Mothership Service

A good fishing buddy of mine from Seattle has his captain's license and is planning to buy a boat designed to haul people and equipment around the San Juan Islands of Washington State.  The cool thing about the boat is it's drop-down landing platform.

He would like to know if there's a market for involving kayak fisherman (in WA or here in NorCal), so I told him I'd try to survey the group here.

[1]  How much would you be will to pay to have a boat ferry you and your kayak out to places beyond paddling range for activities such as...

* salmon fishing
* albacore fishing
* rockfishing remote reefs
* diving
* island camping

[2]  How many times a year do you think you want to use such a service and for which purposes?

Any comments and suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Though I prefer catching fish under my own steam (more rewarding = IMO) - having a mothership when the fish are not coming in close is the only practical way to go (fishing from cattle boats is just not for me).

I think it's a great idea - bring it on!  

I'd use the services for everything but diving. And if it's affordable, I'd do it once a month  

How much $  = I guess it would depend on the gasoline prices, docking fee and the maintinance cost for the boat.  = which I have no clue off  

How sea worthy is a boat like that?  Is that boat designed for the open ocean?  I'd hate to have to paddle back from the where the albacore are!!!  

Kev - you crack me up  

That's a cool looking boat...reminds me of the one they used in the movie "Saving Private Ryan....."  

Hey.  That boat looks familiar.  Back in the day, I had a friend whose family had a piece of property on a private island in the San Juans.  We used to take the garbage scow (as we called it) to the island.

I'd certainly entertain this idea.  How much I'm willing to pay depends on the distance it carries me and the services provided.  If it's a 2 hour boat ride to a drop off and a pick up a couple days later, I would think ~$100-125 would be reasonable.  I'm basing that on what I'd pay to go fishing on a boat that was underway for 8 hours.  I'd pay $175 for a 12 hour albacore trip which is trolling the whole time.  Scale that to 8 hours of transport and you get the figure I came up with.  I'd do this 2-3 times a year.

Now a fully catered affair in which they provide tents, food, the whole works, I'd pay more for that.  But I tend not to do fully catered events as I like to be self sufficient.

-Allen

I'd use it a few times a year if it was <100, but rarely if it were more than that.    I don't know of anywhere near here that you can camp on an island or somesuch, so I'd only be interested in daytrips.  

It'd only seem like a good option during the early season when the salmon are far out and most other things are closed.  Late summer/fall there'd be enough salmon/rockfish action in paddle range that I doubt it'd be used much.

Hmm,

I'm pretty sure there's several of these landing craft style boats operating in the San Juans (only the 5 main islands have state ferry service). It would be great for hitting some of the offshore banks for halibut, ling and maybe salmon. There are a bunch of places here in WA that are too far to paddle, (Hein Bank, East Bank in the eastern Straits of Juan de Fuca; Umatilla Reef between LaPush and Neah Bay), but that have excellent fishing. It looks like it could easily carry 10-12 anglers and their gear on a day trip. I would pick my days outside pretty carefully. $100/day for an hour or two run, each way, seems like a good start. I would volunteer to participate in a test run!

(Pause)

If it were my boat, I would expect that it would be most useful here in the islands, or up in the Inside Passage, mostly to ferry materials. I wouldn't count on kayak fisherman to be my sole source of income. They could be a nice bonus. As a business tool, I don't know how useful it would be south of here.

 I would be careful to make sure that no one actually fished from the boat, but only from their own craft. It's my understanding that charter licences in WA are capped, and that the only way to get one is to buy one from someone quitting the business, and it often means buying their boat, too, in a package deal.

I recall that there is (or was ) a boat doing semi-regular drop-offs in the San Juans already, for bicyclists, campers and kayakers. They operate(d) out of Bellingham, and I think it cost about $40/ one way.

wow...cool toy. THose things have to be sea worthy, the WW2 ones crossed the pacific and the atlantic, never hear how many sunk in the crossing though.

-Brian

from saving private ryan to saving private boaters.  that is hilarious.  But it looks like it'd be hell of a way to transport gear.  I'm thinking we couldn't deploy while adrift on that thing or else risking going in the drink right?  I'm not sure I see a crane or something to load over the gunwhales.  In that case, it'd be good for island jumping and beach landing.  Sure looks like hell of a fun boat.

I don't think those landing craft crossed the atlantic.  It's my understanding they were deployed from large troop transports in the pacific, they may have crossed the english channel though.

They also had some tanks with inflatable skirts, which all sank in the chop off omaha - not everything was seaworthy...

I don't think those landing craft crossed the atlantic.  It's my understanding they were deployed from large troop transports in the pacific, they may have crossed the english channel though.

They also had some tanks with inflatable skirts, which all sank in the chop off omaha - not everything was seaworthy...

damn

you know everything.what college did you go to?

Josh is a WW2 veteran   .....I served with him  

I stand correctly on them crossing the atlantic.

However I was informed that my great grand daddy had one. My dad remembers camping out it out in the delta when he was a little kid.

History channel university!

I saw a show where they were diving off the beaches and inspecting the wrecks of tanks and landing craft.  Looked just like the diving off california.  Appearantly the other beaches were more protected, and the floating tanks made it to the beach - that was one of the big reasons that casualties at omaha were much more severe than the other beaches.

Everybody... Thanks for the feedback.  Keep it coming!  

Pisco, your details on the WA area will be especially helpful.