19 minute read
Broker’s Best
BY RANDY WOODS / PHOTOS BY SEATTLE YACHT MEDIA
2018 68’ Hampton Endurance658 LRC
Well-loved and maintained, this like-new Endurance 658 from Worth Avenue Yachts is a real beauty.
Lovingly cared for by its original owners, this 68’ Hampton Endurance long-range cruiser features three staterooms and three heads to comfortably sleep up to six people. While its muscular twin Caterpillar 12.9L marine diesel engines put out 1,000 horses (with just 445 hours of use), countless luxury appointments give the trawler a refined air of grace and stability. Named Mahalo, this Endurance 658 LRC has an open layout on the main deck, allowing clear sightlines through the entire interior, from helm to the stern. Situated on the aft deck is a molded-in settee, fitted with custom upholstered seats. Adjacent and forward is an oval, gloss-finished cherry dining table with compass rose inlay. The aft deck also has access to a day head. Moving forward through a sliding glass door, the salon includes large, frameless windows, allowing natural light to fill the space. Custom-built furniture includes a starboard L-shaped sofa, two port-side upholstered armchairs, and an electric-lift hi-lo table. The entertainment cabinet to port features a 46” Samsung TV on a lift with a Fusion 755 stereo system, a Sony Blu-Ray player, and Polk speakers. Two steps up from the salon is the forward galley, equipped with a heated granite floor and granite counters. GE appliances include an upright Monogram refrigerator/freezer, a four-burner induction cooktop, and an electric oven. Forward of the galley is the pilothouse with Pompanette Platinum Series helm chairs. The helm
boasts a full suite of Garmin electronics, bow thruster controls, and a custom cherry steering wheel. The flybridge deck above features a second, full-control helm area. A large Corian hi-lo table and an L-shaped lounge provides an al fresco entertaining space with a sink, a 30” DCS propane grill, a refrigerator, and an ice maker. Aft of the outdoor galley, a 13’ Walker Bay Generation 400 DLX tender is stored with a Steelhead 1,750-pound capacity davit. Stairs from the pilothouse lead to the cabins below, including a full-beam owner’s stateroom with a king-sized bed and en suite head and shower. The VIP cabin forward has a queen-sized berth, while the port guest cabin has side by side twin beds. Both cabins have shared access to a separate head and shower. Being less than five years old, Mahalo still looks like a brand-new vessel. But it has had some work done to keep it in top condition, including an annual waxing of the hull and topsides. In 2019, both propellers were removed and tuned. In 2020, the entire bottom was painted and Propspeed was applied on the props and running gear. Earlier this year, all zincs on its bottom, engines, and transmission were replaced, and CO2 monitors were replaced in the staterooms. Specs & Info
LOA 68’0” Beam 18’0” Draft 5’2”
Tankage (Fuel/Fresh/Black) 1,750 gal. / 400 gal. / 120 gal.
Engines Twin Caterpillar Combined 100hp Diesels
Contact Worth Avenue Yachts Seattle, WA Scott Hauck 206.209.1920 scotthauck@worthavenueyachts.com worthavenueyachts.com
OH CAPI, MY CAPI
FEATURE PHOTOS BY EMERY HANSELL
OH CAPI, BY NIA MARTIN Four women follow in the wake of Muriel Wylie Blanchet’s The Curve of Time on an inspiring summer journey of self-discovery.
ABOVE: AN EYE IN THE SKY LOOK AT BY ALL MEANS. AT RIGHT: CREW MEMBER ERIN BEAUDOIN STRUMMING AWAY DURING A QUIET MOMENT AT SEA.
CHECKING OFF THE MAINTENANCE TO-DO LIST WHILE IN MOORAGE.
Two weeks into a two-month trip along Canada’s Inside Passage, the fleming, which keeps the rode of the anchor from getting stuck in the pulley, snapped. The 20-something, four-woman crew on By All Means, a North Pacific 28 pilothouse trawler, were literally in a tight spot. “Behind us, there’s this falling down dock that just looks like a safety hazard. And then, on the other side, there’s a reef, and on the other side, there’s a cliffside,” says Uhane Johnson, who served as navigator aboard By All Means, when describing the calamitous moment. “We were working together, trying to communicate to not hit anything, while also pulling up a 30-pound anchor, plus 50 feet of chain.” Ultimately, elbow grease, teamwork, and a milk crate loaned by friends saved the journey— which spanned from Washington’s San Juan Islands to Stuart Island in British Columbia.
