tag Archives: boat building
Gazans are building a large fishing boat, which it will provide an income for some 15 families
Manufactured in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, the boat is about 21 metres long and between 4-6 metres wide. It is hoped that it will be ready to set sail within a few months if all the necessary tools needed for its completion are available. Funded by Beit Al Khair Foundation, the vessel has had to overcome numerous obstacles,,, Khaled Alwan, the Palestinian contractor supervising the project, said it is hoped the boat will provide 15 families with an income. He indicated that the boat also needs “an electric generator, an engine, fishing nets, spare parts, and other equipment.” Photos, >Click to read< 21:52
Barhan Boat Works: Built by fishermen for fishermen
Salmon fisherman Dave Barhan picked an unusual spot to build boats during the off season: White Bear Floral’s greenhouse. On his second season of boat building, the retired teacher recalls driving around the area looking for a shed or pole building large enough to construct a 28-foot commercial fishing skiff. He spied the greenhouses behind the florist and thought it the perfect place. Owner John Birkeland was skeptical at first, but became a believer when Barhan, his two sons and a fourth fishing partner rolled out the first aluminum boat, dubbed “Big Momma.” They call the business Barhan Boat Works, or BBW. Their motto: “Built by fishermen for fishermen.” >photos, click to read< 16:24
In Nova Scotia, an economic boom brings all the boats to the yard
A newly finished lobster fishing boat waits on a trailer in a yard at Wedgeport Boats, like a displaced sea creature ready to return. The Porsche-red hull gleams in the Nova Scotia sun. Standing on the ground in its shadow, the vessel’s owner, Mark Rogers, watches with satisfaction as the vinyl sticker – the kind used for race cars – is applied to the bow, revealing a muscled, smiling cartoon lobster. It’s the afternoon before the official launch of the Katie Anne – named, according to custom, for Mr. Rogers’s now-grown daughter. The launch has been planned for a Friday, which, as grizzled fishermen will say, is traditionally a day best avoided for a new voyage. Photo’s >click to read< 09:24
A boat takes shape
Though the date of the photo is still unknown, Crescent City resident Richard Evanow says he saw the boat take shape. Featured in a Sept. 25 edition of “Yesterdays: From the Triplicate Archives,” the boat was constructed on Parkway Drive in Crescent City, Evanow said in an email Friday. He said he thinks it was built at Dickson Concrete and was able to outline how such a vessel is created. “The idea is to make a ‘plug’ out of wood using light wood over wooden frames to the shape of the vessel you want,” >click to read<19:16
Backstabber hopes to make waves on tournament fishing circuit
Boatbuilder Steve Wessel seemed relaxed last week, at least by his usual high-energy standard, as he showed Backstabber, the latest creation from Wesmac Custom Boats, to a pair of enthralled sportsmen. He had a lot to be relaxed about.,,,Backstabber is a big boat, 54 feet long overall with a beam of 17 feet 6 inches and a 6-foot draft. With a cored superstructure, and solid fiberglass hull, her design displacement is 54,000 pounds. A boat that heavy needs plenty of power if it’s going to go after big fish and Backstabber has it. >click to read<11:55
New Beam Trawler Delivered
Over the last 10 months, Damen Maaskant Shipyards Stellendam (Maaskant) has outfitted the 41-meter hull from stock. The vessel, designated UK 46, is for Hakvoort Brothers, based in Urk, the Netherlands. According to the builder, a key feature of the vessel is the installation of twin Optima nozzles manufactured by Damen Marine Components (DMC). This is the first time that Maaskant has installed these in a fishing boat. >click to read<12:49
Super-Sjark seine netter for Lofoten
Rolf-Inge Johansen ordered the new vessel from Sletta Verft, having sold his previous 1977-built, 38 metre Hellodden in 2016 to a Spanish company to fish off western Africa. Its replacement is a compact 14.90 metre LOA by 6.50 metre beam seine netter of the same name. The new Hellodden follows the current trend in Norway for compact fishing vessels under 15 metres, with a large beam and plenty of height, providing a fishing platform that would previously have only been possible with a considerably larger vessel. >click here to read< 11:11
Land & Sea: Wooden vs. Steel Longliners – Take a trip back in time with an archival episode from 1980
This 1980 episode of Land & Sea opens with the scene of a champagne bottle exploding on the bow of a new longliner. The show explores the tension surrounding wooden and steel-hulled longliners at a time when boatbuilding design was evolving to match new fishing technology. Owner Charles Hussey of Port de Grave isn’t bothered by the $500,000 price tag for his new, wooden, 17-metre vessel, the Eastern Harvester, built in Arthur Petten’s boat yard in South River.,,, The Land & Sea crew went south in this episode to Bayou la Batre, the headquarters for steel-hulled boat building. Video, click here to read the story 20:31
