Insanity and sea salt. Just how I like it.
Fishy Glory on The Prairie, Shipyard Beat, Insane Audiobook Party, and Hollywood
There is a lot going on at the moment ranging from sea salty articles to going insane with The Fink to an autograph mystery. Let’s kick it.
Power & Motoryacht Article: Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
It’s always a pleasure to open Power & Motoryacht magazine and see a big feature spread you wrote. The September 2023 issue of the magazine contains the article Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing written by yours truly. The travel/boat review hybrid piece follows a fishing trip I took aboard the new North River Boats build Hooked Up out of Seiku, Washington.
The owners and I had a blast chasing bottom fish on The Prairie—a patch of open Pacific off the coast. There’s even a bit of love story in there (spoiler, Pete and Liz are cute!). Here’s a teaser of the opening for you:
“I awoke in Seiku, Washington, from the quarter berth of Hooked Up, a highly customized 37-foot Voyager luxury sport fishing boat owned by avid angling couple Pete and Elizabeth Donnelly. If you’ve never heard of Seiku, I don’t blame you. The dot-on-the-map angler’s haunt is on the northern edge of the Olympic Peninsula, the American side of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Besides the floating docks and loitering sea lions, the Breakwater Restaurant a mile up the road that serves a mean prime rib is probably the main reason to stop. The Gut Hut, a shack by the marina office, is run by a kindly old man with a long gray braid. The filet knife wielding artisan can process and vacuum pack your fish with the practiced grace of a priest donning his garments before mass.
I spent a comfortable night aboard this North River Boats build, the Oregon company’s first major play into the mid-sized, aluminum sportfisher-yacht hybrid space. Pete, Elizabeth, and their daughter Morgan joined me. Coffees were passed around as Hooked Up roared to life. The purple of night gave way to the soft gold of dawn. Fishin’ time.
‘We’re going to shoot to The Prairie, which is on the outer edge of the fishing closure,’ said Pete. The closure he referred to is a designated bottom fish—namely threatened rockfish species like yellow eye—sanctuary off the coast of Washington. The Prairie is a favorite fishing area for those with the horsepower to get out that far just beyond the southwest corner. The frontier tune of Home on the Range free associated in my mind when talking about the promise of The Prairie, except where we’re going it’ll be halibut (“butts”) and lingcod (“lings”) who roam instead of buffalo.
‘It takes about two hours of running time to get there,’ said Pete. ‘Hopefully we’ll come back with our limits…’”
The entire article will be available on the Power & Motoryacht website after this press cycle.
Fishermen’s News Article: Shipyards of the Pacific Northwest
I wrote a macro level round-up style piece about a few of the shipyards in the area for the current issue of Fishermen’s News. While these kinds of stories are less creative in nature, sometimes keeping one’s feet planted and telling the world what the local shipyards are up to is its own reward.
I especially liked talking to Icecap Holdings CEO Gavin Higgins about the frankly impressive rise of Everett Ship Repair. Here’s a teaser of the piece:
“…‘I’m a naval architect by training,’ Ice Cap CEO Gavin Higgins said. ‘Graduated when Christ was a cowboy and came over here from England and started working for (a) shipbuilder in Newport, Rhode Island.’
Higgins spent around 30 years working on the East Coast in the maritime industry before striking out west. He was involved with many notable projects including the fastest speed ferry and largest yacht built in the U.S. He has been working with Nichols Brothers for about 12 years.
‘In doing that, (I) recognized pretty quickly the limitations with Nichols. It’s a great place to build ships, but it is a tough place to service vessels from,’ Higgins said.
The facility in Holmes Harbor doesn’t have a pier next to it, so to service a ship they had to do so at Langley or bring it up to the yard, which could be complicated. The solution—ESR across the water in Everett.
Five years on and ESR currently has two drydocks, Faithful Servant (460-foot by 110-foot vessel accommodation, 8,000 standard tons-plus lift capacity) and Emerald Lifter (220-foot by 62-foot vessel accommodation, 2,000 standard tons-plus lift capacity). The company also has picked up an 800-foot pier to expand its waterfront footprint.
Their efforts, the company has said, have brought over 100 jobs to Everett.
‘We do factory processors, and we do Washington state ferries, and we do lots of tugs. We’re hitting that broad spectrum of ship repair now that we wanted to be able to get to,’ Higgins said…”
The full version of the article is available online. Keep an eye on this Everett Ship Repair/Nichols Brothers combination. I’ve heard through the grapevine that they’ve recently earned a certification level that allows them to work on high profile Navy and government contracts. Are they part of the solution to Puget Sound’s ongoing public ferry woes?
Our local leadership keeps talking about opening up ferry contracts to outside of the state, but we’ve got these guys in our own backyard. Flipping the bird to our own maritime industry makes little sense to this writer. Maybe if I took a look at the grease on certain palms the logic would become clear.
Insane Audiobook Release
The one and only Daniel Finkel, author of Mr. Taffle’s Pants of Insanity and fellow Chanticleer International Book Award winner, is throwing an official epic audiobook release party. The event which includes “the first ever pantomime and rhyme theatre experience” with a full bar and food trucks will be at Los Angeles’ The Last Bookstore at 8:30 PM on October 14. $10 entry fee.
I can’t wait and plan to be there. More on this later, but I hope to see you there if you’re in the Los Angeles area. Let’s loose our sanity together!
Norris Reads: Books to Film & TV by Maggie Mar
I picked up something different this week—Books to Film & TV by author and Hollywood business insider Maggie Marr. I received this book as part of my participation in the Chanticleer International Book Award/Conference. Marr’s talk at the conference about a book’s journey to film was enjoyable and great food for thought.
I always delight in the energy of the crowd at talks like these. Early career authors thirstier than off watch sailors at a Thai strip club fill the seats turning the space into standing room only. The eyes are shiny and you can feel the singular yearning from all minds in attendance. The Q&A session is treated as a once-in-a-lifetime chance to pitch their beloved books under the guise of innocent questions about the industry process.
Bottom line, Marr is a grizzled Hollywood business veteran in a small, friendly, intelligent, and witty Midwestern mom package. I’m about halfway through the book, but thus far it’s a blend of practical advice for authors who want to see their books adapted to the big screen and elements of memoir. It’s a pretty easy read in part due to text layout which has generous empty space. If you’re the target demographic—as I am—this book is worth picking up.
Sidenote! Maggie was nice enough to sign my copy at her talk. But try as I might, I cannot decipher the circled word above. “I ____ you!” Dear reader, what do you think the verb is? I see “bash” or “hash”, maybe a Hollywood insider term? Chime in the poll or comment below to help me figure it out.