A new boat is plowing through waves off Yarmouth.
The Sou'West Titan is a Bayview Marine-built fishing vessel with more than a few special touches.
Completed in about 12 months of work, the Sou'West Titan is equipped to handle the harshest of seas. "Everything about this vessel is unique, it was a great project for our team to be a part of. Throughout the build it kept everyone interested, which helped bring forth the best in our team to produce a product that we are excited to stand behind," says Mitch Kerr, CEO of Bayview Marine.
The vessel is equipped with a large electronics package with a total of 10 screens that can display navigation, alarms and cameras for monitoring the crew throughout the vessel. "The Sou'West Titan offers a RSW [refrigerated salt water system] along with two bait freezers and a large refrigerated fish hole. Our circulation system consists of three large 5 horsepower water pumps along with a 5 horsepower aeration pump. The deck is covered with non-skid from International Non-Skid, which is a great product for the captain and crew members. The Titan is equipped with seven bunks."
The various high-quality features aren't usually bundled together. "This would be the first vessel we had the opportunity to incorporate this many fisheries into one build," says Kerr, "the wheelhouse turned out exactly as we planned, the aft house finished beautifully with a polished look...Overall, everything blended together for a nice finished product that we are proud of."
The boat was built to offer the owner the capability to fish in multiple fisheries. "The live-wells and fish hold area is capable of holding 300+ crates for the lobster fishery, roughly 80,000 lbs of crab that can be kept in refrigerated salt water and 100,000 lbs of halibut in the refrigerated hold," says Kerr.
The deck offers a huge space for the crew to work safely alongside safely-stored gear. On deck it has a 17" Clare Machine Works hauler for lobster and crab fishing, and in the slaughterhouse area there is a unique longline hauler. "It's a 26-inch Nordic longline hauler," says Kerr, "it's the largest one our team has had the honour of installing. We're excited to hear some feedback."
The Sou'West Titan boasts a D16 650-horsepower propulsion system with a 5:1 reduction. The 54-inch propeller runs on a 5-inch shaft.
There's also one feature very well-liked by captain and crew alike: a large covered opening, almost the size of a garage door, in the side of the vessel.
"I'm not sure if it's just me, but it seems like we always get the opportunity to add pretty unique and creative features to our vessels," says Kerr. "The purpose of the hinged door is to keep the crew out of harm's way. It gives the captain and crew the option of closing it while steaming or when the crew is not hauling, and work is being done on deck. It gives them a weather-tight deck, and once open and hauling it eliminates the crew's exposure to the weather. They're protected."
"Attached to the door is conveyer belts. When the door is pushed out with hydraulic rams the conveyer belts fall to water level, allowing for the space to be closed-in and keep the weather off the guys," continues Kerr, "it's a great idea."
The boat is 49'2" long and 32' wide, with a shiny black hull—one of the wider vessels to come out of Bayview.
"It was definitely tight" coming out of the shop's 34-foot wide doors, says Kerr, "and because the aft house is so high it was a game of inches coming our the door."
After being on the water a few weeks, Sou'West Titan owner Philip Chetwynd is pleased."We did lobster season, and everything went pretty smoothly," he says, "engine's really good, we spent some time designing it and doing what we wanted to do for multiple fisheries, so everything's good."
"We're doing halibut right now, we do quite a bit of halibut, and we will be heading to Newfoundland to do snow crab once we're done here."
The sheer size of the boat allows for a greater catch with less cost. "That's kind of what we did this whole boat build for, to be able to save on some expenses because they're crazy now," says Chetwynd, "if you've got to land every night or every two nights then you're chewing up more fuel, so with this one we can hold a lot so we don't need to come in as often."
The big hooded door is a great touch. "Every crew member aboard here is loving it," says Chetwynd, "and every crew member everywhere else wants it...I started when I was 13 and got a full-time job when I was 16, and you dread when you're going out in the winter because you're all exposed. With this now, you're not...The boys all are hauling now in sweaters."
Inside, fishing and navigating is streamlined. "The Faruno equipment you can run on time 0," says Chetwynd, "I can switch every screen to whatever I want to see, giving me different options at the wheel and hauling station. If I want to see a Sounder on a certain screen, I can run a sounder on a screen. If I want it to be a chart, it's a chart."
"I've been wanting to build this boat since I started fishing," adds Chetwynd, "I've never built a boat so when I did get to build one I wanted to incorporate all the ideas I had into it."
"I'm very happy with the product," Chetwynd adds, "the boat shop's been exceptional and always offering help." He points out that Kerr likes to check in on the vessel often. "He asks me how 'his boat' is doing," chuckles Chetwynd, "so it's good to have a builder that takes pride in his work, because I can see it. I can see the pride in this boat."
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