Wrangell shipwright Don Sorric standing with the rudder and wheel of the Petersburg-based F/V Odin, which is one of the many projects he and his crew are currently working on at the Wrangell Marine Service Center.
For master shipwright Don Sorric and a number of other ship repair businesses located at Wrangell’s Marine Service Center, the improvements made to the facility – along with Wrangell’s increasing reputation as the place to bring your vessel for repair – have made the economic outlook for those repairing boats better than ever.
Sorric, who has held a lease location at the MCS for four years, employs seven workers and a number of subcontractors who are working on some of the largest fishing vessels in the yard.
Four years ago, Sorric was working on one boat at a time – but thanks to upgrades at the MSC, Sorric is currently running five separate renovations at once.
One of the major projects Sorric is undertaking is the F/V Odin, is 58-foot, 85-ton vessel based in Petersburg that is receiving a lot of work.
“We’re working on corrosion control right now on the Odin,” Sorric said. “We are recoating the decks and scheduled maintenance to include bottom paint and zincs.”
Mark Severson, the Petersburg-based owner of the Odin said he is glad to have the boat out of the rain while it is being worked on.
“Sorric does great work and the boat is indoors and that’s my main reason for being there,” Severson said.
Sorric added that the renovations at the MSC make it easier for him and other contractors to do business in the borough.
“We were supplying our own power when we got here,” he said. “We have just over 14,000 square-feet of area now, and it helps not having dirt everywhere. Having the concrete put in place helped everything from our attitude to our health because it was so dusty down here. The power that the city has put in has helped when we have to work around the year, so I would have to say the improvements have helped our businesses a whole bunch.”
One of the hallmarks of the increased business at the MSC is the variety of locations that many of the boats are coming from for service; no longer is it just Wrangell vessels being worked on, but also vessels from Petersburg, Sitka, Ketchikan and as far away as Seattle.
Chuck Jenkins, the owner and operator of Jenkins Welding, another lessee at the MSC, said the improvements over the last year have helped his business grow as well.
“It’s improved a lot,” Jenkins said. “There have been a lot more bookings and my business is pretty steady for space we have.”
Jenkins currently has two vessels he is working on at the MSC.
Borough mayor Don McConachie, who sat as a member of the Borough Assembly when the funding for the renovations were acquired and construction began in earnest, said the newer, more modern service center will be a place for owners of fishing and pleasure vessels from across the region to bring their boats in years to come – especially when the new travel lift is installed in the coming year.
“We are becoming a force to become reckoned with in the fishing industry,” McConachie said. “It’s because of what we have done to develop the infrastructure to get boats to come here to get their repairs done.”
McConachie added that the upgrades seen so far are only the beginning.
“Getting the infrastructure in place was only part one,” the mayor said. “The city and borough putting in the new travel lift is going to be next and it will add to the expertise of what’s available here. It’s starting to show in the amount of boats we have coming here for varying amounts of work, whether it is for engine repair or fiberglass, metal and woodwork. The bottom line is we have the people here that can do that.”
The service center project, which focused on renovating and reinforcing pavement in the area between the haul-out and the gate nearest to Case Avenue, took nearly three months, and added 12-inches of reinforced concrete surface to the facility.
The city received $3.7 million from the state to repair the boatyard and nearly $3.2 million was set aside to work on the concrete alone.
After excavation and fill work, crews laid 12-inches of concrete in a bed reinforced with hundreds of lengths of rebar – a move that will allow the planned purchase and use of a 300-ton travel lift.
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