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PacFish Acquires Equipment Pacific Fishermen's PacFish Shipyard personnel attended the MARCO Shipyard auction on the Lake Washington Ship Canal, near the Hiram Chittenden Gov- ernment Locks, coming away big win- ners, with a goldmine in shipyard marine equipment for pennies on the dollar. Pri- mary on the list of 'must haves' from the closed down shipyard was the Wheelabra- tor sandblast cabinet with 6-ft. rotary table, equipped with dust collector and re- useable shotblast for zero discharge to the environment. Big Bertha, MARCO's 150-ton Denison hydraulic steel press, was one item that generated bidding action from a shipyard in Anacortes. Shipyard General Manager Doug Dixon was determined to keep Big Bertha on the ship canal to maintain the heavy ship repair capability in Seattle's maritime business community. Counseled by PacFish Shareholder Stan Simonsen, the bidding continued, with a quickly raised hand and a stern glance to the com- petition, until they all dropped out. MARCO's heavy roller for angle and pipe bending was another piece of shipyard antiquity gleaned by PacFish that will remain in the still-strong cluster of Seattle maritime businesses. Other equipment won at auction included large vessel sand- blast equipment, 150 hp Quincy screw compressor and six portable shelters for protecting vessels under repair from Seat- tle's rainy climate. Local Naval Architects will also still have use of the shipyard's steel incline weights and pendulum, which will be made available for all to use for vessel stability tests, both at the Pac- Fish shipyard and dockside, throughout the Seattle maritime community. Past regular customers of MARCO, who now call on PacFish for their dry- docking, such as Kris Paulson's Bering Sea and Kris Knutsen's Aleutian Spray, provided their large open crab boat decks to haul the machinery northwest across the ship canal to the PacFish shipyard. Longtime port engineer John Brender and crab fishermen John 'the Swede' and Tim 'TY' Young, pitched in to move the loads, coordinated by ex-MARCO employees Al Brands and Tom Harbin, who is now a repair manager at the PacFish shipyard. In addition to purchasing all of MARCO's hard to find oakum, square galvanized ship's nails and all their zinc anodes, Pac- Fish has hired 16 former MARCO employees to provide continued quality fish boat, tug and yacht conversions and repairs in Seattle. Pacific Fishermen's shipyard was founded in 1946 by 400 Norwegian her- itage fishermen as a co-operative style shipyard on the site of the 1890's Ballard Marine Railway, where Seattle founding father Joshua Green had his sternwheeler Bailey Gatzert built, and famous for wooden halibut schooners and Navy minesweepers later named Calypso by Jacques Cousteau and Wild Goose by John Wayne. The yard was subsequently incorporat- ed in 1946 and has been providing ship- yard services, including the new construc- tion of wooden 36 ft. launches for USCG Survey (NOAA) research vessel Surveyor and 54 ft. to 58 ft. Ed Monk designed wooden seiners, including Northern Light II (Cinnamon Girl), Cape Falcon, Mary D and Jerilyn. January, 2006 • MarineNews 11 NEWS Quality Control 8238 129th Street, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada V3W 0A6 E-mail: sales@kobelt.com Website: www.kobelt.com Sales: 604.590.7313 Fax: 604.590.8313 Kobelt Controls. A Long-term Investment. ou expect the control systems on your boat to provide many years of care-free boating. It’s comforting to know you can always rely on Kobelt quality for exceptional value in reliability, safety and ease-of-use. Kobelt controls offer more than just a new system today... they are a long-term investment. Kobelt Manufacturing has been producing high quality marine controls and steering for over 35 years. We back every one of our products with a 5 year warranty, along with worldwide sales and support. Contact us today! Y Circle 224 on Reader Service Card JANUARY MN2006 2(9-16).qxd 1/4/2006 7:13 PM Page 11
