When West Coast fishermen with older boats – especially wooden vessels – come to the end of the fishing season, they are most likely to make the Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-Op in Port Townsend, Wash., their destination of choice.
In 2024, 140 boats tied up or were hauled out at the co-op, where “120 is normal,” said Arren Day, one of the co-op owners. Despite the numbers, the work fell short of expectations.
The co-op was started in 1981 by eight guys, each one an owner. Now there are 12 owners, and instead of only an individual ship’s saw in a single building, there are four buildings to accommodate 60 employees. “This year there’s been a lot of corking, a lot of planking and zincs, and a troller is being refastened right now,” Day said during the first week in January.
A big project involved the 59-foot longliner Evening Star that was built in 1944. “The frames had started to push out the planking,” said Melanya Nordstrom, the co-op’s social media and advertising representative, who noted the Evening Star had “all original wood from 1944-45. The wood was still good, but the fasteners were starting to go.” The planking had
The Evening Star is like many other fishing boats that show up yearly at the Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-Op. During the previous year Evening Star received new steamed white-oak frames in the engine room, Port Orford cedar planks and Sapele covering boards, plus hydraulic work.
A few other examples of major restoration included a new foredeck on the 65-foot longliner St. John II; a new fish hold in the albacore and salmon troller Carol M (“It’s almost 100 years old,” said Day); and new keel bolts for the Robert S, a 90-foot Bristol Bay salmon tender.
However, except for the boats mentioned above and a few others, Day describes the work done in the past year as “mostly a shave and a haircut, mostly regular maintenance. A lot of boats with a small amount of work. It hasn’t been a big project year. The West Coast fishing industry has been a little depressed for a couple of years.”
“Fish boats had an interesting, a hard year,” adds Nordstrom. She labels “pricing” to be a disruptive factor.
“Guys said they got a good number of fish but just no market, said Nordstrom. ‘That was hard for a lot of our regulars. They couldn’t afford to come in or came in for something their crew can’t do, like engine maintenance. Whereas they normally come in for all kinds of things.”
