“Every boater is aware of the need for keeping our waters pristine for us and future generations. The Elco Motor is very clean and silent, and I think it’s the future of boating.”
Seattle’s John Jorgensen, a world-renowned mariner with more than a half-century of experience on the water, was born into a fishing family in his native Norway. Both his father and grandfather were commercial fishermen, and John started working on his father’s coastal dragger when he was only eight years old. After moving to the United States, Jorgensen stayed true to his fishing roots and worked some of the most dangerous fishing grounds in the world: the Bering Sea in Alaska.
With his vast experience, Jorgensen has gained the respect of the crab fishing community in Alaska, and his influence stretches all the way into mainstream American popular culture. In 1978, Jorgensen outfitted a 156-foot oil barge from the US Navy to be a crab fishing boat and renamed it Wizard. He spent the next 25 years fishing off the coast of Alaska, and in 2005, Jorgensen sold the Wizard to Keith Colburn, who can still be seen captaining the vessel today on the hit Discovery Channel show Deadliest Catch.
Even as a retiree, Jorgensen lives his life on the water. His boat, pictured above, is a beautiful 27-foot Norwegian double-ender. It was built in 1977 from Norwegian white pine and is one of the last wooden boats to have been built in Norway. The boat’s name, Kronkenen, means “hiding place” in Jorgenesen’s native tongue.
Krokenen is outfitted with an Elco EP-2000 Motor, which Jorgensen has augmented with a 3.8 kW generator as backup. “I used the backup generator once,” he says, “on the way to the Port Townsend boat show, about 40 miles away.” Having seen marine technologies come and go during his lifetime on the water, Jorgensen believes the Elco EP Motor is here to stay.
The Wizard Circa 1978.
