Marco's 25th Crabber Readied For King Crab Season Opening

A new Marine Construction & Design Co.

(Marco) crab boat, christened recently at Seattle's Fishermen's Terminal, had just enough time to be provisioned before it headed north for the September 15 opening of the King Crab fishery in the Bering Sea.

The 108-foot steel vessel is named the West Point.

Owners of the West Point are Peter Haugen, who is also the skipper, and partners Kjell Fjortoft and John P. Lowman, all veteran Pacific Northwest fishermen. Michelle Fjortoft, daughter of owner Kjell Fjortoft, broke the traditional bottle of champagne over the bow during the christening ceremonies.

Mr. Fjortoft also owns and captains another Marco 108-foot crabber, the Norseman.

The West Point will be delivering its catch to East Point Seafood Co. at Dutch Harbor in Alaska's Aleutian Islands.

A Caterpillar D398B engine, producing 850 bhp, powers the West Point. The threeblade, stainless steel, 80-inch-diameter propeller is manufactured by Coolidge. Top vessel speed is 12 knots. The vessel has two Caterpillar D3306 auxiliary engines.

The West Point carries five Marco hydraulic winches to handle the deck work—a topping winch, a trolley winch, two cargo winches, and an anchor winch. Crab pots will be hauled by a Marco KingHauler pot line hauler. A Marco hydraulic dumping rack automatically sets the pots in the water and facilitates the handling of pots onboard.

Electronics include two radar systems, recording depth sounder, depth indicator, two loran systems, and four radio sets. A Wagner hydraulic steering system has a pilothouse wheel, plus two jog steering stations.

The West Point has three crab tanks providing a total of 7,500 cubic feet of space.

With that amount of space and the vessel's seawater circulation system, the new crab boat can carry 170,000 pounds of live crab for weeks at a time if necessary.

Marco's latest crabber is the 25th such vessel the Seattle, Wash., shipyard has built since 1968, reported Robert F. Allen, executive vice president. Mr. Allen noted that all Marco crab boats, which range from 94 to 121 feet in length, can be readily converted to work as trawlers, a capability which may increase in importance as a result of the 200-mile limit.

Including fishing vessels constructed under license in overseas yards, Marco has designed more than 700 modern vessels for the world's commercial fisheries. The company has had a reputation worldwide for more than 20 years as the innovator and quality builder of fishing vessels and hydraulic fishing machinery.

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