‘Deadliest Catch’: Crab Captain (And Dad) Phil Harris Tops Reality-TV Poll

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Fans have watched Josh struggle, with the help of his close pal, Capt. Casey McManus, to bring in enough money to cover the huge cost of refurbishing and running the boat. During the 11th season of the show, currently airing on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT, Josh seemed to finally be keeping his head above water.

But boats are a black hole for money, and Josh and McManus appear to have reached out to keep the Cornelia, built in 1989, shipshape.

A June 14 post at MarineLog.com reports that she’s undergone a “service life extension,” fueled by an injection of fresh cash.

When Roger Thomas and his partner Kari Toivola began searching for a Bering Sea crab investment, Roger called Casey McManus. Casey has skippered the Cornelia Marie and is a shareholder in the boat. After checking with Josh Harris another owner, he got back to Thomas and Toivola with an offer of a 50% stake in the famous boat. The two flew to Dutch Harbor in January 2015 to inspect the vessel. …

“We made an offer for the Cornelia Marie in March and immediately began ordering equipment,” recalled Thomas, “By the time the deal had closed in April, we had already ordered a pair of electronic-controlled 750 hp Cummins QSK19-M diesels to replace the mains. We put mechanical Cummins KTA19s in the Deception 10 years ago and they have given good service. So we went with the new version of the same engine.”

The refurbished boat left its home port of Seattle, Washington, on June 6 to head to Bristol Bay, Alaska, for salmon tendering (in which large boats ferry the catch from smaller boats to a processor).

Phil Harris was always a part-owner of the Cornelia Marie with the woman after whom it was named, Cornelia Marie Devlin. Now it looks like Josh Harris and McManus have some new partners, but that’s what it may take to keep this blue-and-yellow beauty at sea.

And there’ll be plenty of crab fishing come this fall. Quoted at MarineLong, Thomas said:

“We expect to put a lot of crab through her. With our own and leased quota we are planning for about 200,000 pounds each of King Crab and Bairdi and another million pounds of Opilio.”

And we hear that Season 12 is in the crab pot …

Here’s Discovery’s lovely tribute to Harris …