The Boats & Gear blog is overseen by our Boats & Gear editor, Michael Crowley. It explores new construction projects, electronics, gear and equipment for the commercial fishing industry.
Tuesday, 19 June 2012
You just bought a used boat and want to change its name. Foxy Lady is scrolled along the bow and across the transom, but all your life foxy ladies have given you nothing but trouble, and even if they hadn’t that’s not a name you can live with. Nope, you are going with a more guy-like, a more masculine name — Big Gun.
So you grab the grinder, and before long Foxy Lady has been expunged. It’s no longer a part of your boat. A painter comes down and soon Big Gun is emblazoned in large red letters on the boat’s stern and bow. Two days later you steam out of port, make your first tow, haul back and the net’s all torn up from bottom you’ve never been hung-up on before. Twice more you rip up the net on that trip, and when you unload six days later, the catch is half what is usually is.
A case of bad luck? Not exactly. Carelessness and ignorance are more likely culprits. Everyone should know boat names are all recorded in the Ledger of the Deep, known only to Neptune or Poseidon. To try to confuse or anger them only means trouble. If you want to change the name of your boat you must first remove anything and everything with the old name on it — charts, logbooks, life rings, everything. Painting out or whiting over the old name is not enough. It must be taken from the boat. Only then is the old name struck from that ledger.
And don’t paint the new name on the boat until you can have an official denaming ceremony. This what the owners of the 164-foot Dona Martita did when the boat’s name changed to Bering Defender at Pattie Marine Enterprises in Pensacola, Fla. The yard basically rebuilt the boat for the Bering Sea pollock fishery.
For the name change “Vigor’s Interdenominational Boat Denaming Ceremony”* was used. For those of you who don’t wish to suffer the fate of Big Gun, here is the ceremony.
“In the name of all who have sailed aboard this ship in the past, and in the name of all who may sail aboard her in the future, we invoke the ancient gods of the wind and the sea to favor us with their blessing today.
Mighty Neptune, king of all that moves in or on the waves and mighty Aeolus (pronounced EE-oh-lus), guardian of the winds and all that blows before them.
We offer you our thanks for the protection you have afforded this vessel in the past. We voice our gratitude that she has always found shelter from tempest and storm and enjoyed safe passage to port.
Now, wherefore, we submit this supplication that the name whereby this vessel has hitherto been known ( ) be struck and removed from your records.
Further, we ask that when she is again presented for blessing with another name, she shall be recognized and accorded once again the selfsame privileges she previously enjoyed.
In return for which, we rededicate this vessel to your domain in full knowledge that she shall be subject as always to the immutable laws of the gods of the wind and the sea.
In consequence whereof, and in good faith, we seal this pact with a libation offered according to the hallowed ritual of the sea.”
Now pop the cork and spray the contents of the bottle on the bow. Don’t keep any for yourself. You need your own bottle. You can now rename the boat using the normal christening ceremony. However, the owners of the Bering Defender waited a few days to allow the old spirits ample time for departure. That was undoubtedly a wise move.
*Find a copy of the ceremony here.
Callifornia crabbing: Here's a fun video shot on the decks of the Majestik while catching Dungeness crab off the coast of northern California.
Over 500 lots of seafood processing equipment formerly owned by Adak Seafood will be sold at auction on Tuesday, June 18, starting at 10 a.m. Hawaiian-Aleutian Daylight Time at the Hilton Garden Inn in Anchorage Alaska.
The equipment is located in a recently updated 250,000 square foot state-of-the-art processing facility in Adak, Alaska. Farmington Hills, Mich.-based Hilco Industrial, which conducts 75 machinery and equipment auctions in a wide range of industries annually, will conduct the auction.
Adak Seafood opened originally as Ada Fisheries in Anchorage in 1986. The facility, updated in 2005, is located on the island of Adak, the southernmost city in Alaska near the western end of the Aleutian Islands. The facility processed cod primarily, as well as halibut, blackcod, crab and pollock, Hilco says.
Alaska fisherman and commercial fisheries activist Kevin Adams was elected chairman at the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute board of directors meeting on May 9 in Anchorage.
The governor-appointed board consists of seven members: five seafood processors and two industry representatives actively engaged in commercial fishing. Adams was appointed to fill a harvester seat by Gov. Frank Murkowski in 2004.
With 38 years of fishing experience in Bristol Bay, Adams has long been an active member in the Alaska fishing industry, ASMI says. He has worked for both the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation and the Bering Sea Fisherman's Association, and represents Alaska fishermen on numerous boards.
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