Like many fishermen, Justin Yager is interested in the responsible harvesting or marine resources. “We don’t need to be fishing the crabs right up into their molt stages,” he said recently. Similarly, he saw the common sense of rebuilding the Gulf Shrimper B.J. Thomas when the boat had a serious fire at Newport, Oregon.

Built in 1976 at Marine Builders in Mobile, Alabama the boat found its way to the west coast where she was owned by Justin’s grand-father-in-law. He eventually sold the boat, with crab and shrimp permits, to his granddaughter Sara and her husband Justin. The couple fished the boat and permits for several years.  “It was built like a canoe,” Justin recalls, “about 90-feet long and only 22 feet on the beam with even less at the stern.”

The fire was the impetus for the rebuild that the owners had planned for the boat. “We cut off the bow, part of the stern, and the house,” he explained, “we took it right down to the engine room and the fish holds.”

All design and construction of the like-new 85.4-foot boat were done at Fred Wahl Marine in Reedsport, Oregon. Like a moulting crab, the rebuilt and renamed, F/V Dauntless emerged with a new shell, but, unlike a crab, she was totally unrecognizable from the original. Adding sponsons increased the new hull’s beam to 29.5-feet carried right aft. This made a dramatic increase in deck space. The new house was set well forward on the newly raised fo’c’sle. From the bulbous bow, with thruster, to the highly efficient nozzle and triple rudders aft, there is no trace of the Gulf shrimper. The robust, modern, west coast, Fred Wahl style dominates.

By late August the Dauntless had made several trips trawling shrimp off the Oregon Coast. Yager retained the foamed and glassed 1635 cubic foot forward hold and the 1462 cu. Ft. aft hold. He left the wing tanks, created by the sponsons, as painted voids that can be ballasted with water.

Yager has two other boats, both powered by 19-liter Cummins engines. They have served him well, so he went to Scott Graf at Newport’s Currie Marine for a new 750 horsepower Cummins QSK19-M with a 5:1 Twin Disc gear turning a 65.5-inch prop, to repower the Dauntless. “The boat will do ten knots, but with the small mesh, twin-rigged, shrimp nets we can operate at around 1300 RPM to maintain a two-knot towing speed with our two 90-foot trawls.”

He went onto explain that, with 45-foot outriggers and a twin rig, he is limited to 90-foot trawls as the doors nearly meet in the center. “We have had some big trawls,” he added, “but we try to stay to about 10,000 pounds per tow for optimum quality. We have chains suspended from the foot rope to stir up the shrimp, but we try to stay 18 inches off the bottom to avoid flat fish by-catch.”

The thought and care that goes into the fishing is reflected in the boat. Tankage includes 27,000 gallons of fuel, 838 of hydraulic oil, 2379 gallons of fresh water, and 152 gallons of lube oil. The QSK19 is fitted with the CENTINEL lube oil management system. While the engine is running, CENTINEL monitors the engine’s duty cycle. At precise intervals, it bleeds off a small amount of used oil and sends it to the fuel tank, where it blends with diesel fuel and is burned during combustion. Although, with this system, it is possible to virtually eliminate oil changes, Yager chooses to change oil, but only every 1000 hours.

The Dauntless trawls shrimp, pot-fishes crab, and will trawl ground fish in season.  Much of the deck equipment was retained from the B.J. Thomas, but the hydraulic system to run it is state-of-the-art. A Cummins QSB7-powered 150 kW generator  provides the power for electric over hydraulic deck winches and equipment. An additional 100 kW genset provides back-up with a still smaller genset for hotel services.

Yager acts as relief for his regular skippers like Kyle Barnhart on the Dauntless. He acknowledges the excellent work of the crew at Fred Wahl Marine for both design and fabrication. At Curry Marine, Scott Houck, is his go-to-mechanic for setting up the new engine and maintenance of his existing Cummins power. In terms of gaining a larger size, the analogy of a crab replacing its shell may be appropriate. However, for looks, comparing the Gulf shrimper B.J. Thomas to the rebuilt Dauntless, it may be more appropriate to think of the boat as a butterfly out of a cocoon.

 
Photos courtesy of Justin Jager

For further information:
 
Scott Graf
Curry Marine Supply, Inc.
Newport, Oregon, USA
Phone: 541 336 7955
Email: currymarine@newportnet.com
 
Justin Yager
Newport, OR, USA
Phone:541 991 0490
Email: justinyager@gmail.com
 
Mike Fourtner
Commercial Marine Sales
Western United States
Cummins Sales and Service
3300 Mottman Rd SW
Olympia, WA 98512
Desk Direct Dial: (360) 242-4175
Cell:                    (360) 742-2864
Fax:                    (360) 352-0192

Alan Haig-Brown
A. Haig-Brown & Assoc. Ltd.
Bangkok, Thailand
Vancouver, Canada
Canada Phone: 604 377 1577
Thai Phone: 66 (0)8 5347 6206
E-mail: alan@haig-brown.com