When asked about the experience, Travis explains, “After the first lap, Mark said I was doing great and asked if I wanted to do another lap and I quickly replied, ABSOLUTELY! On the second lap, we did over 100mph and I was hooked! It’s been a 2-year journey but after multiple e-mails and a trip to AMF’s shop, Scotty Begovich realized this crab fisherman was serious about wanting to get into the offshore race world. Travis had the opportunity to go for a ride in the JD Byrider boat with throttle man, Mark Kowalski. There he became friends with the AMF/Miss GEICO and JD Byrider Offshore Racing teams. Travis was introduced to the offshore racing world two years ago where he was a special guest at the Suncoast Offshore Grand Prix in Sarasota, Florida. With the rigorous demands and pressure of fishing on the Bering Sea, you might expect Travis to take time off enjoying his home in Hawaii, but once again, his passion for adventure has led him to the extreme. Travis has worked in the worst possible conditions at sea, working on deck in 40’ seas, working in heavy freezing spray and icing conditions alongside some of the best in the business. Keith Colburn onboard the F/V Wizard, and is now part of Discovery Channel’s hit reality show, “The Deadliest Catch”. Monte Colburn and in 2002, Travis started working for Capt. Making his first trip to the Bering Sea with Capt. After the military Travis decided to head to the great white north for “the great Alaskan adventure” as a crab fisherman. Growing up with a passion for adventure, Travis joined the Army after high school. “Travis Lofland was born Octoand raised in Northwest Washington. Power 8100 Vortec, Mercury Imco drives, Throttle-up props, Hydro-motive props In the wheelhouse, Andy and Jonathan Hillstrand will have the flexibility to take economy or speed from their new electronically controlled QSK19s as sea conditions require.Here is what Travis drives in Superboat Races: When television viewers see the Time Bandit fighting through the Bering Sea in the upcoming season of “The Deadliest Catch,” they may not be aware of the new engines, but the crew will be a little more confident with the additional propulsion and hydraulic power for their work.

Then we wrapped 30-feet of 5/8-inch plate around the bow to form a nearly one-inch thick steel ice shield.” “Early 2012 was especially bad,” Andy said, “So we cut out the steel hull plate in the forward section and replaced it with new 5/16-inch plate. Over the years, ice in the Bering Sea had taken a toll on the hull plating around the bow. This is handy when tendering in the big tides and shallow waters of Bristol Bay.įor the repower, the original channel coolers built into the hull were replaced with Duramax keel coolers. The flat bottom with a pair of 12-inch steel skegs allows her to sit on the bottom. The 113 by 28-foot hull has an 8-foot draft and the deckhouse is built right aft to the transom.

The Time Bandit is known in the Alaskan fishery as a “power scow”. The Time Bandit ready for another season on the Bering Sea. We got in there with the torque wrenches,” says Andy of the brothers’ trip to the Cummins factory in Seymour Indiana, “The factory people probably checked it all over after we left,” he adds with a laugh, “While at the factory we saw an engine that had been painted red so we got ours painted red also.” And with that request, Cummins began offering red as a paint option on all marine engines, in addition to the company’s traditional marine gray. “We actually helped build one of the engines. But they didn’t just order an engine off the shelf. It was those KTA19 engines that the brothers decided to replace with modern electronically-controlled Tier 2 certified QSK19-M engines. After that pair ran for 48,000 hours we again repowered with a pair Cummins ReCon engines,” Andy explained. We replaced those original engines with a second set of Cummins KTA19 engines. “My dad always used Cummins engines in his boats and so the Time Bandit was built with a set of Cummins. Their father had the boat built in 1991 at Giddings in Charleston Oregon and leased it to his sons with the option to purchase. In the fall of 2012 the three Hillstrand brothers and boat owners, Andy, Jonathan and younger brother Neal, carried out a repower on the Time Bandit. Jonathan Hillstrand adds a part to the new QSK19 while brothers Neal, Scott and Andy look on.Īll of this intense activity is dependent on a set of Cummins engines turning out their reliable power below decks.

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