Marine Piping: It’s Not Rocket Science
The maritime industry, over time, has been unusually resistant to change in many aspects of how it operates. Arguably, the ‘biggest’ advances on the water spanning a five decade period leading up to the beginning of the new millennium could be measured in terms of deadweight tonnage and/or the length of a particular class of hulls. Nowhere is that reality more evident than in the shipyard, and looking at what equipment and hardware is used to build and repair marine vessels – now and in the past. Marine piping systems are a perfect example. click here to read the story 14:28
Boudreau family makes local shipbuilding history
The largest modern fishing boat ever manufactured on Isle Madame hit the water in October. Father and son duo Adolphe and Shawn Boudreau completed construction on the fishing vessel All Segments, which was purchased by the Everett family of Digby. The hulking 50-foot by 30-foot boat weighs in at 90 tonnes. click here to read the story w/photos 16:30
Father and son building 50-foot Cape Islanders in backyard
Shawn Boudreau didn’t get a chance to answer. “No,” his wife Lisa called out from the garden in response to the question of whether he’d build a third fishing boat in their backyard. “Two will be enough.” Shawn just sort of half-smiled and looked at the 50-by-30-foot Cape Island hull behind his mobile home on Isle Madame. The boat he launched two weeks ago, All Segments, is already fishing off Digby. Now he’s starting another. click here to read the story 09:22
Once-idle shipyard cashes in on crab boat market
Three years ago, Guillaume Hall was working in the oil patch in Fort McMurray, Alta., one of the hundreds of New Brunswickers who had gone west for work. Today he’s building boats five minutes from where he grew up, in the Caraquet area of northeast New Brunswick. Atlantic Boat Building has 36 employees working two shifts, days and nights and on weekends, year-round. One of the new boats, the Crabbin Assassin, is almost finished. Built for a Nova Scotia fishermen, it looks more like a stealth military vessel than a crab boat.”They have a unique design when it comes to fuel savings, stability, and speed, and you get to go faster with a smaller engine,” Robichaud says. “You save fuel, so more money in the pockets of the fishermen.” click here to read the story 09:35
Years of high lobster landings spark resurgence in Maine’s boat building industry
A lobsterman’s biggest expense is the boat. Analysts say Maine’s boat-building industry has made a remarkable recovery since it bottomed out during the Great Recession of 2008, when many of the state’s boat builders, including Young Brothers Boats of Corea, decided to get out of the business. Inside Mike Light’s boat shop in Steuben, a 44-foot Calvin Beal lobster boat is getting a major face-lift that its owner hopes will keep him fishing for another 6-10 years. The seas take a toll on these hardworking vessels, and when the time comes for repairs, Light says, some fishermen are choosing to upgrade. click here to read the story 21:00
Stanley launches wood-glass hybrid
A thunderstorm cell loomed on the horizon, but bright sunshine greeted the small crowd that gathered Sunday afternoon to celebrate the launch of National Pride, the first of a new design of lobster boat by Richard Stanley. The sturdy hull of the handsome 38-foot boat was built with Maine white cedar planking on oak frames. But the top is fiberglass, which Stanley said will be easier to maintain. The hybrid style also should make deck leaks less likely, a primary driver of rot and decay for a wooden hull. click here to read the story 13:48
Vigor Introduces Freezer Longliner designed specifically for North Pacific fishing
Based on an existing design by Marco Marine, the 142’ x 33.6’ x 14’ vessel has a fish hold capacity of 14,070 cu ft and a bait hold capacity of 1,900 cu ft. “A new class of longliners is a central need for the recapitalization of the North Pacific fishing fleet, but to get these vessels built fishermen need to know they can depend on the design—and it better be affordable,” explained Keith Whittemore, Vigor Executive VP of Business Development. “That’s why we began our design process by acquiring the exclusive license of a Marco design that has successfully fished the North Pacific for more than two decades. Then we collaborated with current longliner operators. Working with the original designer, we elevated that design to take advantage of advances in technology, efficiency and safety. Read the story here 08:40
Back in the game: boat building returns to Harbour Grace
