At Bristol Wave safety always comes first. Every two years each of our vessels undergoes a full shipyard, including repairs, upgrades, and inspections to ensure every vessel maintains the highest safety standards.
The Frontier Explorer got an early start to A Season 2026, departing Dutch Harbor, AK on December 31st, 2025. The vessel completed three A Season trips in the Bering Sea, and then a partial Gulf of Alaska trip on their way south for shipyard, arriving in Seattle on March 13th. Producing over 48,000 cases and over 1.9 million pounds of finished product, it was an exceptional A Season for the Frontier Explorer.
Pictured: F/V Frontier Explorer docked at Coastal Transportation (above), approaching the Hiram Chittenden Locks in Ballard (right), and passing the Ballard Bridge (far right).
The Frontier Spirit departed Dutch Harbor, AK on January 6th to kick of A Season. The vessel completed three trips before heading south to Seattle shipyard, arriving at the Coastal Transportation dock in Seattle on Saturday, March 28th. The vessel produced over 44,000 cases and over 1.7 million pounds of finished product.
Safety & Inspections
While in Seattle, both vessels will undergo extensive testing and inspections designed to ensure safe operations by focusing on critical safety measures, including watertight integrity, vessel stability, and preventive maintenance on critical systems like the shaft, rudder, and other vital machinery. All tanks will be fully inspected, shutdown procedures will be tested, the high-water alarms will be tested, along with a complete inventory and inspection of all safety gear and lifesaving equipment.
Drydock
Both vessels will enter “Drydock” during their time in Seattle. During drydock, the entire vessel is lifted out of the water for an extended period, allowing access to the hull for maintenance. This will include hull cleaning, sandblasting, welding, and other repairs, as well as painting and the installation of new zincs, a sacrificial anode designed to decay at a controlled rate. Zincs prevent corrosion to the hull and other steel by corroding first; replacing them in every shipyard reduces hull corrosion and ensures the steel stays strong for years to come.
Vessel Upgrades: Innova MarinePack Labeling System
The Frontier Explorer and Frontier Spirit will be the first BWS vessels to install Marel’s Innova software and labeling system. This system, designed specifically for commercial fisheries, provides comprehensive, real-time labeling, traceability, and yield management for onboard seafood processing. The system integrates with onboard marine scales and labeling equipment, improving efficiency while ensuring traceability and compliance. Providing tools for catch value calculation, packed product reporting, and e-log reporting, this system will ultimately integrate with Bristol Wave’s ERP system, ensuring that every case can be tracked from catch to final delivery.
Vessel Upgrades: Radar and Doppler System Improvements
Both vessels will start B Season with upgraded radar systems and improved doppler technology. Marine radar systems are used to detect other ships and land hazards, provide bearing and distance for collision avoidance and navigation at sea. Ensuring all Bristol Wave vessels have the most advanced radar technology keeps our vessel, and most importantly our crew, safe at sea.
Vessel Upgrades: Custom Conveyer System
One major upgrade in progress on both vessels is the addition of a custom conveyer system, designed in-house by port engineer Mike Saturno and VP of Operations Scott Penny, and fully fabricated by BWS. The new conveyer system adds a permanently installed vertical lift from the freezer hold which passes through two watertight enclosures before reaching the weather deck. When the vessels arrive in Dutch Harbor to offload product upon the completion of each trip, an additional two conveyer sections are attached, allowing the crew to transfer product efficiently from the freezer hold directly into cold storage in a shore facility.
This redesigned system eliminates reliance on the vessel crane for offload, freeing up three crew members who would previously have been needed to ensure safe operation of the crane. The conveyer system will improve offload efficiency, reduce wear on the crane and cargo gear, and most importantly, improve offload safety.
Here’s a shot of the conveyer system during construction, at the BWS shop in Seattle:
Into B Season 2026
Both vessels will depart Seattle in late May with a full crew including a captain, mate, chief engineer, assistant engineer, cook, and 17 deckhands and processors. Both vessels will arrive at the fishing grounds in the Bering Sea in early June, just in time for the start of B Season. The Frontier Explorer and Frontier Spirit are both scheduled to complete a minimum of four B Season trips in 2026, with each vessel likely to produce over 60,000 cases and over 2.4 million pounds of finished product.