David Peterson specializes in repairing wooden commercial fishing boats, working out of Zerlang & Zerlang Marine Services, a boatyard in Samoa, Calif., across Humboldt Bay from Eureka. In early July, Peterson was completing work on the 38-foot Refuge, a salmon troller and crabber built in 1944 in Newport Beach, Calif.

All the hull's butt joints have been recaulked and refastened with stainless screws. The bulwarks on the starboard side were next to be repaired.

Prior to the arrival of the Refuge, Peterson worked on the Jean C., a 35-foot salmon troller built in Washington about fifty years ago. Its owner brought the Jean C. down from Newport, Ore., to be hauled at Zerlang & Zerlang in mid-May because "he couldn't find anyone up there to work on it," Peterson said. The concern was that the Jean C. needed a new stem. That wasn't the case; instead, Peterson installed hardwood anchor guards on both sides of the bow.

The major work included removing a 6-foot rotten section of the Jean C.'s Douglas fir keelson. "We dropped it off and replaced it with Alaska yellow cedar," said Peterson. He figures the rot was probably caused by a leaking refrigeration system in the fish hold.  The Jean C. is a hard-chine hull, and the chine guards on both sides of the hull had to be pulled off; then Peterson "refastened everything under the chine guards.”

The next two boats due at Zerlang & Zerlang for Peterson to work on are the 47-foot Sea Wolf, a troller, and crabber built in 1947 in Fort Bragg, Calif., followed by the 47-foot troller Cecelia B. from Moss Landing, Calif., built in Washington in 1946. (Peterson thinks the Cecelia B. might have originally been the Runn.) The Sea Wolf's well deck is rotten and needs new deck frames and decking. The Cecelia B. will get new sheer planks and ribs in the bow.

Mention of the Sea Wolf makes Peterson a bit sad, for the Sea Wolf was built by brothers Fred and Nick Makela of Makela Brothers Boatworks in Fort Bragg. The boatyard was later taken over by Fred's son, Howard, who changed the name to Makela Boatworks.

The Cecilia B. and the Sea Wolf were due to go to Makela Boatworks for their repair work, but Howard Makela fell off a ladder on March 29, 2024, and died. 

When the accident happened, Howard was working on the vessel Gayle (also known as Moriah Lee), which had been built by Makela Boatworks; Howard had cut the vessel in half and lengthened it by 5 feet.

Makela was 68. "He's the last of a generation," said Peterson.

Peterson said that with Makela's death, the number of well-known, longtime builders and repairers of wooden commercial fishing boats, already limited, is now even smaller. 

"I've got guys coming who were going to have him do it. Guys coming from both directions, for hundreds of miles,” said Peterson. 

"It's a crappy way to get work, and I wish he were alive to do the job. He was admired and respected by all those in the business and will be terribly missed.”