The Wizard sucks. I am suprised they didn't cut that boat for this season. The cut a couple of the crappy boats from last year that were definitely in it so they could get on TV. The Farwest Leader was one of the. It had the woman on it that got scared when the weather got bad. What a f-ing moron. What did she expect, bluebird weather, I guess she didn't see the first two seasons of the show. They also cut the Maverick. That was another showboat.
The one that got me last night was the Time Bandit. The captain's Mom had a scary dream. I guess we'll see................ooooooooooooohhhhhhhh.
I like the Cornelia Marie and the Northwestern. Those guys don't care about the cameras and are there to fish.....or crab.....or whatever the hell they call it.
Also, I don't quite understand why they call it fishing or call the crew fishermen. Shouldn't they be crabbing crabermen?
Yeah, we're not so fond of the Wizard. Monte is cooler than Keith, who just seems disturbingly superstitious. Didn't they have a loser greenhorn last season? Unlike a lot of the crab fishermen, they go to the trouble of getting Coast Guard master and mate licenses. Their boat was always in the top 5 or 10 in the fleet during the derby fishing days, so apparently they're good at what they do. I just don't find them particularly compelling. I thoroughly enjoyed their website, though - lots of neat information about the boat itself and how it was converted from a WWII Navy yard oiler.
Time Bandit: I like Andy best. Johnathan can sometimes seem skeevy. And I definitely don't like Scotty (John's kid) - seems like a little snot. Russell (one of their deckhands) is a riot. I'm impressed at what they do with a smaller boat than the others on the show. They definitely seem like a fun-loving bunch. They were actually the chase boat during the 1st season.
I like what we've seen of the Early Dawn. The longlining process was interesting to watch. Brown crab must be a lucrative fishery without much competition, for each deckhand to have earned $90K from it!
The North American is the other new boat this year. It wasn't on either of last night's episodes. The captain of that one is Norwegian and his father was associated somehow with the Hansens' father. Apparently there's something of a rivalry. Should be interesting...plus Eric Nyhammer, the captain of the Rollo (Season 2) was a deckhand on the North American (after he took his boat out and caught their quota).
I liked the Maverick when Rick was captain. Blake played to the cameras too much. I know there was a lot of manufactured drama in Season 2 with Rick not handing the boat over to Blake, though - they said he "chose" not to return for opie season, but that's because his father was very ill and he was running his dad's boat for another fishery at the time. He may be a tool, but apparently he's a decent fisherman.
Northwestern and Cornelia Marie are my favorites. Love both those boats and the guys on them.
I wish the Rollo had more than one season on the show. They seemed really laid-back and fun.
ETA: Hated the Farwest Leader. Their captain was sarcastic, the engineer was a screaming jerk, and the wife shouldn't have been allowed on the boat except when tied up at the dock. Mr. Bug calls her "Brunhilda".