Shavings Volume 33 Festival 2012

The

C e N T e R fo R Wo o D e N B oATS

Artwork by Anita Lehmann

www.ahldraws.com

S H AV I N G S

Poster Design by Erin Schiedler

www.erinschiedler.com

f e S T I VA L S H AV I N G S Nonprofit Organization U.S. Postage PAID Seattle, WA Permit No. 1583 1010 Valley Street, Seattle, WA 98109-4468 www.cwb.org • 206.382.2628

W The Center for Wooden Boats 1010 Valley St., Seattle, WA. 98109 (206) 382-2628 www.cwb.org Volume XXX11 Number 2, Summer 2012 ISBN 0734-0680 1992 CWB

Our Mission To provide a gathering place where maritime history comes alive through direct experience and our small craft heritage is enjoyed, preserved and passed along to future generations.

CWB Staff Betsy Davis, Executive Director Dick Wagner, Founding Director Eldon Tam, Deputy Director Amy Arrington, Sailing Instructor Shane Bishop, CWB Cama Beach Livery & Facilities Manager Lucy Blue, AmeriCorps/Job Skills Crew Member Support Dan Boyce, CWB Cama Beach Youth Boatbuilding Lead Oliver Davis, Sailing Instructor Steve Greaves, Boat Donations/Sales Manager Joe Green, Lead Boatwright Eric Harman, Cama Beach Boatwrightin-Residence Diana Hennick, Visitor Services Manager Kyle Hunter, Livery & Boatshop Manager Christian Holtz, Sailing Instructor

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Welcome to the 36th annual Lake Union Wooden Boat Festival at The Center for Wooden Boats, where any day on the water is a good day.

Water is wet! That’s a fact. But that doesn’t define the infinite ways water affects our emotions, from a fire-hose-drenching storm to a delicate light mist or even a calm, blue-sky day. Being on the water or being microscopically close to the water gives one long-living memories. Why else are water environments the themes of visual art, literature, songs and music?

CWB has a great investment in water and its effects. Our South Lake Union site is a most vivid place for water-related experiences. One crosses from street level to floating sidewalks one foot above water level. Wind and current are roiling the water and rolling the floats. You are in a unique environment, surrounded by floating traditional buildings and traditional small boats that move with the rhythms of the lake. Just walking on the lake, feeling its pulse is a special encounter.

The waters at our Cama Beach campus on Camano Island offer different dimensions. The tides are the heaving breaths of a giant. A surge of wildlife is in Saratoga Passage. Grey whales scoop up shrimp from the beaches on their migrations. Great Blue Herons daintily step in the shallows. Bald eagles swoop and glide on their own roller coaster. Porpoises and Orcas do gymnastics. The waters in the Passage are ever-changing, a reflecting mirror one moment and then powerful waves from Japan, swishing beach pebbles from before history.

Whether the weather is rain, showers, mist or high-pressure sunny sky, when you walk along the water or, better yet, sail in a small, intimate, human or wind-powered wood boat, you are feeling, hearing, smelling a whole new world.

Andrea Kinnaman, Bookkeeper Dan Leach, Community Engagement Lead/Boatwright Elena Losey, Livery Attendant Chris Maccini, Youth Educator Stephanie Messa, AmeriCorps/CWB Cama Beach Environmental Educator Edel O’Connor, Skills Workshop Program Manager

Dick Wagner Founding Director

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The Center for Wooden Boats is pleased to be part of the community’s 2012 holiday celebrations at Lake Union and is delighted to produce the signature Lake Union Wooden Boat Festival for its 36th year.

This Festival of course is only possible because over 100 generous vessel owners bring their beautiful (and sometimes quirky) wooden boats to share with visitors, and because energetic volunteers graciously fill over 450 volunteer shifts across the five days. It happens because of the vitality of our neighbors and friends: where else can you find a dragon boat barrel race in the United States? Where else can you find a half-dozen National Landmark Vessels in one place at one time, or a mariners’ night with the Mariner’s baseball team?

We’ve enjoyed working with One Reel and KEXP on the new music stage for the evening of July 4th, and appreciate the support from our corporate sponsors. We continue to draw on the time and talents of CWB’s 2,100 members. Dick and I salute all of you, whose individual and collective efforts have created this remarkable event.

Betsy Davis Executive Director

Fes tiv al Shavings Contr ibut or s Dennis Armstrong • Lucy Blue • Ros Bond Betsy Davis • Chas. Dowd • Greg Gilbert Sarah Howell • Andrew Jacobs • Dan Leach Pete Leenhouts • Chris Maccini • Stephanie Messa Mitch Reinitz • Bruce Richardson • Jennifer Senkler Noah Seixas • Zachary Simonson-Bond • Ron Snyder Heidi Trudel • Dick Wagner • Andrew Washburn

F es t iv al S havin gs S t af f Dick Wagner, Editor Edel O’Connor, Managing Editor Erin Schiedler, Special Layouts Judie Romeo, Publications Assistant

Aislinn Palmer, Development Assistant Judith Rickard, Member/Donor Relations John Riley, Nightwatch Mindy Ross, Education Director Kenn Sandell, Finance Director Erin Schiedler, Communications Coordinator Lara Schmidt, Volunteer Coordinator Sāādūūts, Artist-in-Residence Tyson Trudel, Youth Program Coordinator Andrew Washburn, CWB Cama Beach & Historical Projects Manager

Board of Trustees Mark Barnard Alex Bennett Ros Bond Chris Butler Chad Cohen Jim Compton Kay Compton Caren Crandell John Dean Michael Hendrick

Elsie Hulsizer David Loretta Mark Nowlan Lori O’Tool Walt Plimpton Noah Seixas Johnathan Smith Denise Snow Jim Wheat Suzanne Zonneveld

The Lake Union Wooden Boat Festival issue is a special edition of Shavings, the newsletter produced by The Center for Wooden Boats.

Shavings is published several times a year and is one of the many benefits of membership.

CWB encourages members to contribute to Shavings. Articles can be sent either in the body of an email message or as a Microsoft Word file (or delivered on a disk). Photos can be sent in as email attachments in .jpg or .tiff format, minimum 300 dpi. Include captions (naming people and places) and photo credits. Phone editor Dick Wagner at (206)382-2628 to discuss your ideas or email dick@cwb.org.

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Inside This Festival Issue of Shavings: A Story that Surges Like the Sea ....... 3 Legends of the Lake: The Naval Reserve Armory . . . . . . 4 Winifred, My Dreamboat.................. 5 My First Boat .............................. 6 The Size of your Museum Experience ... 7 News from South Lake Union.......... 8-9 The Spirit Still Sails ....................1 0 Restoring the Felicity Ann..............1 1 Learning By Doing, 20 Years Later ....1 2 News from Cama Beach ............ 12 - 13 Upcoming Classes & Events ....... 14 - 15 See Where Sailing Can Take You ......1 6

Junior Sailors ............................1 7 A Danish CWB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 8 News from North Lake Union ............1 9 Ch antey, A P uget S o und C lassic . . . . . 2 0 - 2 1 Just A Theoretical Number .............2 1 The Dawn of Our Evolution ..............2 2 With a Little Help from Our Friends . . . . . . . . 2 3 The Care & Feeding of CWB ....... 24 - 25 CWB Boats for Sale ......................2 6 An Adventuress Adventure ..............2 7 2012 Festival Highlights ................2 8

A Story That Surges Like the Sea B y

The Odyssey, Translation by Robert Fagles, Introduction and Notes by Bernard Knox; 1996, Viking Press, New York; text, 483 pp, notes, 56 pp.

Long before Jack Aubrey, before Horatio Hornblower, before Long John Silver and Jim Hawkins, and before Tom Cringle, there was Odysseus. His is the ultimate sailor’s story, full of monsters, dubious hospitality, trickery, storms, strandings on foreign beaches, and ending with a return to home. His epic, The Odyssey, is attributed to Homer, but he probably set it in its final form from the tales of other, previous bards before it was fossilized in amber like a prehistoric wasp by being written down.

Reading it in Robert Fagles’ translation you get the swing of the poetry, a long rhythm that carries you along like the sea’s surge. That surge is not only ideally suited for a sea story, it makes for surprisingly easy reading. In fact, once you get caught up in it, it’s hard to set down. Bards had to memorize it and its rhythm was an essential aid. So too were its often-repeated phrases: “wine-dark sea”, “rosy-fingered dawn”, “the hollow ships” and all the rest. They were designed to fill out the rhythm of the line but also to drop markers in the bard’s mind, to help him keep his place.

Odysseus, beloved by Athena but exposed to the wrath of Poseidon for blinding his son, Polyphemus, is just a warrior tired of war who wants to get home. The steadfast fidelity of Penelope, the scheming suitors trying to marry for money, and the efforts of his son, Telemachus, to find out what happened to his father are so modern, so much a

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part of today’s headlines, that it’s hard to realize we’re talking about a Bronze Age civilization.

A lot of what makes the book such a pleasant experience is its translation.

