New fishing boats to join local fleet

A trio of new boats will be joining Wrangell's private fishing fleet this season, incorporating new technologies and improving work conditions for their owners.

After two and a half years, local fisherman Chris Guggenbickler is nearly finished with the Noelani, which means "mist of heaven" in Hawaiian.

At 42 feet long and 15 feet wide, the aluminum work boat will be about 4 feet by 1.5 feet larger than his previous vessel. In addition to being more spacious the boat will also be quite a bit taller, improving visibility.

Guggenbickler has been fishing for 49 years, by his own reckoning. "I've been on a boat almost every single summer of my life."

He had been using his previous boat for 18 of those years, and felt something with better capacity and easier adaptability of use would be desirable.

"There weren't any boats that were being manufactured that I really wanted," he explained. So Guggenbickler got together with a naval architect to put what he wanted together on a computer.

The boat's components were then precut and delivered to Wrangell for assembly. Svendsen Marine constructed the hull, assisting him with the wiring and hydraulics work.

"It fit incredibly well," Guggenbickler commented.

"With this boat it's about diversity and it's about efficiency," he said. Extra care went into planning the layout so he could change gear for different fisheries in only a day. It should also be more comfortable, with more space, nicer amenities and better accommodations.

"This boat's going to allow me to do it the easy way," he said. The added comfort will be nice, considering he spends about four and a half months of the year on board.

Guggenbickler's season begins May 1, but he expects the Noelani should be in the water well before then, maybe even within the month.

Randy Easterly has been fishing out of Wrangell for close to three decades, after the region's lumber industry took a sharp decline.

"It was move out of town or find another job," he recalled.

By last year it was about time for a new boat, but when having the Jeannie Irene built Easterly wanted something a bit different than fiberglass and aluminum had to offer.

"What really started me on this project is the new technologies involved," he said.

In particular, he was attracted to the vinylester resin used in constructing his boat's hull, which he explained has a number of advantages over the fiberglass-on-wood construction of his previous vessel. It is resistant to corrosion and wear by the sun and water, for one thing, and requires relatively little maintenance.

"It's a lot stronger than wood, too," said Easterly. The hull was cast from an American Tug mold by Maritime Fabrication Inc. in La Conner, Wash., only the fifth of its type to be constructed there. Work began last June, taking seven months to complete.

Easterly kept busy throughout the process, assisting in his boat's construction where he could.

"Pretty much everything that's bolted on this boat, I've done myself," he said.

While the layout will be about the same as his previous aluminum model, the holds will have more than double the capacity and the boat's range will be greater.

Easterly's boat will benefit from advances inside the cabin, as well. The boat is equipped with an Automatic Identification System, which allows Easterly and other vessel operators to identify each other at night and in high-traffic zones. All of the Jeannie Irene's electronic navigational equipment has been integrated into one system, the interior lighting is a more efficient LED system, and the windows are all fog-resistant Thermopane glass.

"The only thing I have left to do is hook my stereo up," Easterly quipped.

"Technology keeps moving forward," he explained. "Fishing is like anything else, you've got to keep moving forward or get left behind."

Now moored in the Inner Harbor, the Jeannie Irene will set out on its first fishery when the halibut season begins next month. "I'm excited to go do it," Easterly said. Then from June until August he will be busy with the Dungeness crab fishery.

Twenty-nine year old fisherman Tanner Smith has ordered a boat cast from the same mold as Easterly's, and work on the Netted Dreams is currently being completed in La Conner.

"It's similar with a different goal in mind," he explained. A gillnetter at the moment, Smith would like to eventually transition to seining. He believes a key to earning a more stable livelihood is diversity, being able to fish for different things throughout the year.

To that end, he has tried to keep his new boat's layout multifunctional.

"Everything is streamlined," Smith explained, being able to switch over from one fishery to the next in a day. "It's been a real challenge. There's lots of stuff still to do on it."

Smith expects his boat should be finished and back in Wrangell before the end of April. From there, he hopes to fish many seasons on the Netted Dreams.

"I wanted something I could fish in my whole career, something I could keep for 30 years," Smith said. Though more expensive to construct, he added the materials' longevity should make the extra investment worthwhile. "These boats should last a hundred."

Pictorial progress on the Netted Dreams can be viewed at Maritime Fabrications' Facebook page, as well as photos of the Jeannie Irene's construction.