Re: [Paddlewise] Rigging question - Perfect Storm

On Wed, 5 Jul 2000, D Lee wrote:

> In the movie "Perfect Storm," I was surprised to see the Andrea Gail
> rigged with apparent trawler booms when it was fishing as a longliner.

I haven't seen the perfect storm.  I think one of the crew members was
from the town I was raised in.

I live 20 or so miles from Gloucester, worked one summer as a fish cutter on
cape cod.  I also had high school friends who worked fishing boats, as 
did my cousin (on a processing ship after college).

My high school classmates used to fish for tuna on weekends.  It's
caught with long lines.

We never got local swordfish, when I was cutting, the stuff we got was
illegally caught (harpooned) and trucked down from Canada (the owner
eventually did time for swordfish smuggling).

My job entailed supplying ice, then unloading fishing boats in the morning,
cutting/sorting during the day, and delivering in the afternoon.

We usually got flounder, cod, haddock, pollack, with an assortment of
other stuff (smaller numbers).  The flounder/gray sole/lemon sole,
came in from draggers.

The cod, haddock and pollack came in from gill netters.  

The owners boat was sleazy.  They ran 2 sets of nets.  They would put
out a set of nets, then go pull their second set of nets and take the
catch back to the harbor.  This was sleazy because fish could spend up
to 2 days in the water before being iced down.  So what we got off
the owners boat wasn't always fresh.  The gill netters would pull the
boats in with booms and a central spool.

> Is it common in New England to have boats rigged as trawlers when they're
> longliners?

I would expect the Andrea Gail to be a gill netter not a longliner.  The 
longliners I knew had boats that didn't have the central spool(not sure 
of the correct terminology).  Although if there was good money being
paid for Sword or Tuna, and the fish were biting, I would not be at
all surprised if a crew took a gill netter out long line fishing.

>  I would think most Glouchester boats would be rigged for 
> hauling lobster pots with swivel booms or for longlining.  

Gloucester has an assortment of boats, long liners, gill netters, draggers,
and lobster boats.  Each boat a little different and usually easily 
identified.
 
> Curious to know...

Does that cover it?

kirk
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