Boat of the Month: Miss Kelley II

In 1971, Bob Kelley was fishing out of Fort Bragg, Calif., when friends introduced him to Linda Burlesci, daughter of another local fisherman, Carl Burlesci. “I swore I’d never marry a fisherman,” says Linda. “But here I am. We’ve been married almost 54 years, and I couldn’t be prouder of all Bob has done.”

That same year, Bob Kelley helped a friend build a 51-foot albacore troller. “After that, I built 13 boats,” says Kelley. “The Miss Kelley II was the last. I built her in 1980 and own it with my brother now. I fished it up until 6 years ago.”

Boat building was more lucrative than fishing in the ‘80s, Kelley notes, but he acknowledges another motivation that inclined him toward a shore job. “I was just married and didn’t want to be away from my new wife,” he says.

Even when he returned to fishing, apart from a few lengthy voyages albacore trolling, the trips weren’t very long. “We fish a couple of days and a night, trawling. Sometimes we fished right outside, an hour or so from the harbor. The most we’d go would be about twelve hours.”

When Kelley started building the Miss Kelley II, an 80-foot trawler with a 26-foot beam and 11.5-foot draft, he had a few particulars in mind. “We went up and talked to the naval architect in Coos Bay, I don’t recall his name,” says Kelley. “But we told him what we wanted, and he drew up the plans.”

The Miss Kelley II has some features, such as twin engines aft, that set her apart from many other trawlers. “We wanted the engines aft of the fish hold,” says Kelley. “We’re going to re-power soon, but right now we have a pair of Detroit 12-71’s, turbocharged and aftercooled. Those are both 700-hp.” Each engine has a Twin Disc MG514 at 4.5:1, turning a 5-inch shaft and a 56x46 propeller in a Kort nozzle. “We also have two John Deere 40kW gen sets and two Detroit 6-71’s for the hydraulics, six engines altogether.”

Kelley once loaded 82 tons of albacore into the fish hold; that’s the limit for the Miss Kelley II. “We had a brine freezer I built, and they were all frozen.” On a normal groundfish trip, the boat brings in about 40,000 to 60,000 pounds of rockfish, blackcod, Dover sole, and petrale sole.

“There’s only three boats left here – used to be thirteen – so fishing has gotten better,” says Kelley. To get that many fish down in a couple of days, the boat carries a captain and three deckhands, along with an observer who costs Kelley $600 per day plus food and a bunk.

“The crew has bunks down in the fo’c’sle,” says Kelley. “The captain has a stateroom on deck level, and that’s where the galley is. We have a shower, and a washer and dryer.”

On deck, the Miss Kelley II has a pair of winches and two net reels built in Fort Bragg by Pete Gurlinger. “The winches each hold 1,000 fathoms of inch and quarter cable,” says Kelley. “And the net reels are side by side on the stern.”

In the wheelhouse, the Miss Kelley is equipped with a primarily Furuno electronics package. “We have two Furuno radars, a Furuno sonar, two fathometers, a Wood Freeman autopilot, a couple of VHF’s, and a single sideband,” says Kelley. “And satellite TV,” he adds.

To top it off, literally, the wheelhouse sports a flying bridge—as do most of the boats Kelley built. “We use it mostly for coming in and out of the harbor,” says Kelley. “You’ve got a lot better visibility up there.”

Kelley started fishing at age 16 and is now 73 and still running his business, Kelley Boat Works, Fort Bragg, Ca. “I’ve been at it a while,” he says. And with the support of his wife Linda, he’s likely to be at it a while longer.

Name: Miss Kelley II

Home Port: Fort Bragg, California

Owner: Kelley and Kelley Inc.

Builder: Kelley Boat Works

Hull material: steel

Year built: 1980

Fishery: Bottom trawling, rockfish, blackcod, sole

Length: 80 feet

Beam: 26 feet

Draft: 11.5 feet

Engines: 2 700-hp Detroit 12-71s, turbocharged and aftercooled

Power Train: Twin Disc MG514 gears @ 4.5:1, 5-inch shafts, 56x46 propellers in Kort nozzles