Fagles uses no unfamiliar words, never tries to sound “antique” and lets the story speak for itself. There are several other translations of The Odyssey - Lattimore did the one I read in school - but Fagles defends his try at one more, contending

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text and the translator and, says Fagles, all translators are creations of their own time. Their attitudes are a reflection of the mores and attitudes of their generation. For instance, the women in this translation have more prominence simply because women are more prominent now than in the era of Lattimore’s translation. It’s not through any additions or specific modernizations that this more feminine Odyssey emerges, but through a difference in emphasis. After

While the ancient Greek trireme would be no match for today’s cruisers, frigates and destroyers, in Odysseus’s time it represented the best technology available to the ancient Greek navy. Triremes were built for speed and mobility. They were 120’ long and were powered by 170 rowers arranged in three decks. As shown in Dick Wagner’s sketch, the steersman stood high in the stern while lookouts perched in the bow above the waterline battering ram.

that all great epics should be translated anew for every generation.

No classic translation is a word-forword transcription. It would be unreadable to moderns if it was. Translations are the result of a collaboration between the

all, Sir Lawrence Olivier’s Henry V is very different from Richard Branagh’s, even though they’re saying the same lines.

Modern writers keep finding inspiration in The Odyssey. Nikos Kazantiakis (Zorba the Greek/The Last Temptation of Christ)

did a modern sequel; Robert Graves (I Claudius/Claudius the God) wrote Homer’s Daughter, a version where Homer is a young girl, not an old, blind bard. Just two years ago, a new writer, Zachary Mason, wrote an excellent novel titled The Lost Books of the Odyssey. But these are written, hence frozen in amber like the classic.

However, the bardic tradition may not be dead. One of my housemates in the early ‘70s was travelling in Europe with his long-term lady friend. Voyaging by fishing boat, they got to some pretty remote Greek islands where radio reception was dicey at best and television impossible. Sitting in a taverna one evening trying to figure out where they were going to sleep, they noticed a young man in the corner telling a story. A group of men were sitting around him, smoking atrocious Greek tobacco and listening carefully. Occasionally one of the older ones would make some comment - a correction or a suggestion. Che and Betha’s Greek was shaky and the island dialect was unfamiliar, but a month’s travel had given them some stumbling fluency and, as they listened, certain phrases kept emerging.

“Wine-dark sea” was one. So was “wily, far-seeing man.”

The young storyteller was telling The Odyssey as it was meant to be told - aloud and from memory. Athena guard us.

This is the first of a series on maritime classics by Chas. Dowd, perpetual English major, proprietor of the Cold Garage Press and one of the early editors of Shavings.

Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off — then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.

-Herman Melville, The Whale

Shelton-Mason County Journal Publishers and printers since 1886 - proud to print this edition of Shavings

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Legends of the Lake: The Naval Reserve Armory B y

The Armory of the Naval Reserve Center is a looming white building that proudly projects into South Lake Union. It is notable because its size, symmetry and classic proportions dominate the other nearby lakeside structures. It was the pride of the Navy when it was dedicated on July 4, 1941.

The Navy was doubly proud because it didn’t cost them a penny.

Seagoing minutemen have been a part of Seattle since the late 1800s. They originally were recognized as national Naval volunteers and State Naval Militia. On July 1, 1918, they transformed into members of the U.S. Naval Reserve Force.

The reservists of Seattle gathered for training wherever they could find a free space. Initially they used the abandoned Seattle Yacht Club just south of the West Seattle ferry dock. Next they moved to the end of Pier 1 on Elliott Bay. The Reserve moved again to the second floor of the Morrison Hotel in Pioneer Square. By the early 1930s our gypsy sailors were based on the Canadian National Dock, near Yesler Avenue.

Having at last found a dock space, the reservists acquired the USS Eagle #57 for training. This ship was affectionately called the “Pickle Boat” after the famous Heinz 57 variety of food products, mainly pickles. The Canadian National Dock was close to the city steam plant, which left Eagle 57 besmirched with soot. The reservists were spending too much drill time just cleaning their ship rather than doing more military trainings.

The disconsolate sailors started looking for an alternative moorage site for Eagle 57. In 1935 they discovered an old unused sawmill on the south end of Lake Union.

The mill’s wharf could readily handle their training vessel. The site was the former

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location of David Denny’s Western Mill, which he had opened in 1882. The reserves discovered that the wharf and five adjoining lots were now city property. They soon began negotiating with the city.

The City of Seattle has an enviable track record of recognizing opportunities to turn lemons into lemonade. Their South Lake

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The reservists simply would not let their dream die. They created a corporation, the Seattle Naval Reserve Associates, and negotiated again with the City to give them approval to find the funding to make their dream a reality. The City agreed and leased the property to them for 10 years. The lease fee was $10.

The former Naval Reserve Armory in Lake Union Park now bears the name of its new tenant, the Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI). The Armory was the last base of Naval Reserve Seattle. For 60 years, sailors trooped through its classrooms and a variety of vessels moored alongside.

– photo: Edel O’Connor

Union site was an embarrassing mess and the City had no money to fix it up. So, with arm-twisting by the Naval Reservists, on October 3, 1935, Seattle issued a deed to the U.S. government for the Lake Union wharf and five adjoining lots. The deed stated the Federal Government had the right to build a Naval Reserve Center on the site, but only if construction commenced within two years.

That didn’t happen. Our Federal government was too busy building new ships for the U.S. Navy and put the Seattle project on the bottom of their priority pile.

To get a jump-start on the project, the reservists liberated a supply of lumber and building materials from Fort Flagler, the Army Artillery base on Marrowstone Island at the entrance to Puget Sound. They brought it all to Lake Union in barge loads.

Unfortunately the City was not pleased with their efforts to build without a permit. The Navy reservists handed over their spoils to the Army at Fort Lawton and tried a new strategy.

The Association knocked on doors of the Port of Seattle, State Legislators, State Governor Martin and the U.S. Congress and Senate. Warren Magnuson, representing Washington in the House of Representatives, was an enthusiastic supporter. They talked with a great many people and finally reached an agreement with the Federal Government to build the Armory through the Works Program Administration (WPA).

An article in the July 4, 1937, Seattle Post Intelligencer announced that the Reserves would have their dream come true: “The building will be located at the foot of Terry Ave. N. and will house units of the Naval Reserve, Marine Corps Reserve and Sea Scouts.” The project would cost $75,000.

“Naval Reserve and Sea Scout boats will have moorage alongside the Armory.”

Apparently the project was not ready to begin in 1937. The P-I of August 29, 1939, stated that the Reserve Center would now cost $340,000 of which the 150’x200’ Armory could be built for $250,000. The WPA share had escalated to $125,740.

Washington State would contribute $146,250 and Seattle had given an in-kind donation of the land, assessed at $75,000. The Armory was designed by Seattle-based ScottishAmerican architect Benjamin Marcus Priteca, nationally known for his high-quality auditoriums and movie theaters.

During World War II, additional land was purchased and wooden barracks were constructed. An octagonal concrete platform was installed on the west side of the site, projecting into Waterway #3. An antiaircraft gun was mounted on the platform and obviously served well in keeping enemy aircraft from attacking the base.

A classroom building, called Neptune Hall, was built in 1957. It was designed

by Seattle architect Paul Thiry, who also designed the Key Arena building for the 1962 World’s Fair. In addition to Eagle 57, the Reserve Center was homeport for the Destroyer Escort USS Romback and the fleet submarine USS Bowfin, plus innumerable patrol craft and minesweepers. The Bowfin was a great public attraction in the 1950s. She is now on exhibit at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

The Navy decided it no longer needed a Reserve Center in Seattle and it had a Disestablishment Ceremony on September 26, 1998. It was similar to a ship’s decommissioning ceremony. The various officers connected to the Reserve Center offered appropriate remarks; at the end, the colors were lowered for the last time.

When the Navy officially turned the Armory over to the city on July 4, 2000, it was given with a condition: the landmark building would remain on its site as a testimony “to the strength, perseverance and dedication of all the Naval Reservists who have served with pride in Seattle” (from the Disestablishment Ceremony program).

Excerpted from Legends of the Lake by Dick Wagner, from a chapter based on interviews with the late Tom Sandry, a founding member of the Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society. The book is available in the CWB Store in the Boathouse or email store@cwb.org

MOHAI Moving In The Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI) will begin opening festivities in its new South Lake Union home with a preview party scheduled for Saturday, December 29, 2012. Other opening events will be announced closer to the opening date.

MOHAI’s move to the former Naval Reserve Armory at South Lake Union has been several years in the making and a year in execution. Crews finished the interior reconstruction of the Armory building a couple of months ago and the flow of artifacts from MOHAI’s Montlake location and the complex development of exhibits began.

Both interior construction and exhibit development have been available to the public to watch through MOHAI’s “construction cam” 24-hours-a-day. The camera was on as the iconic hydroplane Slo-Mo-Shun IV was raised to hang halfway up to the fourth-level clerestory windows and other exhibits began to make their way through the doors.

The Montlake museum location remained open through the first week in June, when a “Farewell Montlake” celebration – and a drawing for two tickets to the preview party - was scheduled before that location closed for good and the move went into high gear. The camera’s watchful eye continues to oversee the activity; to see what’s going on, go to www.seattlehistory.org and, under the Explore MOHAI heading, click construction camera.

Up-to-the-minute information on the museum’s opening schedule at South Lake Union also will be available in the MOHAI booth at the Lake Union Wooden Boat Festival.

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Winifred, My Dreamboat B y

I first spotted Winifred more than 30 years ago, in covered moorage behind Morrison’s fuel dock near the Fremont Bridge on Lake Union. I stared at her longingly, but she seemed to look away.