With a crack of a champagne bottle on the hull, a longtime Newfoundland fishing family launched a brand new boat on July 28. Roy Careen of Point Lance had the vessel built for the skipper, his son Christopher. The launch of the Nellie C., named for both Roy’s mother and his wife’s mother, was a special moment for the Careens but an even prouder moment for the owners of Harbour Grace Ocean Enterprises (HGOE). The last vessel built in the Harbour Grace facility was back in 2005. General Manager of HGOE, Paul Lannon, said he and his group took over the business in 2013 and right away saw opportunities to get into boat building. “There’s a growing demand for new fishing vessels of various sizes because of changes to regulations in the industry and people fishing different species, so yards are very busy throughout the Maritimes and Atlantic Canada,” said Lannon. Read the rest here 12:46
Mother’s Day is extra special for this boat building team
Joyce and Anita Cottreau spend every day working side by side on the floor of the bustling Wedgeport Boats yard in southwest Nova Scotia. A female fibreglass team is a rarity in itself, but this duo is also mother and daughter. “Working together has brought us closer together,” Joyce, 59, said. The two plan to spend Mother’s Day together, which they say will be no less special for being workmates. “Mom has always been there for me, even though she has worked full time since I was a baby,” Anita said. “Anything I needed or wanted, she’s bent over backwards for me, so I definitely have to appreciate that — and still do.” Video, read the rest here 10:08
Pro Cat US touts catamaran workboat
The white hull of the fiberglass catamaran workboat is under construction at the site in Rouses Point. Based on models used in Europe, it will be the first and only boat of its type and material to be constructed in the United States, Pachiaudo said. Local manufacture will be crucial for its proposed commercial applications, such as deep-sea fishing and lobstering, as the Jones Act requires commercially used, federally registered vessels to be built in the United States. That eliminates potential competition from overseas manufacturers, Pachiaudo said. “We have a market; we have a niche,” he said. “We have a product that has been proven in England.” Read the rest here 11:46
Building big fishing boats in Coombs
Roy Brown at Independent Shipwrights in Coombs is building the biggest boat of its kind on the West Coast. The 60-foot long commercial fishing boat will be unusually wide at 23-feet, competing with boats a third longer, said Brown, who has been building boats on the property for 36 years. “I started training on building wood boats in New Zealand in 1972,” he said. But very soon after starting his business back in his home province, he had to switch to fibreglass, which was already standard in the industry. Read the rest here 12:53
There’s no knocking wooden lobster boats – Veteran wooden boat builder Richard Stanley
“There are a bunch of guys fishing today that started in wooden lobster boats,” Stanley said, “and a few still have them.” He remembers a conversation with a friend who had one of the last Bunker and Ellis working lobster boats built. “He said he wished he could have a wooden boat with a fiberglass top,” Stanley said. That’s just what he’s hoping to start building. Read the rest here 10:28
New boat design in works for Acadian Peninsula crab fleet
A shipbuilding company on the Acadian Peninsula is unveiling plans for what it’s calling “the next generation of fishing boat.” “This boat has been designed in order to improve the seakeeping,” said naval architect Didier Marchard, whose company Pantocarène Architecte Naval of France is a partner in the project. Read more here 09:34
Boat-building business starts operations in Eastport
EASTPORT, Maine — Millennium Marine is up and running in Eastport, building boats for the fishing industry and other applications after setting up shop in vacant space of an industrial building. Millennium Marine distributes and sells to fisherman and commercial interests all over North America on both coasts.Read more here 09:52
Canadian boat builder plans to expand to Eastport, creating 50 jobs
EASTPORT, Maine — A long-established Canadian boat-building firm is expanding its operations to the Washington County community of Eastport later this year, a project expected to create as many as 50 jobs. New Brunswick-based Millennium Marine has been building boats in Escuminac since the 1940s and now produces a line of custom-built fiberglass boats that range in hull size from 25 to 60 feet. continue reading
Steve Spurling: 92 and still building boats
SOUTHWEST HARBOR – At Jarvis Newman’s boat shop, on Main Street in Southwest Harbor, the walls are full of framed photos of old boats.Newman was one of the first fiberglass boatbuilders on the Maine coast, producing hulls for luxury yachts, commercial fishing boats, and Friendship sloops at the rate of one every two weeks until he sold the business in 1978. He took the mold for his first yacht from a boat designed by his father-in-law, Raymond Bunker, who built wooden boats with his partner, Ralph Ellis, in nearby Manset from 1946 to 1978. continue reading
