The Boat "Wendy Helen"

The Wendy Helen is a 45 ft fiberglass boat. At the stern (back) it is 20 ft wide.It is capable of carrying in excess of 20,000 lbs of snow crab below its deck.

The boat is equipped with a GPS, radar, depth sounder, autopilot, and a Windows based desktop computer. The computer is connected to the GPS and is used to run navigation software (with digital charts). All area 19 snow crab vessels also have a device that tracks their position at all times. This information is available to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

In the above picture the device on the far left is the depth sounder, with the screen from the computer on the its right (second device from the left). The autopilot is on the far right with a GPS device on its left.

Above shows the computer and depth sounder. The depth sounder is used to measure the density of the bottom. Crab prefer soft muddy bottom to hard rock bottom. The sounder colour codes the bottoms density letting the fisherman know what type is is likely above.

Next "The Boat Part 2"