After all, she was “kept” by the Morrison family for more than 25 years.

At the time I owned a beautiful 36’ 1930 Blanchard standardized cruiser, Mer-Na, and she was all the boat I could handle - or afford. Our young family had spent summers on her, cruising north to the San Juans and Desolation Sound.

But after eight years with Mer-Na, family priorities intervened. The kids were growing up and we needed a bigger house, so we bid farewell to our old girl and stood on the shore for 15 years. In all that time, I never forgot Winifred and her graceful lines. At 46 feet, she was 10 feet longer than Mer-Na, with a roomy teak pilothouse and tons of space below.

When Winifred came up for sale, I felt it was time to seize the opportunity. It took almost six months of negotiation, but at last, in August 2000, I became the new owner - make that caretaker - of a 1926 Lake Union Dreamboat.

As those with a passion for wooden boats know, projects have a way of taking more time and money than you first calculated. Winifred was no exception.

She remains a work in progress.

Although I have done extensive upgrades to the shore power wire wiring and to the galley and head areas as well as totally restoring Winifred’s shore boat, Fred, with teak seats and floorboards, my vision is to have her completely restored by 2015.

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With Winifred’s roomy interior, she has been a dockside gathering place for friends and family as well as classic yacht owners and enthusiasts. The record onboard is 33 people. Over the years, she has hosted countless precious family moments, including the weddings of two of my sons.

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Leopold Schmidt, who had founded the Olympia Brewing Company.

Winifred was built in Seattle by Lake Union Machine and Dry Dock Co. in 1926 as a stock cruiser under the trade name “Lake Union Dreamboat”. Her price tag new: $5,125. She has stayed in the Pacific Northwest all her life.

Still waters mirror the elegance of the 46’ Lake Union Dreamboat, Winifred, as she rides at a mooring.

-photo: Greg Gilbert

And she never tires of welcoming visitors at wooden-boat events. Proud but never pretentious, she offers a window in time, a living reminder of the history and craftsmanship of a bygone era.

A little history: Otis Cutting of the Lake Union Dry Dock Co. designed Winifred for Adolph and Winifred Schmidt of Olympia, Washington. Mr. Schmidt and his brothers succeeded their father,

Winifred is planked with Alaskan yellow cedar below the waterline and vertical grain Douglas fir above the waterline. The planks are 1 ¼” thick and are fastened to 1” x 2” steam-bent oak frames. The pilothouse is solid Burmese Teak.

In 1928, Mr. Schmidt became interested in predicted log racing and established the first “Capitol-To-Capitol” race from

TH 4 O Y F JULY P P A H !

Thank you to Presenting Sponsor Starbucks and Major Sponsors Microsoft and The Seattle Chamber for an Independence Day fireworks display like no other.

Olympia, Washington, to Juneau, Alaska.

About 10 boats from various Northwest yacht clubs entered the race. To learn more about predicted log racing, Mr. Schmidt corresponded with Charles F. Chapman, then editor of MotorBoating magazine in New York and author of “Seamanship, Piloting and Small Boat Handling”. Mr. Chapman traveled to Olympia and rode aboard Winifred as an observer in the race.

Winifred, representing Olympia Yacht Club, was the winner of the race in the over 40’ class with the lowest margin of error. [Ed. Note: Predicted log racing is a contest for motor-powered boats where each skipper attempts to most accurately predict the time it will take to navigate a specified course in their boat.]

A comfortable yacht in both calm and heavy weather, Winifred cruises at a little over 8.5 knots and her four-cylinder 4-53 Detroit Diesel burns about 2¼ gallons of fuel per hour. Winifred is now my floating home and the object of my constant attention (or should I say, obsession) .

Greg Gilbert grew up in Olympia, Washington, where he enjoyed boating with his parents. He got his start in photography at Olympia High School a n d t h e n a t O l y m p i a ’s O l y m p i a n newspaper. Since 1967, he has been a staff photographer for The Seattle Times.

In 1979, he restored the 36’ Blanchard cruiser, Mer-Na, to award-winning acclaim.

Seattle’s fireworks proudly presented by

with major support from

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My First Boat B y

I’m not positive of the year but I certainly will never forget the experience of getting my first wooden boat. I believe I was about 14 years old, which would have made the year 1949. Our family always spent a month at our summer home on Sebago Lake, about 25 miles from Portland, Maine. It was on Sebago where my long association with wooden boats began.

We always had boats on the beach, wood of course since that was all there was in those days. There was a traditional Old Town canoe as well as a classic doubleended Maine Guide rowboat. In those days, the rites of passage for a young boy in Maine were measured by which boats they had earned the right to use. First came the need to be able to swim, but once the swimming test was behind you the first level of boating skill at our house was to learn to row the old Maine Guide Boat. That was a lot of fun, but what was even more fun was to progress to using the double-ender with a little ¾ hp Evinrude hooked on to a special bracket on the stern. That required a special, long-distance swimming test!

The rowboat with motor didn’t go very fast but it sure beat rowing and it meant you could venture farther afield. And so I grew up using this traditional lake boat and in it I experienced the thrill of independence and the fun of getting out on the water. But, for a young teenager, there had to be something bigger and faster!

A short way down the lake from our house was another family summer home that had been in the Stroud family about as long as our place had been on the lake.

There was always a bunch of kids there so it wasn’t unusual for me to spend a lot of time

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in and around their place. During my earliest visits to their house, I discovered that they had in one of their boathouses a classic, 17’ double-planked mahogany runabout. Every year, as I was growing up, I would sneak back into the boathouse to see if it was still there. And every year it puzzled me why the Strouds never put the boat in the water. It just sat there begging to have some attention - at least I thought so. It became a subject of much thought on my part as it had become my dream boat.

This lovely old boat languished in the

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boathouse for years. About the time I was 13, it became obvious - at least to me - what I needed to do. One night during the winter I asked my Dad if he thought that Mr. Stroud might sell me the boat. Of course my Dad said he had no idea, but that the only way I would find out would be to ask Mr. Stroud myself.

Though he had always been friendly to me, he was always a very imposing older gentlemen and the thought of getting up the nerve to ask him the question was quite a challenge. Fortunately, I had a few months

(above left) A young Ros Bond (left) and the family handyman, ready to haul his first boat at the end of the summer to put it in the garage. (above right) Ros (on the bow) and his friend, Tom, in the “most wonderful two-cockpit, double-planked, modified v-hulled mahogany runabout any kid could ever hope to have”. (right) The most wonderful runabout rests on the hard awaiting another summer of adventures.

– photos: Ros Bond family albums

before our summer vacation to work on courage-building.

When an obstacle gets between you and your dream you have only two choices and, in this case, the lure of the dream won out.

The next summer, after I had been at the lake several weeks, I finally figured the time had come so I gathered myself up and set off down the lake for the Stroud place. When I knocked on the door Mr. Stroud, much to my amazement, opened the door and asked what he could do for me. I stammered that I had a question I would like to ask him so he invited me into his living room, sat me down and said, “How can I help you?”.

“Well, Mr. Stroud, I have noticed over the years that you never use the old runabout that is in the boathouse over by the back cove and I wondered if you would ever consider selling it? I would love to buy it and fix it all up.” He lowered his head and raised his eyebrows and kept me in suspense a few seconds before looking me in the eye and saying, “I might be willing to do that”.

I was overjoyed but I still needed to find out the price. So I asked him how much he might want for it and he said, “How much have you got?” (It was years later that I realized what a smart and considerate person he was for asking that simple question.)

“Well sir, I have been able to save up about a $100 from my paper route and doing odd jobs.”

“That’s about the price I had in mind.”

As I recall he stuck out his hand and we shook on the deal. And that was the beginning of my messing around in boats – wooden, of course!

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Epilogue: The next challenge was that the boat was in the Stroud boathouse in Maine. So, that fall, my Dad rented a small flatbed trailer and we went back up to Maine and loaded the runabout onto the trailer and took it home to our backyard. Over the winter and into the spring, I scraped and sanded and caulked and then painted and varnished, and varnished, and varnished and finally remounted all the hardware after it had been carefully polished.

That next summer in Maine I was the owner of the most wonderful two-

cockpit, double planked, modified v-hulled mahogany runabout that any kid could ever hope to have. For the next 10 months, I continued to work hard at my various jobs and saved up enough, with a little help from my parents, to buy a rebuilt Evinrude 22.5 hp Speeditwin outboard, similar to the one that is on display outside the CWB Boathouse.

Since that first experience, I also have owned and maintained a 45’ Bill Gardendesigned teak-hulled sloop, as well as a 17’ Thompson lapstrake runabout, which I still own.

An interesting sidebar to all of this is that, in the years following my introduction to wooden boats, the Stroud family became a key player in establishing the Outward Bound program, which provides teenagers with challenging experiences beyond the norm. I think they started with me!

CWB Board Member Ros Bond grew up in Yonkers, New York, and spent his career in health insurance, healthcare administration and management. He has served as President of Safeco Life Insurance Company, CEO of United Healthcare Corporation (a Safeco subsidiary) and CEO of Preferred Health Systems Inc. But all of that pales in comparison to his reputation as the Chef of the famous group pancake breakfasts he has donated to the CWB Auction for years.

