The boats of Deadliest Catch change every year, but there are four major boats that have been filmed in all five seasons. They are the F/V Northwestern, F/V Cornelia Marie, F/V Time Bandit and F/V Wizard. There have been many other boats and many other captains, but these four are the best of the best and make it every year. They are wonderful crews and each of their captains run their boats in different ways. Out on the Bearing Sea, cookie cutter management doesn’t cut it and if you don’t listen to your captain, then your life is really going to change. He can make you do the grossest of jobs or the coolest of the jobs, it all depends on how you watch your mouth and do what you are told. Or, as they say on the Northwestern, “Shut Up and Fish!”
The Cornelia Marie is owned by her namesake, Cornelia Marie Devlin and also by the ship’s captain, Phil Harris. He has captained that vessel for the last 17 years. His current crew is Murray W. Gamrath, III, Freddie Maughtai, and his two sons Josh Harris and his younger brother Jake Harris. This is the largest boat in the fleet at 128′ and 28′ wide. The fuel capacity on this ship is 25,800 gallons and is the only boat with twin props. To put this in perspective, at $2.50 gallon, it costs $64,500 to fill his tanks to go fishing. Wow. This boat is my favorite to watch. I love them all, but there is something about the Cornelia Marie and makes me keep watching.
The Northwestern is a crowd favorite and is owned by the Hansen brothers, Sig, Norman and Edgar. Sig is the captain and the oldest of the brothers. He is a fierce captain and if you can’t cut it working for your current boss, then don’t even think about trying out as a greenhorn (rookie) on his boat. You wouldn’t last. He is tough, and so is Edgar, the youngest of the brothers. Edgar is the Deck Boss and every year for good luck, he bites the head off the ceremonial herring. Yuck! (Yes, Sig had to do it this year, but yuck, no thank you!) Norman is the middle brother and does not like to be on camera. He ignores the camera; so if you get a rare chance to see Norman, then feel blessed. The rest of the crew is Nick Mavar, Jr, Matt Bradley and the newest member, Jake Anderson. They all seem to work well together, but keep your eye on Jake and Matt. They are like fire and gasoline. One of these days they are going to go too far with their fights and they will both either go overboard or get fired! The Northwestern is 125′ carries 60,000 gallons of fuel. That makes it $150,000 to fill that boat.
The Time Bandit is owned by two brothers. The brothers are also the ship’s captains, Andy and Jonathan Hillstrand. This boat is my second favorite because there is never a boring day on this boat. They are serious fisherman, but also know how to play pranks and joke around. In the King Crab season (red crab), Jonathan captains the boat while Andy helps on deck. For the Opilio season, it is Captain Andy at the wheel and Jonathan sitting next to him. Jonathan sometimes goes out to help, but he mainly stays in bugging his brother and being a backseat driver! The current crewmembers are Neil Hillstrand, Scott Hillstrand, Russell Newberry, Eddie Uwekoolani, Mike Fourtner and John Jorgensen. The Time Bandit is 113′ long and 28′ wide. It carries 22,000 gallons of fuel and makes it $55,000 to fill the tank. This boat was designed by their late father.
The last of the top four boats is the Wizard and is captained by Keith Colburn. He is very, very superstitious and hard on his crew. He does not mess around and is set on the goal of catching crab. There is a lot of action of this boat, and it isn’t the catching of crab. It is the constant temper of Captain Keith and he is always taking it out on his younger brother Monty, the Deck Boss. These two fight almost constantly, and is not appealing to me at all. Luckily, Monty (also known to regular viewers as Mouse) is a pretty cool headed guy and brushes off a lot of what Keith yells at him about. The others on the crew are Gary Soper, Lenny Lekanoff, Crosby LeVeen, Travis Lofland and Lynn Guitard. (This is per their active list on their website.) This boat is 150.7′ and has the fuel capacity of 48,000 gallons, roughly $120,000 to fill it for a trip out to sea.
Well, that is it for the top four crabbing boats of Deadliest Catch. Please see below for a list of some of the other boats that have been featured on previous seasons of this hit show.
Aleutian Ballad
Artic Dawn
Billikin
Early Dawn
Erla-N
Farwest Leader
Fierce Allegiance
Lucky Lady
Lady Alaska
North American
Maverick
Retriever
Rollo
Saga
Western Viking
Vixen
http://deadliestreports.wordpress.com/
http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/deadliestcatch/deadliestcatch.html
http://www.corneliamarie.com/
http://www.fvnorthwestern.com/
http://www.timebandit.tv/
