Boat of the month: Ricky B

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5 min

Sean McCarthy started fishing part-time fifteen years ago and committed to the industry six years ago.

He’s been through a couple of boats, but a year ago, he bought the newly repowered Ricky B, a 51-foot longliner that he fishes out of Madeira Beach, Florida, just west of Tampa.

"I’ve been busy,” says McCarthy. “The steering ram broke a120 miles offshore. I got injured and had to be taken off by helicopter, and a friend towed the boat in for me.” Faced with replacing the steering ram and rebuilding the mount—because he could not find the same ram—McCarthy decided to make a few other changes. “We’re in the observer pool, and I’m going to have to take an observer soon,” says McCarthy. “So I’m adding another bunk in the wheelhouse and doing some other things I’ve been thinking about.”

The Ricky B is a Thompson Trawler, one of many built at T-Craft Boat Company, a now-defunct boatyard in southern Florida. Owner Rodney Thompson purportedly built the first fiberglass shrimp trawler in the late 60s, and the Ricky B came down the rails in 1977. “It’s fiberglass with a balsa core above the waterline,” says McCarthy. “Below the waterline is solid fiberglass.” The 51-footer has a 15-foot beam and draws 5.5 feet when empty.

Currently, McCarthy is longlining for grouper and snapper at around 35 fathoms. “Fishing has been good,” he says. “We make two-week trips and can hold about 15,000 pounds, plus ice. We target red snapper and grouper. The groupers hold up great; they come out of the hold clear-eyed with red gills. The snappers don’t hold up so well, so we don’t start saving them ‘til later in the trip.”

A Gray Marine 6-71 powers the Ricky B around the Gulf as far as Louisiana. “It’s got a 3:1 Twin Disc gear, a 3-inch shaft, and a 32-inch wheel,” says McCarthy. “To be honest, I haven’t had her out of the water yet, and I don’t know what the pitch is.”

McCarthy takes a crew of two, with his bunk and the new observer bunk in the wheelhouse and the other two aft of the wheelhouse. “The galley is not much, a mini-fridge, crock pot, microwave, and camp stove,” he says. “Actually, my girlfriend cooks most of our meals and freezes them. Then we microwave them and eat. We don’t cook much.”

The Ricky B may be an old boat, but McCarthy has put a first-class electronics package aboard that can be seen in the Spec Box.

Once he gets the vessel ready, McCarthy will rejoin the fleet. “I’m not number one,” he says. “But I’m in the middle of the top half.”

The LP spool on the Ricky B holds about 12 miles of line. The hydraulic system that runs it is driven off the front end of the boat’s Gray Marine 6-71 and engaged with an electric clutch. Photo by Sean McCarthy

Boat Specifications:

Home Port: Madeira Beach, Florida
Owner: Sean McCarthy
Builder: T-Craft Boat Company
Hull Material: Fiberglass
Year built: 1977
Fishery: Grouper Snapper longline
Length: 51-feet
Beam: 15-feet
Draft: 5.5-feet
Engine: Gray Marine 6-71
Genset: Phasor 8.5 kW
Hydraulic: One system off the gear to run deck hose and steering, another with and electric clutch on the front end to run the deck gear
Power Train: Twin Disc 3:1, 3-inch shaft, 32-inch wheel
Fuel Capacity: 1600 gallons
Top Speed: 7 knots
Cruise: 5 knots
Hold capacity: 15,000 pounds
Crew accommodations: Four bunks, two in the wheelhouse, two aft
Electronics: Garmin 1243xsv for Garmin gmr24 radar; Garmin 1243xsv for chartplotter; Garmin blue charts bottom topography; Simrad go9 for CMor bottom topography charts and AIS overlay; Furuno TZtouch3 fish finder; HP processor and 24" monitor for windplot; Icom vhf;Standard horizon vhf (AIS receiver);com loud hailer.
Deck Gear: LP spool that holds 12 miles of cable.