Featured Story | BOATS
Distant waters warrior
Oregon-based F/V Alaska Trojan gets wider for crabbing in
remote Aleutians
by DANIEL MINTZ
A sponsoning project is making the F/V Alaska Trojan wider, significantly boosting its pot-carrying capacity. Fred Wahl Marine Construction photo
Dave Capri, left, and Teddy Painter
The F/V Alaska Trojan from decades ago, when the boat was new. Photo courtesy of Sue Painter
The Alaska Trojan sponsoning project was in the
Originally built in 1979 at the Bender Shipbuilding yard in Mobile, Alabama, the vessel was lengthened by 20 feet in 1984, bringing it to its current 127 feet.
With the 12-foot sponsoning, its width increases to 42 feet. It’s an investment of more than $3 million that brings a range of returns.
Capacity is increasing from 200 pots to at least 350.
More deck room further enhances the Trojan’s crew safety.
“We’re pretty conscious of that, and the boat’s pretty much walled in on all sides – this will add to that factor,” Painter said. “It’s pretty tough to go overboard or anything like that.”
The vessel has a schooner design, with an aft wheelhouse, which Painter described as the “ultimate style” for crabbing.
“You can look right down on your crew all the time, so the skipper’s looking at what’s going on on deck,” Painter said. “So, if something starts to happen that looks dangerous, you call it out.”
Remote fishing: The wider incarnation of the Trojan also has significantly more room for fuel. That’s important because the Trojan’s home port is Newport, Oregon, and fuel costs are higher in Alaska, where the Trojan works the remote Aleutian Islands golden king crab fishery.
The vessel’s fuel capacity is now about 95,000 gallons, up from 55,000 gallons.
Sponsoning also allows more storage space, including for gear related to repairs.
And extra space will better accommodate the vessel’s crew, which consists of six deckhands and a skipper.
The project was in the finishing stages at Fred Wahl Marine Construction when Painter was interviewed in mid-August.
Wahl work: The Wahl yard in Reedsport, Oregon, was an obvious choice for the job, as the Trojan hauls out there every year for maintenance, repairs, and painting.
“They have a good workforce with around 100 guys there, so you can get quite a bit accomplished in a small amount of time,” Painter said.
Following a significant expansion in 2018, Wahl’s workforce doubled and more infrastructure was added. That includes a new dock and an 80-foot-tall indoor project space allowing year-round work.
Painter described the recently expanded Wahl yard as “first-class.”
finishing stages in mid-August. Fred Wahl Marine Construction photo
“We know each other pretty good,” Painter said.
The Trojan is Painter’s third crab boat. The 124-foot F/V Siberian Sea and the 137-foot F/V Kiska Seas, his previous boats, were sold in 2005 and 2008 to Seattle-based Aleutian Spray Fisheries.
Painter is a member of an established West Coast and Alaska fishing family. Initially fishing West Coast albacore tuna, Dungeness crab, and salmon, his family’s Alaska work began in 1963 with Dungeness crabbing in Kodiak.
He’s seen changing trends. When he started with the Trojan, the focus was on red king crab and Tanner crab. He switched to opilio crab, but when the quota dropped, he took up golden king crab. That’s been the Trojan’s only fishery since 1998.
The distant Aleutians fishery supports only a handful of boats. The harvest is managed with individual fishing quotas, which total more than 4.5 million pounds for the 2022-23 season.
“It’s probably the healthiest crab fishery in the state of Alaska,” Painter said.
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