It's that time, almost

The seine is finished.  Actually it has been done since around Christmas time.  It went together very fast.  A new cork line, rolling bunt, border collar, all new chaffing strip, half of the main body web, and a new 25 mesh strip. I also oversaw the rebuild of another seine for a good friend of mine from Kodiak.  I've known Sonny Peterson and his family since I first came to Alaska.  It would be impossible to tell a fraction of the shared experiences we have had over the span of forty some years.  Suffice it to say, they have been very good. Salt of the Earth barely begins to tell the story.  Sonny has retired and his son Howard now runs the family operation. I don't have a picture of the Raven or I'd post it.
Last week I took my new life raft to Tridents facility in Tacoma for shipment North.  It should be in Kodiak waiting for me when I arrive in March. 
This week will be busy, I'll take the seine to our Seattle yard for shipment North. It will be going on the Hazel Lorraine which is skippered by a very good friend, Scott Gilliland.  He will be coming out of the shipyard, sometime in April, after major reconstruction.  They pulled all the engines out of the boat, cut it in half, lengthened and widened it. All new engines, controls, electronics, you name it, they're doing it.
Time to go crawl back into bed.  The wind has finally stopped howling here.  I can never sleep when the wind blows.  Scared to death of dragging anchor I guess.  Old dogs and their foibles.

A New Seine, Well, mostly.

I have always been a "Seine Junky".  I have always been fascinated by the multitude of variables in net design.  I have seen great fishermen kick butt with a mediocre net and I've seen mediocre fishermen fail with a brand new custom built seine. But I've always believed, you greatly improve your chances of a successful fishing season by "knowing" you have a well built net.  That means every stretch (10 fathoms) of the seine is accurately measured and assembled correctly.  Right to the inch. The fist pic is of the Bunt, or moneybag end of my net. The larger blue line is 5/8" Blue Steel Spectra. 47,000 lbs. of breaking strength. The smaller  blue line which is "stuck" through the larger is 1/4" spectra, and also very strong. The webbing is 1.7mm, double knotted spectra.  15 years ago, the construction of the Bunt end of the seine would have been very different. It would have been entirely made of nylon fibers, At least 5 times as heavy (75lbs. v. 15lbs.) but at a fraction of the strength.  The second pic is of the cork-line border collar.  Instead of using #84 or #96 round braid "parachute chord" nylon I'm using a new extruded polyolefin fiber which is water proof, stronger and far lighter than the nylon. It's the sky blue webbing right under the cork-line. It's 5 meshes deep instead of 3, and the total weight of the collar was less than 100 lbs. for a net that is 1500 feet long.