The 70’ Lobster Boat TWO DUKES was recently delivered to the vessel owners, Capt. Eric’s, Inc. in Sea Isle City, NJ.  The vessel is constructed of welded steel and has a beam of 26’.  Steel construction and some machinery installation was completed by Custom Steel Boats, Merritt, NC.  Construction was completed by Ted & Todd’s Marine, Beaufort, NC.  Lofting and NC plate cutting design work was provided by Boksa Marine.

The vessel hull and structural design was done by DeJong & Lebet, Inc., Naval Architects, Jacksonville, FL, with considerable input from Rob Burcaw, one of the vessel owners.  The vessel features a unique “modified-cathedral” type hull design which has proven to show improved sea-keeping characteristics.  This feature comes in handy for the rough weather encountered on the fishing trips which can go as far as 100 miles offshore.

The vessel layout is a half-height foc’sle, with the pilothouse on the foc’sle deck and the crew accommodations below the foc’sle.  This leaves an aft working deck of nearly 43’ in length and close to 1,000 sq.ft.

The main feature of the TWO DUKES, and probably most important, is the 10,000 gallon live lobster tank which can hold 35,000# of lobster.  Rob Burcaw worked closely with the DeJong & Lebet, Inc. engineers to optimize the size and location of this most important feature.

TWO DUKES is powered by a pair of  Mitsubishi S6B3 14.9 liter mechanical engines developing 430 HP @ 2000 rpm.  The engines are coupled to Twin Disc 5114 DC gears turning 44” diameter bronze propellers through a pair of 3-1/2” Aqualoy 17 shafts.  Speed from the sea trials was reported at 12 knots.

Electrical power for the vessel is provided by a pair of John Deere