Seattle, WA: Pacific Fishermen Shipyard and Electric announced today that it has appointed long time waterfront fixture Tom Harbin as Shipyard Manager. Serving as Ship Superintendent, Tom came to Pacific Fishermen with the closure of MARCO Seattle Shipyard in 2006 and has helped to double the yard’s repair, repower and conversion business. Responsibilities as Shipyard Manager will include direct supervision of the five in‐house Union trades including the Dry Dock Laborers for sandblasting and painting, Boilermakers, Machinists, Shipwrights and PFI Marine Electric’s Electricians.
Tom has been responsible for new construction of a significant number of the crabbers and trawlers in the North Pacific, including the MARCO built EARLY DAWN, NORTHWESTERN, ARCTIC SEA, OCEAN HARVESTER and OCEANIC, many as featured on the Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch. In the tug and workboat sector, Tom has overseen new construction and repair of tugs to 10,000 hp. For passenger vessels, Tom has the distinction in 1996 of retrofitting the aluminum VICTORIA CLIPPER IV by removing the twin MTU diesels and repowering with 5,000 HP gas turbines while at MARCO to make 3 round trips per day to Victoria. In 2007 under Tom’s direction at Pacific Fishermen Shipyard, the VICTORIA CLIPPER IV was repowered back to MTU diesels, saving fuel with reduced air pollution emissions.