Charlie Olsheski, Ed Monk’s Four Forms, and the Size of Your Museum Experience B y

Just after the launching of The Center for Wooden Boats, when we were little more than a finger pier in a temporary mooring, we published a monograph on one of Puget Sound’s indigenous craft, the Poulsbo boat. When it was ready to go to press, someone discovered that the builder’s plans were missing a frame station. Sitting around the table in Dick Wagner ’s houseboat, the publication committee was well-nigh frantic. But Charlie Olsheski, a veteran builder of vast skill and long experience, was unperturbed.

“You guys are always so worried about a frame or two,” he told us. “When I worked for Ed Monk, he had four boatbuilding forms. If a client wanted a 40-foot boat, he’d have us move ‘em apart. If the client wanted a 30-foot boat, we’d move them closer together.

Those are good boats - many of ‘em still floating.”

It strikes me that Ed Monk’s four forms are a good metaphor for the museum experience CWB offers. Like Ed Monk’s builders, you can take whatever we offer and spread it out to build a 40foot experience or move it closer together for a 20-foot experience - whatever size you and your family want.

Starting out at 20 feet As for me, I was a member of CWB before it existed, renting Whitebear Skiffs from our Emeritus Director Dick Wagner’s Old Boathouse. It became my summer dating custom to take young women on a row through the Montlake Cut and out to the Arboretum for a picnic.

One - only one - asked on the way back whether she could row. I wasn’t born yesterday; in under a year we were married.

When it came time to have our own rowing boat, I had taken enough classes in woodworking, oar making, casting, and other maritime arts to know that I was no boatbuilder. But, through CWB, we found a builder who crafted us a wonderful one.

Along the way, he introduced us to the lumber dealer (a CWB member) who sold us the spruce it was built from, to the man who made the copper nails and rivets that held it together (another member), and he walked us to the location of where the honey locust had grown that yielded the crooks for our boat’s knees and the planks for her transom.

We spent many, many happy days rowing The Lady Deb. (Any man whose wife will not only let him buy a boat but also will help him row it would be several kinds of a fool not to name it for her.) In South Sound, up in the San Juans, up rivers, around islands, and through water where no other boats, save kayaks and canoes, could go, we saw nature in carload lots. That led to memberships in The Nature Conservancy and the Audobon Society.

Adding a few more feet Since I’m a writer, in the early days of CWB I took over the editorship of Shavings. It gave me an excuse to spend time with old builders such as Charlie, old fishermen such as Dan Dygert, and old machinists such as Deb Harrington.

I interviewed people who lived with the First Peoples such as Steve Philipp or who studied their art such as Professor Bill Holm. I got to know true artists such as Marty Loken, master photographer,

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and Saäduüts, master canoe maker. I even invented a character: Wembly, the world’s greatest ex-sailor and a man trying to be a boat owner under a maritime curse so dire it made the captain of the Titanic look like a man stopping off for ice cubes.

Crafts such as bronze casting, woodworking, knot-tying, or varnishing are only learned from craftspeople. Some things - physics, chemistry, history, and math - you can learn from books, but arts and crafts you must learn by working with artists and craftspeople. Tying a double-wall knot using Ashley’s Book of

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the development of the hand, the hand drove the evolution of the mind. Gestalt psychology contends that the mind is visual; that we see something such as a boat or an oarlock casting or a transom as a totality, but it is the hand’s task to break it down into its buildable units in a regular process. It strikes me that this creates a habit of thought that is darn useful to have in a lot of activities.

You can help design your own experience Through the years, the burgeoning CWB has added a lot of programs or features, many of them based on ideas

from volunteers. At our second boat festival, I recruited some rowers and three rowing boats, put on a carpenter’s apron to hold donations, and began our water taxi. Other volunteers started a program that takes wheelchair-bound people for sails.

C W B ’s p o p u l a r, a w a r d - w i n n i n g SailNOW! learn-to-sail program began as a volunteer idea. Workshops are staffed by volunteer teachers. Several volunteers changed the Boathouse interior walls from a static museum to a maritime art gallery. The bank to the south of our site was planted by two elderly gardeners who went up and down its steep slopes hanging on to ropes.

These folks all created their own museum experiences. As the proud owner of a 35’ museum experience, I can only say that you can do it too.

ADULT SAILING SKILLS ·COLD MOLDED BOATBUILDING· INTRODUCTIONTO SHARPIES · LOFTING · HALF-MODEL MAKI · CELESTIAL NAVIGATION · CARVING · YOU SAILING · PAINTING · SAFE BOATING SKILL · CAPTAIN’S LICENSING RACING · Chas. is aCLASS “plank owner”· of The Center for Wooden Boats. When his wife and SPINNAKERS · NAUTICAL stroke oarPHOTOGRAPHY· had to give up rowing, he swallowed the anchor and ashore ALEUT IKYAK BUILDING · NORWEGIAN PR has become the proprietor and chief pressman of the Cold Garage Press, a BUILDING · WOMEN’S WOODWORKING · handset letterpress shop. He says that one of these days, he’s going to print a ENGINE THEORY · FAMILY BOATBUILDING broadside for CWB to sell.

BRONZE CASTING · DOCKING UNDER SAI SHORE SCHOOL · ADULT SAILING SKILLS · MOLDED BOATBUILDING· INTRODUCTIO SHARPIES · LOFTING · HALF-MODEL MAKI Historic boats and hands-on experience come together in CWB’s SailNOW! Program.

The proper technique for bending on a sail is just one of the many skills first-time sailors · CELESTIAL NAVIGATION · CARVING · acquire in the acclaimed learn-to-sail program.

The instructor and student are working on a Blanchard Jr. Knockabout, a 1930s sloop built on the shores of Lake Union.

YOUTH SAILING · CASTING · SAFE BOATIN Knots is well-nigh impossible, but spend SKILLS· STITCH & GLUE BOATBUILDING · 10 minutes with master rigger Brion Toss and, though it may still not be easy, it’s RACING · LEARN · LOFTING · ALEUT IKYAK a heckuva lot easier than doing it out of a book.

UILDING · SOMETHING · BRONZE CASTIN Taking a good marine photograph by ROWING · SAILNOW! · NEW · WOODWOR reading a technical guide is just possible, but it’s a lot easier - and the results will be ILDING · CAULKING · AT CWB! · WOMEN better - if you do as I did and spend a day in a class taught by with Marty Loken, WOODWORKING · DIESEL ENGINE THEOR who taught me techniques I turned into photos that got published.

FAMILY BOATBUILDING · DOCKING UNDE And do you know anyone who learned sailing from a book? The sound of SAIL · ADULT SAILING SKILLS · COLD MOLD the wind in the sail and the hull in the water, the feel of the rudder and the pull BOATBUILDING · INTRODUCTION TO SHA of the sheet are all essential parts of HALF-MODEL MAKING · CELESTIAL NAVIG sailing and only another sailor and some serious hands-on time can help you put · CARVING · YOUTH SAILING · SAFE BOATI it all together. In a world where so much of our day-to-day is mediated through SKILLS · CAPTAIN’S LICENSING CLASS · R electronics, it’s nice to do something that

· SPINNAKERS · NAUTICAL PHOTOGRAPHY· AL IKYAK BUILDING · NORWEGIAN PRAM BUILD WOMEN’S WOODWORKING · DIESEL ENGINE FAMILY BOATBUILDING · BRONZE CASTING · UNDER SAIL · SHORE SCHOOL · ADULT SAILIN ·COLD MOLDED BOATBUILDING· The Center for INTRODUC SHARPIES · LOFTING · HALF-MODEL WOODEN BOATSMAKING Seattle & Camano Island, WA · YOUTH CELESTIAL NAVIGATION · CARVING WWW.CWB.ORG 206-382-2628 · PAINTING · SAFE BOATING| SKILLS · CAPTAI LICENSING CLASS · RACING · SPINNAKERS · N PHOTOGRAPHY· ALEUT IKYAK BUILDING · NO PRAM BUILDING · WOMEN’S WOODWORKING

is direct and immediate.

Adding a pilothouse If CWB was just about preserving an antique way of life, it would have only a limited application, but learning crafts is an effective way to build a creative mind. Learning handcrafts trains what the 18th Century Scottish theologian and physician Charles Bell called the “intelligent hand.” He posited that this intelligent hand was a vital driver of the mind. Think about it. Have you ever known a stupid craftsperson, be they potter, weaver, boatbuilder, carpenter or metalsmith?

In this century, Steven Pinker of Harvard contends that, as evolution drove

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Awards for Archaeology Project By

The ongoing Lake Union Underwater Archaeology project has received more state and local awards.

In May, King County Executive Dow Constantine hailed the work of Founding Director Dick Wagner and the volunteer team working with The Center for Wooden Boats to find and document the history of wrecks on the bottom of Lake Union. CWB was presented with one of the 2012 John D. Spellman Awards for Exemplary Achievement in Historic Preservation in a ceremony at the historic Old Redmond Schoolhouse Community Center in Redmond.

“As John Steinbeck wrote in The Grapes of Wrath, ‘How do we know it’s us without our past?’ I salute those who honor and preserve our history – it is only upon a strong foundation that we can build our future,” said Constantine.

“It’s pleasing to be recognized because that helps more people find out about the Lake Union Underwater Archeology Project,” said Wagner. “It also helps us continue to network and find others who are interested in the history that lies on the bottom of Lake Union and may want to help out on the project.”

The Lake Union Archaeology project has been coordinated by The Center for Wooden Boats, with the help of more than 40 individuals, government agencies, organizations, institutes and corporations. The goal has been to identify and interpret the inside of Lake Union.

“We see the lake as a cultural and natural museum that is only now being recognized. We are following museum protocols and appropriate laws of underwater

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archaeology” said Wagner. “In the end the goal is to give Lake Union the identity it deserves, which may be the basis for community stewardship of the lake.”

The award is named in honor of former Washington Governor John D. Spellman (King County Executive 1969-1981) who established the County’s Historic Preservation Program 32 years ago.

Also in May, the Maritime Documentation Society (MDS) was the recipient of a State Historic Preservation Officer’s Award for Outstanding Achievement in Historic Preservation. The special achievement award recognized MDS “for its work to explore and document the remains of sunken vessels on the floor of Seattle’s Lake Union.”

In the award presentation, it was noted that “core MDS members Dan Warter, Erik Foreman and Chris Borgen, working with the Underwater Archaeology Project, have been leading scuba diving teams to survey the lake bottom searching for submerged historic sites. Donating their own time, equipment, and funds to the project, the team has systematically and meticulously mapped and documented more than 40 sunken vessels and objects.

While recording information about these resources, the MDS divers have taken care to leave the sites undisturbed in order to protect their integrity and educational value about the region’s maritime heritage.”

The award was presented to the recipients by Washington State Historic Preservation Officer Dr. Allyson Brooks at a ceremony held in Olympia during the annual National Historic Preservation Month celebration.

CWB Founding Director Dick Wagner (left) and John Goodfellow, a member of the Lake Union Underwater Archaeology Project steering committee, accepted the John D. Spellman award for Exemplary Achievement in Historic Preservation.

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A Great First Year!

By

The inaugural year of CWB’s Job Skills Training Program has been completed and what a great year it was! Thanks to funding from the Russell Grinnell Memorial Trust, last October CWB welcomed 10 young adults from low-income or underserved backgrounds as Job Skills Crew Members, six to our South Lake Union location and four to Cama Beach on Camano Island.

Crew Members participated in all areas of CWB’s operations. They gained handson experience maintaining CWB’s fleet of historic boats and acquired on-the-water skills in power, sail and row boats. This winter, the Crew Members at South Lake Union built an umiaq (a native skin-onframe boat) while at Cama the Crew was planning a June launch of their Mojean skiff built from lines they took from a historic vessel at the beach.

J o b S k i l l s Tr a i n i n g i n c l u d e s opportunities for Crew Members to learn about careers in the maritime trades through field trips and guest speakers. They have visited places such as Jensen Motor Boat Co. in Seattle and Emerald Marine in Anacortes, Washington. They also have hosted speakers from diverse commercial maritime backgrounds including Icicle Seafoods, Western Towboat, Holland America Line and NOAA. These speakers all have been willing to share stories about

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how they got into their careers and offer pointers to the Crew Members.

Job Skills participants also work with CWB’s education staff learning to write resumes and cover letters, how to job search and how to do an interview. Crew Members are not required to have an interest in maritime careers; the basis of the program is to help them prepare for whatever field they’d like to enter. Some of the most important job skills they learn are things such as showing up on time and finishing any project they start. In addition to gaining valuable experience, Crew Members are paid a modest hourly wage for their time.

The goal of Job Skills Training at The Center for Wooden Boats is to provide Crew Members with the experience, education and resources necessary to create positive change in their lives beyond CWB. Looking back at our first year, the program has been both a lot of fun and a great success.

AmeriCorps Member Lucy Blue is CWB’s Job Skills Crew Member Support person.

She considers Seattle a tropical paradise after time spent fishing in Alaska with her dad.

The CWB Pavilion at South Lake Union has been a busy place as Job Skills Training Crew Members and their trainers built one boat and repaired others during the pilot year of the program. Working on the CWB El Toro fleet, at top, are (left to right) Lucy Blue, Angela Ness, Troy Joey, CWB Youth Educator Chris Maccini, Jasmine Villfuerte and Nick Otto. Showing off the in-progress umiaq are Angela Ness, Nick Otto, Chris Forte, Troy Joey, Lucy Blue, Myron Walker, CWB Youth Program Coordinator Tyson Trudel, Alex Taylor and Chris Maccini.

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The Spirit Still Sails B y

I love five-day festivals. I get a chance to leave my own boat to hear some epic restoration stories. I’m flat out awed by the stories and photos behind older boats; maybe this is because wooden boats are like children - they always look like way too much work when they belong to somebody else.

Or maybe it’s because these are the lucky boats. For every exquisite vessel on these docks, there are stories we won’t hear, boats that nobody put back together again.

And behind all the endless reasons why projects fail, there lurks the sticky question: how do you know when a wooden boat is past saving? It can be hard to tell. I’ve learned that you can throw everything you have at an old hull, trying to bring a dying sweetheart back to life, but by the end of the restoration she’s mysteriously departed anyway and you are left with a brand-new boat and the job of finding a new name.

My boat is a Yankee One Design.

From the first time I sailed a Yankee, I was smitten. There were two at The Center for Wooden Boats when I arrived in 1996. My first day as a CWB sailing instructor, I tagged along on a lesson on Yankee Clipper. It was a 30’ racing boat with a cockpit big enough for half a dozen students, a deckhouse low enough for them to see over, and a helm so balanced they had the illusion of sailing well on their first lesson. I only noticed it felt right. I absently watched the students sail while Vern, the other instructor, chatted. As we headed back to CWB, he asked me to take us in.

So I took that rocket ship down a narrow channel with a north wind at our backs and I fell in love as she spun on her axis for me, then coasted a few boat lengths into a clear spot on the dock, her big white sails billowing overhead. A flurry of dockhands snubbed lines to stop her - and I wanted to do it again.

W. Starling Burgess anonymously designed the Yankee class in 1937, the

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year his famous J Class Yacht Ranger won the America’s Cup. The irony is that Ranger’s long graceful overhangs helped crystallize for sailors what a racing boat should look like. So when the Yankee’s lines were displayed at Edgartown that summer, its relatively plumb bow looked wrong. Sailors scoffed at the half model.

Meanwhile, Burgess personally oversaw the construction of the first Yankee, but

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wonderful little secret among racers than the popular class that Burgess had set out to create.

For as Burgess noted, “handsome is, as handsome does”, and his Yankee sails like a dream. The design is unbeatable in heavy weather. Yankee sailors tell stories of how, in a good stiff blow, she’ll separate herself from boats of similar length with open water and a horizon. If her revolutionary

Yankee Venture racing with the rails in the water and the Golden Gate bridge in the background.

- photo: Diane Beeston, 1966

because he’d contractually agreed to remain anonymous, he was powerless to properly launch his new class. It would be almost two years before anyone ordered a Yankee from a boatyard, and then came World War II. Altogether, there were about 40 Yankees built, mostly postwar. The class became a “sailor’s sailboat” - more of a

profile hadn’t made her such an ugly duckling at birth, or if her famous designer had been free to sign his name beside her lines, I’m sure there would be hundreds of Yankees currently sailing all over the world.

However, there are only a handful of these marvelous daysailers still in good condition. When Yankee #36 Venture came up for sale, she was sinking from a hole in her planking and needed a new transom.

Maybe I was wearing rose-colored glasses while looking at a boat at the end of her lifespan, but I believed she could be saved.

I spoke to some boatbuilders who agreed.

We drafted a restoration plan and I bought her.

Well, it turns out I was wrong. And as Venture’s last owner, I struggled with why she had to be retired while other boats could be restored. For starters, I’ve realized the Yankee class itself wasn’t designed for longevity. Racing boats typically have small, lightweight frames and the Yankees, which are a particular joy in heavy weather, often were sailed hard. This meant broken frames. Decades of racing in the San Francisco Bay had broken nearly every frame on Venture; many of her sisters were broken as well. She sported so many triplets that there was barely planking between them in places.

Our first goal was to stabilize the boat, which we accomplished with a substantial chunk of work that first year, replacing the transom along with every floor and frame aft of the cockpit, 13 long planks, all the floors under the maststep, the cabin face, some trim and, of course, paint, varnish, and new sails. She looked and sailed like a different boat and, though I knew more work was in the near future, my plan was to tackle this restoration in stages. That made financial sense and, frankly, an eightmonth haulout felt like enough. I wanted to balance boat work with sailing. I’m glad I did. I had some great years sailing Venture; if we’d torn her apart at the start, I would have missed that.

Eventually, I also learned that some of Venture’s woes stemmed from her dissimilar fasteners, and some was just bad luck. She was built in 1949 with WWII surplus materials and, to save money on fasteners, bronze was used below the waterline and iron on the topsides. Later on, refastening added stainless steel to the mix.

The boat is rumored to have sunk twice in San Francisco, once at her moorings and once in a race off Alcatraz. Perhaps that explains why, decades later, she was still waterlogged and full of salt. Instead of the saltwater pickling her, it seems to have turned her into a giant battery with all the various metals eating away at each other.

In 2006, I took Venture to Port Townsend for reframing and a new deck. Tom Tucker had her in a shed in his backyard, where he carefully wooded her, removed the deck, the sheer and the interior. We were amazed to discover that many of her deck beam fastenings had been absorbed into the wood. Caulking and spirit had been keeping her together. Tom also discovered she needed a new stem, and maybe a full backbone, but her fate was sealed when we saw the planks were rotten at the core.

There simply wasn’t anything left to keep.

And as Venture dried out while we debated her fate, she sort of answered our questions.

When Tom told me he thought she was past saving, I went out to the shed by myself and sat in the cockpit. She looked like a sad old canoe. I leaned against the hull and grabbed the nearest piece of wood. It was a frame and it came off easily in my hand.

I knew he was right. I still have that piece of wood on my mantle.

Venture’s bare hull was delivered to Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding (NWSWB) in the summer of 2008, and stood bravely outside the Rubb Shelter.

Inside that shed, Tim Lee and his students lofted and built Yankee #44, Gemini. But we didn’t know that at first. For nearly two years, I insisted that we were not building a new boat, we were saving my old one.

It’s said that the spirit of a boat resides in its ballast so, although that saying was probably made up by friends trying to cheer me, I was thrilled the day we put this piece of Venture into the new hull. We also used a tiller and a hatch cover, some teak and some bronze hardware. Before the rest of the old hull was scrapped, Tim Lee made me a beautiful half model from the deadwood, and her bow section was turned into an outhouse. I gave Venture’s stern section away too, I think it’s in a garden somewhere. Meanwhile, the most important part of that boat, the spirit, migrated from the hull outside the shed into the new boat. This wasn’t purely mystical; I’m pretty sure the spirit of a boat gains its energy from the relationship we have with it and, when the new hull became the thing we all called Venture, the boat I thought of as mine, it also became alive.

My insurance company tells me I have a brand a new boat so, just before we launched, I chose a new name. Gemini means “twins” because, although it’s exciting and wonderful to have a gorgeous new wooden boat, I feel the spirit of my intrepid old sailboat in there too. I treasure that. In fact, sometimes I still call my Yankee “Venture”. It answers to either name.

Sarah Howell is a CWB volunteer and sailing instructor. Gemini is participating in CWB’s Visiting Boat Program and will be on display at the CWB docks for the coming year. Gemini takes CWB members, volunteers and SailNOW! graduates sailing, by appointment.

Email yankeeonedesign@comcast.net for more information.

Restoring the Felicity Ann B y

At the age of 39, British sailor and adventurer Ann Davison was the first woman to sail singlehanded across the Atlantic Ocean.

She made the crossing aboard the 23’ sloop Felicity Ann and wrote about the experience in her 1956 book My Ship Is So Small.

Ann left Plymouth, England, on May 18, 1952. After touching in France, Portugal, Gibraltar and Morocco, she departed in midNovember, 1952, from the Canary Islands and crossed the Atlantic in 62 days. She arrived at Domenica on January 23, 1953.

In his 1985 book, The Boats They Sailed In, author John Doherty devoted an entire chapter to Ann’s accomplishment, writing: “Her feat bears a close resemblance to other first-time-ever challenges - climbing Everest, sailing around the world non-stop, landing on the moon.” Other ocean adventurers who appear in his book include Joshua Slocum (Spray), Thomas Fleming Day (Sea Bird), John Guzzwell (Trekka) and Lynn and Larry Pardey (Seraffyn). Ann Davison is in the lofty company she deserves.

Ann Davison passed away in 1992 and Felicity Ann seemed consigned to disappear in the pages of history. But the little sloop’s fate took a turn for the better a couple of years ago when she was donated to the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding for a last chance at restoration under the direction of the school’s Chief Instructor, Tim Lee. Located in Port Hadlock, Washington, on the east side of the Olympic Peninsula, the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding will begin its 32nd year of classes in October, with full-time men and women students from across the U.S. and several foreign countries.

New life for Felicity Ann began in summer, 2011, when the Repair and Restoration class, led by instructors Ben Kahn and Sean Kooman, began work on the boat. Currently, the Traditional Large Craft class is working on planking part of Felicity Ann. Even as the restoration of Felicity Ann goes on, another life for her is in the making.

In fall, 2011, Penelope Partridge, a sailmaking alumni of the Boat School, approached the School with a proposal to create a vocational educational program for high school girls and young women centered around completing the restoration of Felicity Ann. Penelope and her volunteer co-coordinator, Kelley Watson, currently are working with the School to design,

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fundraise for and implement a program.

They hope to offer learning opportunities for high school girls beginning in the fall. More information is available at www.felicityann.com, including a short video on the project.

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civilian pilot in the Liverpool area, where she met and married her pilot and airfieldowner husband. When the war came, the English government took over the airfield, their planes and house and the Davisons lost nearly everything they had. With what little remained, they bought an island in a remote

Ann Davison’s 1939 UK-built sloop Felicity Ann rests in a shed at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding in Port Hadlock, Washington, following repair work in summer, 2011. - photo: P.M. Leenhouts, the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding.

The history of Felicity Ann began in the Cremyll Shipyard in England in 1939, but construction was interrupted by World War II. The sloop was launched in 1949 and Ann Davison bought her in early 1952. According to Doherty’s book, Felicity Ann had the following particulars: Length Overall (LOA) 23’, Load Water Line (LWL) 19’, beam 7’6”, draft 4’6” and over 5’ with a full load, 2,000 pounds of ballast, with a working sail area of 237 square feet. She was planked in larch over oak frames on an elm keel. You can see immediately why the title of Ann’s book is so apropos; her vessel really was a very small sloop for an Atlantic crossing!

Before the war, Ann Davison was a

Scottish lake, farming there during the war.

After the war ended, the Davisons wanted to get away from the severe austerity that characterized post-war England. They bought and partially restored a large motor ketch, but ran out of money. To avoid the boat being impounded, they took it to sea, where they were wrecked during a savage storm and Mr. Davison drowned. After recovering, Ann went to work in a local boatyard, learned to sail and to navigate and saved up the money to buy a boat - the Felicity Ann. As she said in her book, “As soon as I set foot on her I knew she was right and that she was the ship for me. She was sympatico. She

had a slightly aggressive air and the quality, distinguishable but indefinable, that spells reliability; adversity, I felt, would bring out the best in her.”

Upon learning that Ann intended to cross the Atlantic to the United States, the Mashford Brothers, the men who built Felicity Ann, strengthened the boat for Ann to the specifications laid out by the wellknown company of Laurent Giles, adding strapping over the pilothouse, steel knees and enhancing the vessel’s rig. Many British firms and individuals contributed to Felicity Ann’s success through donations of time, expertise and material.

Said Ann, “Everyone who had a hand in getting the Felicity Ann ready for sea, from first to last, whether they worked on the ship, provided the gear, stores, or valuable advice, did a noble job. In the end, there was nothing for me to do but go.”

And go, she did, departing from Plymouth and crossing first to France, and then continuing on to Spain, Morocco and the Canary Islands. Her famous Atlantic crossing began November 20, 1952, in the Canaries, continued westward under extremely rough and arduous conditions and ended 62 days later in Dominica.

After a trip up to Miami, then to New York, then back to Miami again, we lose the trail of Felicity Ann. She eventually was sold and, after many years, ended up in Alaska.

Luckily, the little sloop was stored under cover for most of her time in Alaska.

Ann Davison and Felicity Ann hold a unique place in both small boat cruising and women’s history. The Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding considers ourselves fortunate indeed to be able to contribute our repair and restoration expertise to the future of Felicity Ann. A graduate of three different construction sequences at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding, Pete Leenhouts also is a member of the School’s Board of Directors and currently serves as the School’s Interim Director. After a distinguished 27-year career in the U.S. Navy, Pete and his wife, Helen, settled in Port Ludlow, Washington, in 2005. He is an avid amateur writer and photographer whose work has appeared in magazines as diverse as The Ash Breeze, Messing About in Boats, WoodenBoat, Northwest Navigator, and the Universal Ship Cancellation Society Log.

New Sails for CWB’s fleet of BJKs! After 12 years, CWB’s Blanchard Junior Knockabouts each have earned a crisp new suit of sails. Thanks to education programs at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding, six new jibs and mains were built by sailmaking students at the Northwest Sails loft in Port Hadlock. Sean Rankins, professional sailmaker with more than 30 years of experience, taught this course, along with co-instructors Kay Robinson and Holly Kays d’Arcy.

Sailmaking is a craft rich in tradition and functional beauty. It encompasses the working understanding of the hull and rig. Running rigging, rig tuning, sailing conditions, hull design, rig design and much more go into the overall design of the sail plan. The students at Northwest Sails learn hands-on techniques and traditional construction. Rigging theory and construction are included, as well as sail repair and canvas work.

CWB Livery customers, volunteer instructors and sailing students now are enjoying beautifully-made sails on CWB’s most popular livery boat.

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News from Cama Beach Learning By Doing, 20 Years Later B y

It was back in the last century, in the spring of 1992, when I went to an annual conference of the Council of Maritime Museums at the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria, Oregon. I went because I needed a vacation. At CWB, we had already begun our sailing instruction for homeless teenagers, sailing instruction for the physically disabled and a summer camp of sailing and boatbuilding skills for at-risk kids. The theme of the conference was “Education or Entertainment”. I felt we already had found the path for both and there wasn’t a chance that I would learn any more.

