Sunday, February 22, 2009

New Alaska Limit Seine Boat

For many years Alaskan salmon purse seiners have been limited to a length of 58 ft. This led to the development of some beautiful and relatively beamy wooden boats in the 1950s.

In the intervening decades designers have fine-tuned the 58 ft design to add beam and depth.An example of this is being built at Westman Marine in Blaine Washington to a design by Hockema & Whalen Associates Inc. of Seattle and Bellingham Washington. The new hull has the standard 58 ft overall length with a hefty 25 ft beam and a full 11.7 ft moulded depth. This provides for two refrigerated saltwater 2,700 cubic ft holds and a dry freezer hold of 550 cubic ft bait hold.In the engine room set well forward in the hull a 660-hp Cummins QSK19-M Tier 2 compliant main engine is linked to a Twind Disc MG5170 marine gear with a 6:1 ratio. The intermediate and tail shaft total about 30 ft in length and are supported by roller bearings rather than the older babbit bearings. Under the 72-inch propeller and rudder a section of hydro-wing provides lift at the same time as enriching the water flow to the prop. Running forward a section of iron keel plate adds about a foot to the depth. Welded to this vertical a plate about 4x10 inches provides external ballast. A bulbous bow extends out from the bow and encloses a bow thruster.
Read More

No comments: