Michael D

George Schneider (Email to Nauticapedia 01/04/2025) stated "I marched around the waterfront for a while, and got to the "G-Street Mole" where the bait catchers tie up. If you saw on last week's trip I saw the CALIFORNIAN being cut apart, I found nobody onboard her, but on one of the sister YG's found a gathering of crew at the end of their workday, and got lots of information. Yes indeed CALIFORNIAN had her original engines, and was being rebuilt with new engines and more modern outfitting. But I'd been wrong saying the other two former YG's still had their original engines. A couple decades ago the state of California was "giving away" low-pollution engines to replace the old wartime ones that most vessels had. You still had to pay for modifications and installation, but for about the cost of an overhaul, you got a whole new, modern engine. These were not "Tier 3" as we presently know it, but at least the engine builders have kits for adapting them to that standard. Unfortunately, as this crew echoed, that modification was focused on exhaust pollution reduction, and adversely affected fuel efficiency. So the CALIFORNIAN is going to supplement, not replace, the existing YG conversions, which is pretty amazing for such a clumsy style of single-screw boat that's already 80 years old. I didn't want to repeat the photo of her as she is now, so to illustrate this blah-blah, I've pulled up a photo I took of her when she first was sold surplus, and bore the name EGABRAG (572028). Those of you with palindromic minds will appreciate that name. I had to be told what it meant. Note how clearly the garbage chutes have been plated-over with fresh metal. This photo is from 1976. "