Captain Ben Parkington checks his weld.
By Doreen Leggett
Captain Kurt Martin is your typical old-school Cape Codder: He has been fishing for decades, owns a few boats, is a commercial landlord and can fix or build most anything.
But he can’t weld nearly as well as his father could, which means if he needs gear repaired, a skiff fixed or equipment to last another few months, he needs to hire someone and wait.
“Everybody is busy,” Martin said. “There is no urgency,”
Knowing time and tide wait for no one, Martin always had the urgency; now he has the welding skills.
Martin was part of last month’s inaugural welding class run by Cape Cod Community College, sponsored by the Fishermen’s Alliance and partially funded by a Saltonstall Kennedy grant through National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Ray Rowell, who spearheaded the project for the Fishermen’s Alliance, said fishermen often talk about the length of time it takes to get “punch list” items welded, a problem more pronounced with fewer welders on Cape and more demand for jobs at high-end homes.
“In my experience working on boats, a major issue in an industry with razor-thin margins is missing days,” said Rowell, who worked on a sea clammer out of Wellfleet before becoming permit bank director at the Fishermen’s Alliance.
To confirm scuttlebutt at the docks, the Fishermen’s Alliance created a survey that asked commercial fishermen about industry needs. The survey, which the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries helped send out, showed great interest in a course on basic welding skills.
Eight fishermen from Provincetown to Plymouth gathered at the college’s aviation campus in Plymouth for a three-day course that covered basic stick and metal inert gas (MIG) welding, also touching on Tungsten Inert Gas, (TIG), which is a bit more complex.
Melissa Yow, who has an aquaculture grant in Wellfleet, had no experience welding, but as a twenty-something small business owner she viewed it as a good investment – particularly with all the metal gear required on oyster farm.
“There are plenty of things I could make myself instead of having to buy,” Yow said during a lunch break. “It makes more sense to be self-sufficient.”
The class was a blend of lectures, videos, and virtual welding as well as prep work and three types of welds, including chain links.
“We’ve been hands on pretty much every day,” Yow said.
She added welding courses are expensive, and since the cost of this one was partially offset by the grant through the Fishermen’s Alliance and partnership with the college, it made sense to carve out the time.
College President John Cox was there on the final day. He said the partnership was ideal because the small investment eases a welding bottleneck, gets fishermen back to work quicker, allows re-investment in local businesses and benefits the Cape economy as a whole.
“It’s great; the multiplier effect,” he said.
The college had space and equipment. A recent change in national guidelines requires all aviation welding to be done by Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certified technicians, taking it out of the aviation program.
The college also has two skilled instructors, Travis Balderston and Sean McCarthy.
McCarthy started welding in the early 1990s, including a stint at RPM Small Engine & Equipment Co.in Harwich.
“A lot of it is getting people comfortable with the equipment,” McCarthy said. “When you are welding there is so much molten metal flying around, people get very nervous. Sometimes it gets in the top of your shoes.”
There is also the danger of burning retinas if you don’t use eye protection, and more commonly red neck from being burned.
“This is why we go over safety,” he said.
As a few students went outside to prepare the metal’s surface for welding, McCarthy said this is a crucial part of the process as dirt, grease, or imperfection – think dent or scratch — will weaken the weld.
“A good weld will never fail,” McCarthy said. “It’s all about prepping the surface … And make sure you put on a mask, this is cadmium, so it is toxic.”
Meanwhile, Balderston worked with half of the group in the welding booth.
“My first weld was terrible,” laughed Ben Parkington, who captains the Roen Keil out of Wellfleet. “Definitely practice makes perfect.”
He plans to weld new “shoes” – small pieces of steel that ride along the bottom and help protect the scallop dredge – and fix any normal wear and tear.
“We have had rock run-ins where the dredge cracks,” he said.
The Roen Keil is a 40-foot boat with metal cranes and chains as well as the scallop dredge, a net of circular metal links crossed with chains and attached to a triangle with bars in the middle. Lots of welding opportunities.
“I know it is going to come in handy,” said Parkington, who praised Balderston and McCarthy for their teaching abilities.
He added his boss, Damian Parkington, a cousin, was planning to invest in a new welding machine for the boat. He is interested in taking the next scheduled class.
Balderston said Parkington was doing more than fine with his multiple welds:
“He just has to maintain proper distance and movement.”
Some of the attendees had welded before, including David Crowley, who captains a dragger out of Sandwich.
Crowley has both a stick welder and a MIG welder. The stick welder is more old-fashioned, an electric arc is created between the electrode (the “stick”) and the base metal, generating intense heat which melts the base metal and the stick, creating a pool of metal. That pool is sometimes called a “puddle” and welders will push it along to create the weld.
With the MIG welder the stick continually feeds through the welding gun and heat from the arc heats stick and base. This type of welding requires a shielding gas to protect the molten metal.
Balderston pointed out both can be used at sea, but focus is key.
“Take your time,” Balderston said. “There is nowhere to run if something goes wrong.”
Crowley was there to learn better techniques so he can do small gear repairs without having to pay someone $120 an hour. That said, “I wouldn’t leave here as a fabricator,” he added with a grin.
John Bloomer was in the same boat.
“I have tried it before. I just don’t know what the hell I am doing,” he said.
Bloomer was one of three fishermen who fish on scallop and sea clam boats out of Provincetown and Harwich, primarily. Since two of the boats are steel-hulled they require a lot of welding.
The third, F/V Midnight Our, is fiberglass, but still requires gear work on the scallop dredge and chain bag or sea clam dredge and steel cage.
Mike Otowchits had never welded before. His boss, Jesse Rose who owns the three vessels, signed him up.
“He said it would make me more valuable,” Otowchits smiled.
When they are at sea the captain must stop to make repairs if no one else has the skill. “It could be 10 times, it could be none,” Otowchits said.
In the past few weeks, when small-boat scallopers were going out every day to get trips in before an area closure, being able to weld on the fly was even more important.
Captains also often need to weld in plates, new sections, and cleats so vats full of sea clams can be secured by rachet straps and not slide around the deck.
Even those close to shore rely on welding.
Connor Doyle of Plymouth Rock Oysters said he can create ingenious ideas to improve his business, like an oyster bag washing system out of aluminum. Doing hours of prep work required before waiting and paying a welder to do the final piece is far from ideal.
He said he was on vacation in St. Lucia when he saw the notice about the class.
“I think within four minutes of getting the email I had signed up,” he said with a laugh.
2025 – 2026 Trainings are supported by a Saltonstall Kennedy Grant Award. These trainings are organized by the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance using Federal funds under Cooperative Agreement Award NA25NMFX427G0422-T1-01 from NOAA Fisheries, U.S. Department of Commerce. NOAA Fisheries is responsible for the stewardship of the nation’s ocean resources and their habitat. The statements and recommendations are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of NOAA Fisheries or the U.S. Department of Commerce.