Set Net Skiff - Kenai, Alaska - Landlocked Boats on Waymarking.com

"The commercial salmon, set net fishery uses open skiffs or dories while working and picking their nets in the Cook Inlet, much like the one on exhibit here.  Most of the  skiffs used today would be constructed of aluminum.  A set net is usually 210 feet long and nineteen feet deep, strung with corks on top and weights on the bottom, and anchored to a beach site or as much as 1½ miles from shore.  When a fishing period begins, the nets are set out, then allowed to sak as the tide change brings salmon into the nets.  While the nets closer to shore are hauled in with a pulley system, the outer nets are systematically picked using a skiff like this one.  The skiff runs back to shore once it has a full load, or the nets are clean.  The salmon are then off-loaded into containers and the skiff is launched again unti the nets are clean or the fishing period is over.

Fred Earl Seater and two other family members built this boat around 1940.  The Seater skiff was in operation on the family's set net site on Agate Beach in Nikiski until it was retired around 1980.  The family donated the skiff to the old Fort Kenay Museum in 1982 after Fred Seater's death.  His grandchildren now fish the family site.

Dave Seaman, who worked on restoring this boat noted, " I was pleased to learn how the builder and or designer of this boat deal with the problems his gear was likely to give him in that era, such as the ends of the floor timbers beveled in the opposite direction to keep the wooden corks from jamming in the corners of the frames."

In the winter of 1992, Thom Tomrdle and Frank Newton began a project to restore the K-6 and completed their work by April of 1993.  In 2005, Dave Seaman began a further restoration of both the K-6 and the skiff which was completed in 2006." - text of informational sign on site