We are excited to introduce a new project aimed at enhancing the fish-buying experience for our local community. Our goal is to build a durable, reliable, and affordable fishing boat that will bring people together, promote sustainable fishing practices, and boost our local economy. This boat will provide a more accessible platform for buying locally caught seafood without having to drive an hour up or down the coast. It will save the local businesses and community from having to purchase imported fish with questionable expirations and help to keep money in our local economy. With your support, we can make this vision a reality, helping strengthen community bonds and preserving our beautiful fishing heritage for generations to come. Join us in making this project a success and bring the joy of fresh, locally caught fish to everyone!

As some of you may know, we have owned our tuna boat, F/V Aleta, for a couple of years. Kate has a long family history in the area and has been coming to Florence since she was a child. So, Florence has become quite the special place for us. And well deserved because, as we have seen over the past couple of years, we have been able to bring to this town and its community 9 tons of fresh albacore tuna. And it’s just the start. From so many wonderful people, we were asked about what kinds of other fish we were able to bring in. Well, with this being a sailboat specifically built for albacore tuna, other fisheries would need the deck to be a lot more versatile than it’s able to be. You asked, we listened. But we may need a little help to get started. That’s where you come in!

We are humbly asking our friends, family, and the community for a little helping hand. We have found a small combination fishing vessel perfectly sized for this area. It comes with a permit for salmon fishing, which will allow us to bring in a variety of wild-caught salmon fresh to the people of this community. It will come with groundfish equipment, allowing us to bring a range of fish like rockfish, lingcod, halibut, black cod, and sole. It will come with some of the equipment needed to be able to bring in fresh crab. We are going to have to save up ourselves for the permits and gear, which will cost more than the boat itself. But eventually, we will be able to bring in fresh crab for a good portion of the year. It will open the door for local restaurants and community members to buy the fresh fish a coastal town deserves. And we promise to work our butts off to make sure we do not disappoint!

ABOUT US:

We bought F/V Aleta after it sat in Newport for a number of years. We got it ready and Only fished a portion of the season because we were in Alaska working on another boat to fund our start up costs. We have done extensive work to it to be able to bring in the best albacore tuna we can provide.

Brandon has been commercial fishing for 6 years, and has three years of sailing experience. He's fished for swordfish, albacore tuna, crab, squid, Alaskan salmon, ground fish trawling, ground-fish longlining in Alaska, shrimp, Alaska Tender boat Crane operator, and captained boats in size ranges from 27' to 68' with our current boat being 49'. Brandon will be running the day to day operations of the boat and captaining the boat. When in port for fish sale we offer a fillet service post sale of the fish. A majority of the fish we have caught so far have been hand processed by Brandon.

Kate has been commercial fishing for five years, and has fished for Crab, Shrimp, Alaskan long lining ground fish, tuna, and on an Alaska Tender boat. Kate will be a very important part of the operation helping Brandon to run the boat and the deck and with the community relations involving sales and orders for dock sales. People don't know it but she pulls in a majority of the tuna we catch while Brandon is driving the boat to stay on top of the fish when fishing is chaotic. When in Port she deals with every single sale of every fish we caught, weighs each one and gets the orders ready to go to the customer. She is kind and loved by the community and every person that meets her.

DJ has been running Novellis since 2020 after the tragic sinking of F/V Aquarius and the loss of his mom and step dad. He has been a pillar of the community and has kept his family business going through the hardships he and his family have faced. Dj has been one of our biggest supporters and has become one of our closest friends in Florence. He will be a big part of helping making this venture a success. DJ has a fish buying permit allowing us to be able to use this port as a commercial landing port for fish and crab. He will be selling fresh fish through Novellis and will be helping to keep the fish moving to local restaurants and the community. DJ has had a rough past dealing with other fishermen from different ports. He's lost countless money because he has to trust that the fishermen have taken care of them through the boat delivery, then the transportation to Florence. This will cut out everything because they will go from the boat straight to Novellis.

*We will be looking for other venders as well to sell fresh to the table, ocean caught fish straight from our front yard.

Expenses:

We think you deserve to know what kind of expenses come with owning a boat of this size so that you have a better idea of where all of your dollars are going.

A list of our expenses for this boat:

Boat: 13,500

Maintenance: 2000 (Paint, any possible mechanical issues that may arise, Servicing of the engine and hydraulic systems, haul-out bottom paint and supplies)

Moorage: 1200/year

Insurance: 1000/year

Raft and EPIRB renewal: 1100

Fuel: 330/trip

Salmon Permits and Dock Sales Permits: 550

Salmon fishing gear: 400

Groundfishing Permits and VMS (Vessel Monitoring System):

3500 (This will be later reimbursed through a NOAA Program, but we have to cover the initial costs and they reimburse later)

Crab:

Permit: 60,000* 200pot

Gear: 50,000* 200 pots used

*This will be an ongoing investment through fish sales and our tuna sales from F/V Aleta as well.

ABOUT THE BOAT

This boat is a 26' Commercial fishing vessel. Its a heavy built fiberglass boat, powered by a Detroit 3-53, making 8.5-9 knots, set up for multiple fisheries. The boat also has all necessary safety equipment and is coast guard documented. It comes with an Oregon Ocean Salmon Permit and all the equipment for trolling for Salmon doing short trips and delivering fresh. Its set up with hydraulics, wash down, crab block, and 2 spool gurdies, it also comes with a bunch of salmon gear, bay crab gear, longline gear, lingcod and rockfish gear, and some additional equipment like a tote system to keep live crab and fish, making this a perfect boat to bring in only the freshest fish to this community!