The inspiration for that journey—author Muriel Wylie Blanchet—would have been proud. Blanchet, known as Capi (short for Captain), encountered many a tight spot in the Inside Passage and wrote about her adventures in The Curve of Time. The book is a firsthand account of her trips through British Columbia’s waters as a young widow with five children and her dog in tow. Almost 100 years later, Blanchet’s vivid descriptions, fearless independence, and colorful characters still inspire a sense of adventure. It motivated Annie Means to organize her three friends this summer and take to the same waters that Capi sailed in the 25-foot Caprice. Means dreamed about such experiences since her family gifted her the Northwest literary classic at age 14. Originally from West Seattle, she skippered By All Means, which they had access to courtesy of her parents. “We’re very fortunate that they had the lack of common sense to let their kid and three other women use it,” she jokes. “There was something about her; her spirit and her willingness to go against the flow of things I thought was really compelling,” says Means of why she wanted to follow in Capi’s wake. “Since we’ve done the trip, I think we are even more inspired, because we learned this is way harder than we thought it was,” she adds. “She was doing all of this with Captain Vancouver’s logbook, charts, and a compass; and we’re out here with a GPS being like, ‘Hmm, are we in the right spot?’” The women all met and went to school in Walla Walla, Washington, where Means is currently finishing her last year at Whitman College. The rest of the By All Means crew have since left the landlocked eastern Washington town. Johnson, a Lopez Island native, is now working for an organic body products company in Bellingham. Erin Beaudoin, the boat’s human stern thruster hailing from Southern Oregon, now resides in Los Angeles doing business development for space tech startups. Emery Hansell grew up in the Midwest and is currently traveling for her freelance videography. She helped hand pull the anchor and oversaw filming that will hopefully become a documentary. Prior to their June 8th launch from the San Juans, each member acquired their boating license and, between the four, had some EMS experience and Wilderness First Responder certification. Much like Capi’s excursions, the journey was low budget. The women squished themselves and their few belongings into the boat; jamming jackets, Chacos, and denim (all of which became cutoffs) inside designated drawers. The four made do with a 40-gallon water tank, but sometimes spent days cut off from resources, which meant a lot of dips
ANNIE MEANS (SEEN AT THE HELM AND AT RIGHT) SERVED AS THE SKIPPER AND WAS ALSO THE ONE TO GATHER THE CREW FOR THE JOURNEY.
BELOW: IT’S DUNGENESS FOR DINNER. AT RIGHT: EMERY HANSELL TAKES SNAPS DURING A STOP-OVER (PHOTO BY UHANE JOHNSON).
and dishwashing in the ocean. When available, shower prices ranged from 10 loonies (about $10) for a five-minute shower to two loonies for unlimited time. “We’d try to take showers when we found those places. Someone would run up the dock and be like, ‘You guys, deal of the century!’” says Beaudoin. One intention of the trip was to observe the environmental changes between Capi’s sailings and the crew’s experience in 2022. A major difference? The amount of people. “We were never alone. We had a big conversation: ‘Is it even possible to find somewhere that we won’t see anyone for a couple of days?’” says Johnson. “Emery (Hansell) was looking at charts, trying to figure out where that might be. We just decided that it’s not possible anymore, unless we went farther north, because it’s such a trafficked area.” Another difference was fishing access. “There’s a lot of fishing regulations in place, because the area’s been so overfished by commercial vessels that, now to preserve species, the season is closed for a lot of the year,” says Beaudoin. Bivalve harvesting was also off the table with biohazard warnings due to untreated waste and harmful algal blooms proliferating as waters continue to get warmer. This required the group to rely more on groceries and paying to dispose of waste properly. To help lessen their footprint, they used sustainable body products, worked with less water, and utilized a solar panel. A similarity to Capi’s trips that took the crew by surprise was the impact of logging. Now logged twice, the forested landscapes lining their journey have gone from a 100-year rotation to a 70-year rotation. Capi wrote about the logging cycle on her journeys and often tied up to log booms. Today, even amongst the stunning topography, the group could see helicopters removing logs by hook and dropping them into a net. However, one spot from Blanchet’s book that particularly exceeded expectations was Princess Louisa Inlet. “It is awe inspiring,” describes Means, “cavernous walls that have waterfalls cascading from them—and you open up into, what appears like it could be a lake, but it’s all saltwater. It felt like Yosemite—the waterfront version. And it blew my mind completely away.” Despite wondrous surroundings, the crew was conscious of a darker aspect of Capi’s journeys: the treatment of Indigenous communities. “It’s no secret that when you reread The Curve of Time, Muriel Wylie Blanchet was interested in Indigenous cultures, but not necessarily respectful of them,” says Means. “So that’s something that we’re trying to deal with and wrestle with; how do we still respect a woman who we look up to, but also understand that
she was not perfect, and that we need to address some of the wrongdoings that she participated in?” Looking at women in boating then versus now also revealed what has changed—or still needs to. Unlike today, Capi was put in the position of having to choose between autonomy or financial security after the death of her husband. Though the crew’s choices are much less limited, they noticed how few women are still represented in outdoor boating and, if present, were usually with a man as part of a couple. Though most were pleasantly surprised by the group of four women and their travels, reactions from both men and women sometimes veered into sexist territory. “The two questions that we were consistently asked were: ‘Is it just you four on the boat?’ Implying, you know, ‘Where’s your captain? Where’s the man? Where’s the older person?’ And, ‘How are you girls all still friends after living on a boat together?’ Implying that women are catty and can’t cohabitate,” says Means. But cohabitating was smooth sailing, with the group connecting over silly fun and sudden crises alike. Besides the anchor debacle, the crewmembers also rallied together during predicaments such as stormy conditions, a dead battery, the disappearance of their drone for 20 minutes, and bloody gashes from those pesky, razor-like oyster shells—all of which reached satisfactory ends due to the four’s easy camaraderie. In less dramatic moments, the crew passed time by knitting, listening to podcasts, and reading—with books often found at Little Free Libraries. A particular favorite read aloud was Deadman Island by D.W. Ulsterman, the seventh book in the San Juan Islands Mystery franchise. “It’s about a murderous sea lion and a lot of in-island politics,” laughs Beaudoin. “That was a great way to bond.” Additionally, the crew kept busy shooting footage for their documentary, which they hope to have a rough cut of out next summer.
