2018 Ship of the Year: Araho
Eastern’s new factory trawler a standout in Alaska
The 194-foot Araho, delivered by Eastern Shipbuilding Group to O’Hara Corp. in January, is the first U.S.-flagged freezer-processor built in the U.S. in nearly 30 years. It can catch and process up to 120 tons of groundfish per day.
In March, aboard the new factory trawler Araho, all was a bustle. The vessel, moored at Pier 91 in Seattle, was fresh from making the Panama Canal from Eastern Shipbuilding in Panama City, Fla. Vendors were testing equipment, inspectors were inspecting, and the ship’s officers and crew were tweaking the electronics and machinery while loading trawl gear and provisions for the trip north to the unforgiving fishing grounds of Alaska.
Araho, the first U.S.-flagged freezer-processor built in the United States in almost 30 years, is owned by the O’Hara Corp. of Rockland, Maine. The company was founded by Francis J. O’Hara in 1907. Back then, the company fished for haddock, cod and halibut with a sail fleet on Georges Bank. Today, in the Northeast, the company owns a marina in Rockland and operates a herring seine fleet, supplying bait for lobster and scallop fishermen. O’Hara’s Alaska fleet, operated from an office in Seattle, targets groundfish, ocean perch and other whitefish in the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska.
By May, Araho had lived up to its promise. “I just made it home after being on board for the first three fishing trips,” said chief engineer Casey Reynolds. “The vessel stands out at the fuel dock in Dutch Harbor in a good way. No other boat looks quite like it.”
Araho is the flagship of O’Hara’s Alaska operation, which includes Alaska Spirit, Constellation, Enterprise and Defender. The vessels are part of what is called the Amendment 80 fleet. Amendment 80 dictates target species and bycatch quotas for catcher-processors in Alaskan waters, and its regulations also cover other issues affecting the fleet. Adopted by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council in 2008, Amendment 80 had no legal mechanism to replace aging vessels in the fleet until the passage of Amendment 97 in 2012.
“Amendment 97 allowed us to build Araho,” said Frank O’Hara Jr., vice president of the O’Hara Corp. His father, Frank O’Hara Sr., is president. “A week after Amendment 97 passed, we signed our contract with Eastern Shipbuilding to start construction on Araho.”
Reverse the letters in O’Hara and you get Araho. The vessel is a highly efficient 194-foot platform for the most advanced trawl gear, fishing electronics and processing equipment. Compact for its class, Araho can catch and process up to 120 tons of groundfish per day, twice as much product as Constellation. It also can pack 850 metric tons of product in the hold, significantly more than the older vessels, saving several fuel- and time-consuming trips to Dutch Harbor.
“We are thrilled with the vessel,” O’Hara said after Araho’s first three trips. “The electric winches on deck are quiet, which is much different than we are used to with our old hydraulic winches. This provides a quiet environment for the accommodation spaces.”
O’Hara said Araho is burning the same amount of fuel as the 120-foot Defender, the smallest boat in the fleet. “But we expect fuel consumption to rise when we start to increase our daily catch and production,” he said. “Quality levels and production improve with each passing day.”
Araho was designed by Skipsteknisk AS of Aalesund, Norway, the country’s leading fishing port, using the company’s ST-115 blueprint. Skipsteknisk is a world leader in designing ice-strengthened factory trawlers. Each iteration of the catcher-processors that the Norwegians have produced during the three-decade building hiatus in the U.S. is more productive, more efficient and more comfortable than the last.
“They have been replacing their ships for over 25 years,” O’Hara said. While America has been refitting older trawlers into factory trawlers, each new replacement vessel built in Norway incorporates the most advanced, most efficient fishing and processing equipment bow to stern. O’Hara believes that captain and crew input in the design process is a key to their success. “(It makes) the art of catching fish more efficient,” he said. “The boats are built to use less fuel, to catch more fish and process more efficiently to increase profit margins.”
Skipsteknisk designed the 192-foot longliner Blue North, built by Dakota Creek Industries of Anacortes, Wash., and delivered to Blue North Fisheries of Seattle in 2016. It also designed the 262-foot factory trawler America’s Finest, currently under construction at Dakota Creek for Fishermen’s Finest of Kirkland, Wash. Taking Araho’s slot at Eastern Shipbuilding is a larger factory trawler, also designed by Skipsteknisk, for Glacier Fish of Seattle. In the past 20 years, Eastern has built six fishing vessels for the O’Hara Corp.