Sure enough, during the presentations I soon was dozing or looking at the river, amusing myself by sketching boats. Then someone stepped to the podium whose presentation caused me to drop my pen, pad and jaw. The speaker wasn’t a boater. Her story was about the Portland Art Museum and the tornado they created in Portland Public Schools.

She told of an Art Museum retreat where the staff confessed that strolling through galleries and hearing a docent identify paintings and sculptures with dates and names of dead artists didn’t give elementary school kids even the slightest experience of art. They agreed that things should change from boring narratives to hands-on the charcoal or brush.

The kids program began with challenges: notice the differences in light and dark, compatibility and contrasts of colors, sense of depth through perspectives, characteristics of human form. Each visit began with seeing the art and then, in another area covered with newspapers, students gradually found their own ways to interpret, design, create, based on basic knowledge of proportions, space, colors.

Back at school, these fourth- and fifthgraders were bringing home not only their artwork but also letters from their teachers telling their parents their kids were geniuses in math, writing, spelling and more. The parents sent letters to the teachers saying please keep bringing their children to the Art Museum.

Word quickly spread throughout the school system that hands-on programs are good for elementary school students but they should say bye-bye to the Art Museum when they entered middle school.

That generated another tornado from the elementary teachers and parents. The brief war was won and now hands-on learning is the engine of learning from K through 12.

I came back to CWB totally inspired.

We were being too dainty in who we drew into our learn-by-doing programs. Let’s open it up to all, especially those most disadvantaged. It was time for a new tack at CWB. And it had to begin with a conference we would host: “Heritage Maritime Skills and Foundering Youth”.

Caren Crandell, a schoolteacher and a CWB Board member, agreed to be the facilitator. Ron Snyder, another Board member and also the principal of Alternative School #1, helped round up the attendees.

Judie Romeo, then CWB administrative manager, volunteered to handle the logistics of room and board for the participants and keeping our refrigerator stocked with donated beer and I took on the job of fundraiser. Michael Nabb of the National

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As part of the program, Teaching With Small Boats conference attendees had plenty of time for a variety of hands-on experiences: (Clockwise from top left) Participants making Northwest native canoe paddles; CWB’s Salish canoe, Steve Philipp, with a full crew paddling off Cama Beach; Jim Taylor of Peekskill [New York] Boatworks works on one of 14 paddles made by attendees; class instructor Joe Youcha of Alexandria [Virginia] Seaport Foundation and Mark Reuten of Nomad Boat Building in Victoria, B.C., compare their cigar box guitars; Chris De Firmia assembles his guitar.

– photos: Heidi Trudel

Trust for Historic Preservation helped CWB get a NTHP grant and Ted Frantz, a longtime supporter of CWB’s programs, donated matching funds.

Thirty attendees showed up in the fall of 1992. They came from Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia, Texas, California, Oregon and Washington.

In between the talks, every attendee became a student, learning to sail our gillnetter, paddle a carved Salish canoe, build some bilge pumps out of cedar planks, and scull with an oar.

The feedback from the conference generated more programs at CWB for underserved youth, including summer camps at South Lake Union and Cama Beach on Camano Island, plus fresh, new hands-on programs in Alexandria, Virginia, and Bellingham, Washington. Our Cama Beach summer camps were funded by the Center for Career Alternatives, from which we received their “Outstanding Community Service Award” in 1994.

We did a conference redux in 1996 and found more good ideas through talks and hands-on workshops. Youth programs were the mission of the 1914 schooner Adventuress and plans were beginning for the brig Lady Washington launched in 1989.

The spark of direct experience learning was ready to bloom into a flame.

Lo and behold, the flame appeared in the spring of 2010. I met with Joe Youcha, who had attended the 1992 and 1996 conferences, and who had transformed the Alexandria [Virginia] Seaport Foundation from the homeport of a leaky, dilapidated Norwegian fishing ship to a small craft hands-on laboratory. Joe and I agreed it was time for the next gathering of direct

experience teachers and wannabe teachers.

More than 80 came to Alexandria from more than 60 organizations. Their stories revealed places that are glowing examples of working outside the box. There was the storefront boatbuilding school in Minneapolis, a charter high school in Philadelphia, a public school in Montrose, Colorado, Joe Youcha’s learning math through boatbuilding class and CWB’s programs for kids from preschoolers to high school.

The conclusion in Alexandria was that we should create Teaching With Small Boats, a nationwide alliance with a conference every other year. The mission was to keep advancing the realms of direct experience, the most long-lasting and often life-changing form of learning.

A Steering Committee was formed: Joe Youcha and David Helgerson from Alexandria Seaport Foundation; Lory Nemeyer, Hull Lifesaving Museum; Art Sulzer, Maritime Academy Charter High School; Scott Rizzo, Montrose High School NJROTC; Rich Hilsinger, WoodenBoat magazine, and, from CWB, Tyson Trudel, Youth Program Coordinator, and me.

Emails and weekly phone conferences defined the structure of the next Teaching With Small Boats conference and the host, CWB at Cama Beach. The dates were set, the cabins reserved, the mailing list created, the budget planned, the fundraising begun.

This would be the first-ever conference at Cama Beach. As usual, the State Parks people were ready and eager to have a big bunch of people for at least three days - and some for three more. Friday through Sunday, April 27-29, the agenda was “Teaching With Small Boats”; April 30-May 3, students would be in the seminar “Building To Teach”.

There were 90 participants from 38 organizations who came to talk a lot, listen a lot and get a lot out of learn-by-doing workshops, including making Northwest native paddles, building cigar-box guitars, building pond model boats, rowing, sailing and paddling Northwest boats including a Salish carved canoe and an Aleut Umiaq.

The focus was to create an alliance of organizations to provide hands-on programs to youth, both underserved and high-achievers. The range of programs that were presented was phenomenal. In Inuvialiut in Canada’s western Arctic, kids are building their own traditional quaq (kayak) using length of arms, legs and fingers as measurements. In Colorado, high school youth are designing and building submersible electronically-controlled units.

All are challenges to solve complex problems using hand and mind. The dimensions needed could be inches or fingers. In the end, the product is kids’ self-confidence to become vital members of society.

To round out things, there were fantastic meals from caterer Donna King, foot-pounding maritime songs from the Whateverly Brothers, fireside chats in the evening and a maritime mile of beach to walk. Thirty-five hearty souls stayed for the last three days, learning Joe Youcha’s recipe for teaching math to disadvantaged youth as the base skill for becoming fulltime carpentry apprentices.

At the end of it all, or perhaps the beginning of it all, 90 folks dedicated to direct experience learning went home with heads and hands full of new ideas and knowledge and hearts full of appreciation for the venue in which they acquired them.

News from Cama Beach A Tale of Three Skiffs B y A flatiron skiff does not draw attention like a Whitehall. It does not beg the observer to wonder about its intricacy of construction. And the flatiron skiff is not a disappearing relic of maritime history. The flatiron skiff’s simplicity, utility and ruggedness have earned it a place of respect on waterfronts around the world - and Cama Beach is no exception. Over the last several months (or at least by the time this is published) CWB has added three new skiffs to its fleet. While each possesses the simple lines and straightforward construction of a flatiron, each one of these new boats has a unique story.

Good, Good, Very Good. In late April, CWB at Cama Beach hosted 20 students from the Kirkland Environmental and Adventure School (EAS) for a week of boatbuilding and outdoor programming. During this five-day program EAS students assembled a Babson Island 14 with the help of CWB Cama Beach Youth Boatbuilding Program Lead Dan Boyce and Cama Beach Boatwright-in-Residence Eric Harman.

The middle school students from EAS, Lake Washington School District’s “Choice School”, were a perfect fit for CWB’s Cama Beach programs. The school’s focus on education through environmental, outdoor, and leadership experiences allowed CWB’s staff to tailor a week of building and on-the-water programs specifically to the teachers’ goals. At first CWB staff hesitated to engage middle school students in the complex and fast-paced boatbuilding portion of the program. But by the end of day one CWB staff were impressed with the maturity, focus and enthusiasm of the students as they waded into a project usually reserved for much older students.

The Babson Island 14, designed by Jon Wilson and Tom Hill and published by WoodenBoat Magazine as part of their Getting Started in Boats series, proved to be the perfect

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boat for the program. The EAS boat, dubbed Treehugger after the unofficial mascot of the Kirkland school, will be painted the school colors and also bear the school’s Chinook trade language cheer, “Se he Sahalie”, loosely translated as “Good, Good, Very Good”. We look forward to further programs with the students and teachers of EAS in 2013 and beyond!

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Redmond came to Cama for their annual project week. This was the second trip to Cama by Overlake students, who had participated in CWB day programs at South Lake Union in years past. Having worked with Overlake in 2011 at Cama building a Babson Island 14, CWB staff knew the students were up to the challenge.

“It can’t be done”: The gauntlet was thrown last fall: Build a solid stock, traditional boat of a type designed and used in Washington, with Pacific Northwest woods, with high school students and, oh yeah, do it in less than five days.

First a little background: for quite a while, CWB has engaged students in short, intense boatbuilding programs called “Youth Maritime Intensives”. In the past we have relied on fantastic plywood boat designs such as the Babson Island 14 or the Union Bay Skiff. But, during the fall of 2011, staff was struck with the nagging feeling that CWB could do a more traditional build with woods from our own backyard. Through the winter months, Dan Boyce and CWB Youth Program Coordinator Tyson Trudel conducted experiments and worked out techniques. Meanwhile, Paul Marlow, stalwart volunteer and walking encyclopedia of Pacific Northwest boatbuilders, got wind of the challenge. In no time at all, he produced reproductions of lines drawings and step-by-step construction instructions published by the now-defunct Tregoning Boat Company of Ballard for a cedar-plank-on-fir-frame skiff.