PICNICKING AND CRUISING THROUGH THE IDYLLIC CANADIAN WILDS.
For now, the four are adjusting back into their everyday land lives and the rapid demands of modern life. “Trying to hold on to a little bit of that slow living and relaxation from the boat has been a little tough to reconcile,” says Hansell. That sentiment was shared by the whole group. Upon reflection, a lasting impact of the trip were the people met along the way, from a chance encounter with boat designer Chris Morejohn to befriending worldly retired couples and affable liveaboards. “It was inspiring to have [support] not just from our peers, but also from people that have had a life that has been lived in an unusual way and done so with grace,” says Hansell. “That gave, at least me and I think everybody else, a lot of hope for being able to do the same ourselves.” Towards the end of their journey, the crew found themselves reunited in Pender Harbour with people they’d met along their route. “It was a really nice way to wrap up—share fresh prawns and salmon and veggies, and just have a little dock party with a community we had built in just two months,” says Beaudoin. “That made us all think about how great it would be to go back and do it again.”
>> To keep up-to-date on production details of the forthcoming documentary, or to relive the women’s journey via their social handles, visit: linktr.ee/ capithemovie.
THE FOURSOME’S ADVENTURES SPANNED FROM THE SAN JUANS UP NORTH TO THE DISCOVERY ISLANDS AND BACK.
– Annie Means on Capi Blanchet
REC CENTER
RBAW AND ITS ICONIC EMBLEM LOOM LARGE IN WASHINGTON STATE BOATING.
FROM ADVOCATING PRO-BOATING LEGISLATION TO PRESERVING BELOVED CRUISING GROUNDS, THE RECREATION BOATING ASSOCIATION OF WASHINGTON CONTINUES TO BUOY ITS LEGACY AS A COMMUNITY CORNERSTONE.
THE CIRCA 1960 DEDICATION SIGN ON SUCIA.
PHOTO COURTESY OF MIKE COSTIGLIOLA
Sucia Island, a horseshoe-shaped gem found among the northernmost San Juan Islands, encompasses craggy rocks, sweeping grasses, and towering trees dotting stunning stretches of shoreline. From Shallow to Echo to Fossil bays, the calm, cool waters there have presented boaters with cruising opportunities for decades—a present all made possible by the Recreation Boating Association of Washington (RBAW).
First formed as the Puget Sound Interclub Association and later incorporated as such in 1956, the later-renamed RBAW and its earliest leaders— among whom numbered first president Everett “Ev” Henry of Rainier Yacht Club—worked to save the 814 acres offered by the islands from being heavily developed. The 24 Northwest yacht clubs that served on the founding body rallied to raise $25,000, reportedly half the value of the land at the time. They then purchased the archipelago, and donated it all back to Washington state to be preserved as a park so that boaters for generations to come could— and would—reap the benefits of her beauty. Perhaps the dedication sign that is perched at the head of the dock in Fossil Bay says it best: “Placed in the trust of the state 4-29-60 for yachtsmen forever.” That canny maneuvering in the best interests of boaters still speaks well to the ambitions of RBAW today, as the membership-based, all-volunteer-run organization continues to passionately promote recreational boating within the state through three primary arenas: advocacy, awareness, and conservation. “Sucia was our first claim to fame, and it really exemplifies the vision from our first club leaders for preserving areas for boating in the state,” says current president Bob Wise, who owns several marinas on the Kitsap Peninsula. “Today, our board is made up of similarly like-minded boaters, I’d say passionate boaters from all areas of boating, who are working together to affect change.” One such area where change often manifests is within the legislative halls in Olympia. RBAW employs a full-time advocate, who works with the elected representatives and regulatory agencies on policies that affect the marine pastime, everything from safety to tax issues. “It’s incredibly important to us that we are there to speak up for boaters, to provide a voice, within these sessions,” explains Wise. Case in point: Last year during the budgeting session, RBAW fought alongside the Northwest Marine Trade Association (NMTA) and others to rally against a proposal to double the Watercraft Excise Tax. (Many argued the proposed tax wouldn’t have been fair for boaters as the fees were to go to maintaining roadways, not waterways.) Testifying in committee hearings, RBAW flooded legislators with almost 17,000 messages in disfavor; and the tax failed to pass. More recently, RBAW also helped in a bipartisan push to secure several million dollars in state funding to help rid our waters of derelict vessels, thus tripling the amount directed at that effort. They have also been working closely with Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell to advocate that more resources to be directed at Seattle Harbor Patrol. (Currently just one vessel and 13 staff are responsible for the safety of over 200 miles of Seattle shoreline around Elliott Bay, Lake Union and Lake Washington.) RBAW also works to keep boaters in the loop on the water, too. The organization was the one to spearhead this year’s Mind the Zone campaign on Lake Union,
RBAW IS HELPING US ALL TO #MINDTHEZONE ON LAKE UNION.
which drew attention to the seaplane advisory landing zone and promoted safety awareness among the growing number of boaters, paddlers, kayakers, and others who frequent the lake during the busy summer months. “Lake traffic has increased significantly over the past several years, and it came to light that perhaps many new users weren’t even aware there was an advisory landing zone, or what it meant when those buoys flashed,” says RBAW Vice-President Andrea Pierantozzi, who spearheaded the initiative. “So, we jumped into action to make sure that everyone could share the water safely.” Pierantozzi and her team created a vast social media campaign that featured the catchy #MindtheZone hashtag and included a video that garnered over 350,000 views, rallied area businesses and boating clubs to help spread the word to consumers, and posted signage so that adventurers were aware of the advisory zone before casting off. Similarly, in 2021, when boating access to Andrews Bay in Lake Washington was threatened due to noise complaints from on-shore neighbors and concerned boaters, RBAW members sailed out to the spot on their own vessels and chatted with boaters face-toface, reminding them to be respectful of the shared space. They asked boaters to take a pledge to that effect, and over 1,200 individuals did so. “It all goes back to the theme of what we do and who we are,” says Pierantozzi. “Educating our own, protecting our own, and preserving access to amazing boating.” Which is exactly why RBAW has spent the last two and a half years on a preservation effort that returns them to their roots: On December 28, 2021, the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the association officially closed on the joint purchase of the historic Lakebay Marina located on Mayo Cove in Pierce County. The intent is to restore the iconic property, which includes 2.8 acres of uplands and tidelands as well as the marina facilities, and again turn it over to the state for management as a marine park, just as it was done with Sucia Island in 1960. “It’s an absolute gem in the South Sound and has the potential to be even better
ABOVE: RBAW’S LATEST AND GREATEST VENTURE IS THE RESTORATION PROJECT AT LAKEBAY MARINA.
for boating, another Sucia. The vibe is incredible, you are just a couple of minutes away from the cities, yet feels worlds away,” says Wise, who had been eying the property for years and spearheaded the recent effort. Now that they have possession of the property, the restoration phase has begun. The derelict docks have been removed and prep work has begun to replace them, as well as the fuel dock. RBAW will rehabilitate the building and redo the boat ramp to make it more accessible for vessels, including trailerable ones. Between grants and fundraising efforts, RBAW has raised $2 million towards the effort, but several more million will be needed to complete the project, which Wise estimates will take 2-4 years. “It’s a great project, and it’s something we want to do more of; to keep growing public access to the water, and creating permanent conservancies for boaters,” Wise says. He adds, with a chuckle: “This one took 60 years to find, I sure hope the next one comes along a bit quicker. We’ll certainly be looking.” Wise states that RBAW is actively looking for community help with the Lakebay Marina project —donations can be made on their conservancy website at rbawmarineparksconservancy.org—as well as always looking for new members to join the 11,000-member-strong association. Membership to RBAW is just $20 a year. That fee helps fund all three arms of the association’s efforts, as well gives members perks such as discounts at such businesses as Fisheries Supplies, access to e-newsletters and insider info on issues affecting boaters, invites to activities, and the right to fly the RBAW burgee. “I love putting my heart and soul into fighting for things that are important to us boaters,” says Pierantozzi of becoming involved with RBAW. “We are getting to determine the long-term future of boating and help contribute to its preservation. That’s a pretty incredible legacy.”
>> To learn more about the Recreational Boating Association of Washington, become a member, or donate to their efforts, visit: rbaw.org.