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"Araho"
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Eastern’s new factory trawler a standout in Alaska
The 194-foot Araho, delivered by Eastern Shipbuilding Group to O’Hara Corp. in January, is the first U.S.-flagged freezer-processor built in the U.S. in nearly 30 years. It can catch and process up to 120 tons of groundfish per day.
In March, aboard the new factory trawler Araho, all was a bustle. The vessel, moored at Pier 91 in Seattle, was fresh from making the Panama Canal from Eastern Shipbuilding in Panama City, Fla. Vendors were testing equipment, inspectors were inspecting, and the ship’s officers and crew were tweaking the electronics and machinery while loading trawl gear and provisions for the trip north to the unforgiving fishing grounds of Alaska.
Araho, the first U.S.-flagged freezer-processor built in the United States in almost 30 years, is owned by the O’Hara Corp. of Rockland, Maine. The company was founded by Francis J. O’Hara in 1907. Back then, the company fished for haddock, cod and halibut with a sail fleet on Georges Bank. Today, in the Northeast, the company owns a marina in Rockland and operates a herring seine fleet, supplying bait for lobster and scallop fishermen. O’Hara’s Alaska fleet, operated from an office in Seattle, targets groundfish, ocean perch and other whitefish in the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska.
By May, Araho had lived up to its promise. “I just made it home after being on board for the first three fishing trips,” said chief engineer Casey Reynolds. “The vessel stands out at the fuel dock in Dutch Harbor in a good way. No other boat looks quite like it.”
Araho is the flagship of O’Hara’s Alaska operation, which includes Alaska Spirit, Constellation, Enterprise and Defender. The vessels are part of what is called the Amendment 80 fleet. Amendment 80 dictates target species and bycatch quotas for catcher-processors in Alaskan waters, and its regulations also cover other issues affecting the fleet. Adopted by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council in 2008, Amendment 80 had no legal mechanism to replace aging vessels in the fleet until the passage of Amendment 97 in 2012.
“Amendment 97 allowed us to build Araho,” said Frank O’Hara Jr., vice president of the O’Hara Corp. His father, Frank O’Hara Sr., is president. “A week after Amendment 97 passed, we signed our contract with Eastern Shipbuilding to start construction on Araho.”
Reverse the letters in O’Hara and you get Araho. The vessel is a highly efficient 194-foot platform for the most advanced trawl gear, fishing electronics and processing equipment. Compact for its class, Araho can catch and process up to 120 tons of groundfish per day, twice as much product as Constellation. It also can pack 850 metric tons of product in the hold, significantly more than the older vessels, saving several fuel- and time-consuming trips to Dutch Harbor.
“We are thrilled with the vessel,” O’Hara said after Araho’s first three trips. “The electric winches on deck are quiet, which is much different than we are used to with our old hydraulic winches. This provides a quiet environment for the accommodation spaces.”
O’Hara said Araho is burning the same amount of fuel as the 120-foot Defender, the smallest boat in the fleet. “But we expect fuel consumption to rise when we start to increase our daily catch and production,” he said. “Quality levels and production improve with each passing day.”
Araho was designed by Skipsteknisk AS of Aalesund, Norway, the country’s leading fishing port, using the company’s ST-115 blueprint. Skipsteknisk is a world leader in designing ice-strengthened factory trawlers. Each iteration of the catcher-processors that the Norwegians have produced during the three-decade building hiatus in the U.S. is more productive, more efficient and more comfortable than the last.
“They have been replacing their ships for over 25 years,” O’Hara said. While America has been refitting older trawlers into factory trawlers, each new replacement vessel built in Norway incorporates the most advanced, most efficient fishing and processing equipment bow to stern. O’Hara believes that captain and crew input in the design process is a key to their success. “(It makes) the art of catching fish more efficient,” he said. “The boats are built to use less fuel, to catch more fish and process more efficiently to increase profit margins.”
Skipsteknisk designed the 192-foot longliner Blue North, built by Dakota Creek Industries of Anacortes, Wash., and delivered to Blue North Fisheries of Seattle in 2016. It also designed the 262-foot factory trawler America’s Finest, currently under construction at Dakota Creek for Fishermen’s Finest of Kirkland, Wash. Taking Araho’s slot at Eastern Shipbuilding is a larger factory trawler, also designed by Skipsteknisk, for Glacier Fish of Seattle. In the past 20 years, Eastern has built six fishing vessels for the O’Hara Corp.
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"Araho"
Foto: Ukjent