The limit seiner Odin, out of Petersburg, Alaska, makes the trip south to Hansen Boat Co. in Everett, Wash., “just about every year,” said Rick Hansen, the boatyard’s vice president. So it wasn’t unexpected to see the 58-foot Odin tied up this October at Hansen’s dock for annual maintenance work.

The steel deck was getting spot blasted and repainted, while down below in the engine room, the older Hynautic engine room controls “that had been in there since day one,” noted Hansen, “we pulled them out and put in electric controls.”  In the galley, a new stove and oven combination were installed, and once the Odin was hauled it received a fresh coat of bottom paint.

The 130-foot crabber Karie Marie, out of Seattle, Wash., was also tied up dockside at Hansen’s after finishing the Bering Sea king crab season. The vessel was in for fish hold work that included repairing leaks between tanks and replacing circulation pipes. The Karie Marie “was probably built in the ‘90s,” Hansen said.

What Hansen referred to as “the biggest recent job” involved the 110’ tugboat Mike O’Leary, built in 1975 and operated by Dunlap Towing Co. in La Conner, Wash.

“Most of the summer, (we) worked on a mid-life for the Mike O’Leary,” said Hansen. The vessel’s “entire galley was gutted, and a lot of steel was replaced in floors and bulkheads.” Up on deck, the towing winch was completely dismantled, and all the deck underneath was rebuilt. “An awful lot of decking, bulkheads were replaced or repaired. Then a full paint job. It left a month ago (October).”

At the other end of the work scale was the fish tender LJ that needed only a minimal amount of repair work. “It’s an older Canadian boat that had steel in the bottom needed to be patched up, bottom painted and a small generator that needed a new keel cooler,” said Hansen.

While Hansen noted “it’s been about six months since we’ve had a major fish boat repair,” that will change early next year when the 145-foot pollock and hake dragger Arctic Fury, built between the 1970s and ‘90s, arrives at the yard for a “two-year haul out and maintenance.”

With the past summer relatively slow at the yard, as workboats were out fishing as usual for crabs and salmon, Hansen said he is “expecting work to pick up” in the months ahead.  The tugboats “we deal with,” said Hansen, “run a lot of Alaska runs all summer long. In the fall there’s a little bit of a window — October, November and December. Then the pollock guys have a window after the first of the year. Thus, we are kind of busy September through March.”