Written by Silas Rogers, Facilities Manager at Hurricane Island Center for Science and Leadership
I had always been impressed with people who could weld- it was a medium that I had no experience with growing up. My dad worked as a carpenter in the ‘80s, so that was a skillset that I was familiar with. I knew my way around an angle grinder, but that’s only good at cutting metal apart. I have gained a few close fabricator friends over the years, which eventually led me to sign up for an adult-ed beginner stick welding class. This opened my eyes to a whole new medium for design and construction, and it just so happens that it dovetails nicely with the need to custom build tools for small-scale aquaculture.
Our 24' Carolina Skiff harvesting kelp using the Electra-Dyne pot hauler and aluminum davit.
Hurricane Island Center for Science and Leadership leases about 3 acres of ocean, just north of the island. We are currently growing cultured sea scallops, and a few different varieties of marine algae (sugar kelp, skinny kelp) for research purposes. All of these species are set up to grow on what we call “long lines,” which are horizontal ropes set up parallel to each other, anchored on four corners by granite moorings. This method has worked well for us, and is common to kelp aquaculture in Maine. Our scallops are grown out to marketable size using a variety of methods, but one technique that has worked well for us are lantern nets, which are suspended mesh tubes with “layers” to separate the scallops in specific densities. This is fairly common with scallop growers in Maine, but servicing this type of heavy long line gear (often lines are as long as 600’, with nets spaced every 8-12’) safely and efficiently takes some special equipment.
The Lindsey Marie working the long line in Stonington.
Marsden Brewer, a soft-spoken Stonington lobsterman who has diversified into scallop aquaculture, has one of the larger scallop farms in the state. We have partnered with Marsden, his son Bobby, and other local scallop growers for a research initiative over the last year, studying reproductive cycles of scallops. This meant we got to travel to Stonington by boat weekly to collect samples, and watch them work on the long line. Here’s a link to their website to see pictures of Marsden’s youthful glow and their farm. https://www.penbayfarmedscallops.com/
Maine Aquaculture Co-op's star wheel assembly. Note "guide bar" on the bottom.
Marsden started one of the first scallop farms in Maine, and had a significant hand in developing the customized gear to service lantern net long lines, in partnership with Maine SeaGrant’s Dana Morse. He fishes with a 38’ Atkinson Novi, the Lindsey Marie. The boat is set up with a hydraulic mast and boom that covers the entire deck space, which is great for moving gear around. But that’s only part of what makes the boat work well for scallops. He designed a custom rig to work the long lines, owned by the Maine Aquaculture Co-op, of which he is president. He calls it the star wheel rig, using ideas gleaned from observation of Japanese scallop aquaculture and Mediterranean mussel long line aquaculture. There is specialized hardware designed for these industries available, but the gear isn’t made locally, and it’s often for larger boats that are more purpose-built. Sometimes it’s just as hard to adapt existing equipment to what you need as it is to start from scratch. Marsden’s rig is built from a pot hauler backing plate and sheave that allows the boat to lock into the long line. He can then move along it without getting blown off, and raise the lantern nets to be cleaned, sorted, or harvested.. They say imitation is the greatest form of flattery, so that’s exactly what I set out to do.
My take on the small scale star wheel started out with the rolling assembly. I chose to go to a local vendor, Marine Hydraulics of Rockland, for a 3” sealed bearing sheave typically used as a fairlead for pot haulers. This got mounted on a piece of 3/16” stainless plate. I used a piece of ⅜” stainless bar as a guide for the lantern nets, a key component to lead the vertical lantern net outboard of the sheave. I cut the “star” of the star wheel out of 3/16” stainless plate, and will weld that to the outboard face of the sheave. Lastly, I needed a way to mount the assembly to the boat, but still have it be easily removable. You can’t have gear hanging over the side as you come alongside other boats or a float, so I devised a system similar to a receiver hitch on a pickup truck. The star wheel assembly is mounted to a slip fit square tube, held in place with a stainless pin. Marsden’s rig is also easily removable- it needs to be that way to transition from scalloping to lobstering, which is often done in the same day.
3" Stainless steel fairlead roller without the star.
Star wheel mockup with wooden sheave and plywood star.
A quick note on fabrication, for those that are interested: After I completed my adult-ed course, I bought a 200amp TIG/Stick welder. It’s a portable inverter-based machine, and it’s more than capable of the majority of work I do. It cost about $1300, but is probably the best investment I have ever made. It makes me money and makes me happy. What more can you ask for? I TIG welded most of this gear together, but stick welding stainless steel is a viable option, and is actually quite forgiving and useful. A 1lb pack of stainless steel stick welding electrodes goes for about $20, and will last you quite a while.
Using plywood to test different configurations.
I have yet to mock the whole rig up on the boat, which is stored on Vinalhaven for the winter, but I have done some quick-and-dirty bench tests to make sure my efforts might have a chance at working once they’re rigged on the boat. I had to experiment with the size and number of teeth on the “star,” and I used a wooden sheave and plywood stars to test different configurations. To explain the star part of the star wheel further, the gaps between the star “teeth” paired with the guide bar allows the vertically hanging lantern net to pass outboard of the sheave without having to lift it over manually. Without the star and guide bar, the lantern net would want to pass up over the sheave the same way as the long line.
To come full circle on this whole thing, I’d like to thank everyone who has empowered me to learn to weld and encouraged me to develop it further and put it to good use in the real world application of custom aquaculture gear. I’d like to further encourage anyone and everyone not to be afraid of learning a new skill, maybe something you always thought of as out of reach, as it might set you on a new and exciting path as it has me. Let’s hope this works as well on the water as it does in the shop on land. Stay tuned for more home brewed solutions in the future!
Photos by Silas Rogers
