Festival Boats Continued from 30
Nutmeg 2008
New Rosa 1998
Built at Seal Beach, Calif., we purchased her in 2001 after she’d been vandalized and repossessed. We then moved her “on her own bottom” from San Diego to Bainbridge Island. Her complete history is unknown, but we believe her design dates from the late 1940s or 1950s. Why the boat was constructed so late remains a mystery, but she evidently was never used for commercial fishing but rather as a deep-sea fishing pleasure boat. Pender Island, B.C.
Nutmeg is a Northwest/ Scandinavian interpretation of Herreshoff’s Coquina. She is traditionally built riveted lapstrake. Jim Taylor, Jay Smith and Torgy Torgerson have been building her most every Friday since 2006. She has Alaskan yellow cedar planking, oak frames with sepeli transom stem keel sheer strake and deck. Black locust and teak are also used. Heidi Sawyer fabricated the sails. Jim will sail her in the San Juans and beyond. Anacortes, Wash.
Pax
1936
Built in Denmark in 1936, she is probably of the MSJ Hansen design. Hansen was one of the three most famous Danish Spidsgatter designer/builders. Nicknamed “best buns in the boatyard” during her winter 2007 haul-out, Pax has a lot of adventure soaked into her strong larch pine and oak hull. Thanks to the help of many, many Port Townsend marine trades craftspeople, Pax is now sailing again! Port Townsend, Wash.
1929
Night Wind I 1964
A Frank Fredette classic ketch built in Victoria by Derek Verhey, she is heavily built of 1 1/8-inch western red cedar planking over bent oak frames and a cedar deck, very much like the fish boats of her time. She has galvanized standing rigging, and spruce masts and bowsprit. Gabriola, B.C.
Passat V 1951
NorseBoat 17.5 2008
She’s a high-performance daysailer with classic lines, two rowing stations and comfortable camp cruising accommodations. A twopiece carbon fiber mast carries her signature curved gaff yard. A modest-size deck keeps the cockpit dry, and her wineglass transom can accept a small outboard. Centerboard and rudder both pivot for shallow-draft explorations, and a full size double berth forms in the forward end of the cockpit, enclosed by a tent. Belfast, Prince Edward Island
An allteak ketch built in Germany, she was brought to California in 1953. She subsequently spent 20 years in B.C. waters before returning to the United States, but she is now back in B.C. Named after the famous “P” Line square rigger Passat, she has recently undergone an extensive restoration, as chronicled in the August 2008 issue of Pacific Yachting. Ladysmith, B.C.
32 • 2008 Wooden Boat FestivaL
QuaHog 2 is a Candlefish 16 designed and built by Sam Devlin in 2007. Owner Ken Hooley uses her for fooling around the waterfront with his grandsons. Speed is slightly more than 25 mph at reasonable throttle, and she’s beachable for exploring the shallows. She’s unique amongst power skiffs in having a watertight cargo hold. Bay City, Ore.
1968
In the late ’50s a Tacoma lumber company with a lot of excess plywood staged a design contest for a racer/ cruiser sailboat that amateurs could build in their backyards. Ben Seaborn won with his design for the very fast yet easily built Thunderbird. The Wooden Boat Foundation uses Risa and her sister ship Island Passage for adult sailing classes. Port Townsend, Wash.
2008
1969
Built for the president of the New York Stock Exchange in 1929, Olympus served several owners before silent movie star Mary Stewart brought her to the West Coast. She served the Navy during World War II and was then acquired as a state fisheries patrol vessel, but Washington’s governor commandeered her as the state yacht. When his political opponents discovered what he’d paid for the restoration, he lost the election! Mercer Island, Wash.
2007
Risa
Rosemary
Petunia Olympus
Qua Hog 2
In 1991, I found an 1880s oil-fired bow light in a Mystic antique store, and knew one day it would hang on my own cat boat. The Crosby boat yard had perfected the catboat since 1840. A phone call to Crosby’s yard located Petunia in Oysterville, Maine; two months later, she arrived in California. We spent five years completely restoring Petunia, and we finished the restoration in our Orcas Island barn. She has a bronze wheel and a Kelvin and White deck compass, and of course the bow light I’d purchased back in Mystic in 1991. Eastsound, Wash.
Prudence
Raven 2008
Designed and built by Leif Knutsen of Big Foot Marine, she’s a “proof of concept” vessel I’d like to see manufactured. Her semidisplacement hull form has excellent sea-keeping qualities and fuel efficiency; soft bending moments allow very easy building. Safety is paramount, and all functions can be accomplished from “inside” the vessel. A large section of the transom hinges down to become a swim step. Many “double duty” design features offer versatility and a remarkably large living space in a 29foot vessel. Port Townsend, Wash.
Rosemary is based on a 1915 C . W. B a r rett design for guides on Maine’s R a n g e ley Lakes. The guides needed an easily rowed hull capable of dealing with adverse weather and stable enough for standing fly-casting. We stretched the design to 16 feet so she can be rowed both single and double, with or without a passenger. As in the 1915 design, the passenger is treated to a comfortable seat with removable backrest. The floorboards are easily removed to allow for easy cleaning. Allyn, Wash.
1910
A working tug for 65 years, Sand Man is now listed on the National Historic Register. In 1922, her original owner installed a 100hp Fairbanks-Morse diesel, believed to be one of the first highpower oil engines on Puget Sound. In 1999, the Sand Man Foundation acquired her and hired the Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-op to rebuild her hull and deck. Now 95 percent restored, she was relaunched in September 2005. Tumwater, Wash.
Sea Explorer Unknown
The Anacortes Sea Scouts were given a Great Pelican to work on. Over the winter they cleaned her up and are nearing completion. They will sail her around Anacortes prior to the Festival and intend to sail her on her own bottom from Keystone to the Festival and back. Anacortes, Wash.
Sea Witch 1939
1965
Designed by John Alden, she transited the Panama Canal in 1971 and was in the first Class i c Wo o d e n Yacht Regatta sponsored by PT Sails and WBF in 1984. Rob Jacobs converted her to a stays’l rig with aluminum masts, lightening her rig by 1,000 pounds. Len Skoog ingeniously designed the pilothouse to enhance comfort without detracting from her graceful lines and good visibility. In 2002 she was refastened below the waterline and the entire hull was recaulked by Dave Thompson. Lakebay, Wash.
Sand Man
Sage Retriever 2008
The 8-foot pram has had a long history as a tender to small- or medium-size cruising boats due to its compact size yet excellent carrying capacity. The Humble Bee can accommodate a crew of one to three. The bow transom is small and located well above the waterline, resulting in smoother progress through the water in choppy seas. Allyn, Wash.
2000
Sage was built by Rick Bedard from Jim Michalak’s Jewelbox Jr. design. She has a “Birdwatcher” cabin, providing a large living space on a small boat and gives tremendous reserve stability. Tests proved that Sage will float happily on her side if knocked down and will right herself given the slightest opportunity. Sage’s hull shape conforms to Phil Bolger’s “sea of peas” theory for low resistance. Eugene, Ore.
An Ed Monk Sr. plan No. 509, Sea Witch retains many of her original bronze fittings, fractionally rigged mast and 1960s gas engine. John and Jo Bailey bought her in 1965 and cruised extensively with five kids, a cat and a dog. She remained with Jo for 30 years as she wrote the well-known Gunkholing guides. In 2000, Larry and Nancy Cherry Eifert began restoration. Sea Witch was the “poster-boat” for the 2002 Wooden Boat Festival. Eifert’s paintings of The Witch continue to document her well-publicized life of almost 70 years. Port Townsend, Wash. Continued on 34
Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader