In 2018, Halibut Point Marine, the owner/operator of Sitka’s last boat haul out and private land suitable for a haul-out and marine service center, informed the city that the business would soon cease hauling boats to transition the yard space into a cruise ship dock and storefronts.  No other private land or yard operators were available to replace this loss of service, and the closest alternative haul out facilities for Sitka’s over 600 commercial fishing boats are more than 100 water miles away. 

For safety, commercial fishing boats are hauled out of the water every year to conduct maintenance and at times upgrades or repairs.  Boat haul outs are essential to the working fleet, support year-round jobs, and generate significant economic activity in the community.  Sitka needed a new haul out, and local fishing organizations stepped in to find a solution. 

After some work, the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association (ALFA), the Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust, and local marine professionals convinced the Sitka City Assembly that public investment in a haul out was in the City’s best interest.  That understanding was confirmed by a public vote, when 80% of those voting supported dedicating city funds to design and construction of a community boatyard at the Gary Paxton Industrial Park. 

The City of Sitka is now moving toward the construction phase of a haul out and boatyard.  Below is an update from the July 18, 2024, GPIP meeting provided by Jeremy Serka of Sitka Custom Marine.  Jeremy is under contract with ALFA to assist with boatyard design and fleet outreach.

Michael Harmon, Sitka’s engineer working on the haul out project, described how the City settled on the final scope of work to be completed by the contractors. The final price is $9,281,000 and is set as a “do not exceed” limit for the contractors: Western Marine, K and E Sitka, and Sitka Electric.

PND- preconstruction, permitting and design services = $1,347,537 or 14% of the project,

Western Marine- piers = $6,279.362 or 68% of the project

Travel Hoist purchase = $1,377,800 or 15% of the project

Construction management and CBS indirect costs = $276,341 or 3% of the project.

The scope of the project was reduced due to unexpected pile depths. The following was cut from the project: the total cost was around one million dollars.

• Concrete and hydronic heater coils for wash pad ($500,000). The sump and filtration will be installed, but a temporary liner (tarp) will need to be used when washing boats. There is currently no funding for this item but some talk of maybe a potential operator supplying the liner.
• Electrical hook-up and lighting at wash pad ($165,000) – the engineers designed a light pedestal that had some large outlets for plugging in spider boxes to provide power to adjacent vessels near the wash pad.
• Special investigations and testing: ( $80,000) – there are a handful of potential environmental inspections that could be required, such as concerns with sea stars and bubble curtain mitigation.
• Civil / storm drains and expansion of yard around piers to accommodate parking and access to floating dock ($310,000).  The engineers had two more storm drains in the uplands to aid in the filtration of any runoff from the yard. Now they will need to grade the yard into one primary storm drain. The overall footprint of the waterside fill was shortened. The extended fill would have extended towards the creek side of the piers to give more room for parking and a loading ramp for people exiting their vessel onto a dock.

Possible sources of money to finish phase 1 or contingency.

• GPIP funds that were never allocated, or money left over for certain projects, may include $100,000 that was allocated towards wash pad in the early days of the project. 
• Interest that has accrued on the 8.1 million hospital money. The money has been earning 4% interest over the last two years, which equates to $648,000. Assembly Member Thor Christianson suggested that these funds should go towards the project; the city administrator appeared to disagree.

Permitting

Permitting is set to be finished in October and is currently in the public comment process. There is some worry that Sitka Tribe may have some opposition to the project as this has happened in the past. Objections could delay the start of construction.

Marine travel lift purchase

A final price of $1,377,800 was settled on for the 150 ton lift from Kendrick Equipment. The machine is set to be built but the contract is still not signed because Kendrick Equipment must provide proof of a bond before the city can sign. We are waiting on them but they say it won’t hold up production.

RFQ (Request for Qualifications) for haul out operations

• The GPIP board approved sending the RFQ to the assembly for approval and then solicitation. The RFQ is simply looking for qualified individuals to develop the scope of work to be incorporated into an RFP that will eventually select an operator based on the lowest bid.
• The administration suggested that there may be some out-of-town interest in running the yard. Bidders who meet the requirements of the RFQ will work with a city group to determine what should be included in the RFP.   The scope of work will include such things as:  pricing for the haul out, storage, electricity and washdown services, lease of available workspace, management of workspaces, maintenance of equipment and property, liability insurance. environmental reporting, billing, etc.

Sitka’s new community boatyard is scheduled to start hauling boats in March 2025.  The Boatyard would not be possible without the support of the Sitka community, local fishermen and marine tradesmen, the Denali Commission and the Rasmuson Foundation.