The plans were old and perfect. The simple methods described in the instructions matched Tyson and Dan’s assumptions. The challenge could be met; all that was needed were the right students to use as guinea pigs.

In early April, the opportunity arose when high-schoolers from the Overlake School in

The finished Mojean skiff at Cama Beach.

On the final morning of the five-day program, the Cama OWLS (Overlake’s mascot) slid gracefully into Saratoga Passage and held three of the high school builders without leaking a cup of water. The skiff is a replica of a Cama 20 Series, one of the original fleet boats built on Camano Island in 1934 by Bert and Eddie Johnson for the newly-opened Cama Beach fishing resort. The material is clear vertical grain western red cedar, procured in Tacoma, and Douglas fir from a local miller near Arlington.

The stock is so beautiful CWB staff and volunteers have dragged their feet on painting it.

The next challenge: to build a solid stock, cedar and fir skiff with wood procured from second or third growth forests!

Double take: In June, CWB Job Skills students at Cama Beach planned to launch

another new skiff for use in the Cama Livery: a replica Mojean & Erickson Double Skiff.

In 2011, Job Skills students helped take the lines from the Mojean in CWB’s historic boat collection. Students, guided by Dan Boyce and Eric Harman, built the shapely flatiron skiff while also refinishing CWB’s entire livery fleet and doing countless other small projects.

While remaining faithful to the lines of the original boat, CWB staff altered the forward side frames to increase the strength.

The original boat’s side frames lay square to the planking and a beveled notch on the bottom frame accounted for the shape. This technique seemed a compromise for speed of construction. With all winter to build and the desire to create a boat for long-term, hardpunishing service in the Cama fleet, CWB staff and students decided to bevel the side frames and increase the strength of the little skiff. The Mojean is called a “double” because of its two rowing stations. CWB’s newest boat has cedar on fir frames with oak rub strips and just a pinch of mahogany to give it that exotic flavor.

Come on up to Cama this summer and try out one of the new skiffs, or come just to admire the fine craftsmanship of the young people who built them. Perhaps you’d like one of your own utility skiffs; if so, email cama@cwb.org to dream up a workshop, youth program or commission - or just drop by the Boathouse at Cama Beach and talk to our volunteers and staff.

See you at the Beach!

Andrew Washburn is Manager of CWB Cama Beach and of our Historical Projects.

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There seems to be a sort of weather folklore that surrounds the events that happen at CWB’s Cama Beach location. It’s sunny every other year but there could be a snowstorm in May or June.

This year’s Mother’s Day Sail proved to be no different. A few of our cornerstone volunteers were unable to join us this year and the morning of the sail day there literally was no wind to speak of.

But the show must go on, and go on it did. Mother’s Day Sail 2012 was a record breaker. More than 300 visitors enjoyed a happy, sunny day at CWB at Cama Beach.

The wind picked up later in the morning and the sailing rosters were full by noon.

Volunteers were in no short supply, with the experienced volunteers showing the newbies the ropes - sometimes literally, as our Job Skills Training Crew Members and volunteer staff got a chance to crew some of the sailboats. It was a job well done by our hardworking staff and volunteers.

I will be eager to join the fun next year to see if the legend of “every other year there is sunshine” holds true.

Stephanie Messa is an AmeriCorps Member assigned to CWB at Cama Beach, where she is the Environmental Educator

Mother’s Day boats and people at Cama Beach, clockwise from top left: the tugboat Isswat towed boats up from Seattle and then settled at a mooring to await visitors; these visitors got a double ride, paddling in the umiaq out to a sail aboard the 65’ Biloxi schooner Lavengro; what could be more fun than building toy boats on the beach in the sun shine; a solitary stroller ignores the boats in favor of the critters on the beach; a Cama boatload shuttles more lucky folks heading for a sail, and regular Mother’s Day participant, Bill Harpster’s Joshua, with a load of happy passengers.

– photos: Mitch Reinitz, eMeLaR Photography

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Upcoming

Classes

BOATBUILDING & WOODWORKING WORKSHOPS Lofting

Bronze Casting

Instructor: Eric Hvalsoe Date: September 22 & 23 Time: 9 am - 5 pm (Saturday & Sunday) Cost: $200 members / $250 non-members

Instructor: Sam Johnson Date: August 25 & 26 Time: 9 am - 5 pm (Saturday & Sunday) Cost: $280 members / $350 non-members

Lofting is a vital tool, typically the first step in building a new boat. It is a fascinating mental exercise in three-dimensional management and layering. We will discuss construction details, set-up and building molds for the real thing. Newcomers, put on your thinking caps!

Veterans may even learn a trick or two. Reading about lofting is not enough; you’ve got to do it!

Learn how to use all the tools necessary to cast hot metal using sand-casting echnology.Sam Johnson will cover the basics of patternmaking, sand molding and bronze casting during this engaging hands-on course. Students will make patterns of their designs to cast tools, boat hardware and other objects in bronze. Boatbuilders in particular often need special bronze fittings that are not available but can be cast without great expense. Anyone who has ever lost an oarlock will appreciate learning how to make copies of original hardware.

Students also will learn how to build their own inexpensive furnace. Patterns will be provided for students use.

Limit: 8 students

Oar Making Instructor: Joe Green Date: September 15 & 16 Time: 9:30 am - 5 pm (Saturday & Sunday) Cost: $290 members / $350 nonmembers Good oars are hard to find in the market!

This two-day workshop provides a hands-on introduction to the craft of oar making. Learn the value of balanced oars, various blade patterns, how to choose suitable wood, how to figure the right length of oars and how to make leather oar collars. Students will lay out and build their own pair of flat-blade oars. Learn how to sharpen and use drawknives, spokeshaves and hand planes and some good techniques for shaping and finishing wood.

Take home one finished oar and one partly finished to work on after the class.

Limit: 10 students

Half Model Making Instructor: Joe Green Date: October 13 & 14 Time: 10 am - 5 pm (Saturday & Sunday) Cost: $260 members / $300 non-members Traditionally, boats were designed from half models. From the carved hull form, lines were drawn and scaled up to create full-size patterns. Time will be spent laminating wood, sharpening hand tools, working with chisels, gouges, spokeshaves and hand planes to craft your own three-dimensional model. Students will mount their half models on boards, ready for display!

Limit: 6 students

Beginning Woodworking

Limit: 6 students.

Kayak Building: Aleut Ikyak (Baidarka) Instructor: Corey Freedman Session 2: June 30 - July 8 Session 3: September 22 - 30 Time: 9 am - 5 pm (Saturday - Sunday) Cost: $1,200 members / $1,400 non-members The Aleut Ikyak,also widely known as the Baidarka, has been used for thousands of years as the primary method of transportation in the Aleutian Islands. It is the acme of Arctic Native design. Build your own boat, designed to fit your skill level and body type. The boats are built primarily of yellow and red cedar with all joinery pegged and lashed – no metal fastenings or glues. You do not need woodworking experience; just come equipped with enthusiasm!

Limit: 4 students

Instructor: Gabriel Behrend Session 2: July 17, 19, 24 & 26 Session 3: October 16, 18, 23 & 25 Time: 6 pm - 9 pm (Tuesdays & Thursdays) Cost: $230 members / $290 non-members This class is for all you people with a hankering to make something out of wood. First you’ll learn how to use basic hand and power tools safely as you turn large hunks of wood into useful-sized pieces. With that mastered, you’ll move on to basic joinery, laminating, fastening and finishing. The instructor will impart the techniques that will have you ready and able to take on your own woodworking projects and heading for the lumber store.

Limit: 6 students

Women’s Woodworking

An Introduction To The Basics

B.Y.O.B. (Bring Your Own Boat) Instructors: Dave Thacker & Sam Laher Date: August 18 Time: 10 am - 4 pm (Saturday) Cost: $80 members / $85 non-members Got a boat kicking around in your backyard that you’ve been meaning to get to, but just don’t know where to start? How about a boat you tore into and found more than you bargained for? This class is designed for do-it-yourselfers who need a jump-start on their projects. Bring your trailerable wooden boat (up to 20’) and get valuable time with professional shipwrights.

You will get advice on how to begin the restoration, make repairs and move your project forward. Participants will come away from this class with a better understanding of boats, marine products and professional restoration techniques. B.Y.O.B.

Instructor: Lacey Carnahan Session 2: September 18, 20, 25 & 27 Time: 6 pm - 9 pm (Tuesdays & Thursdays) Cost: $230 members / $290 non-members Ladies! Have you always wanted to learn woodworking but never had the time or the encouragement? Join Lacey Carnahan for four sessions on the wonderful ways of woodworking. In addition to learning how to use hand and power tools safely, this workshop will cover basic joinery, laminating, fastening and finishing techniques. Walk away with the knowledge and confidence to embark on your own woodworking projects.

Tell your sisters, girlfriends, mothers and daughters to sign up!

Limit: 6 students

Great as a gift! Help that special someone get their boat out of your driveway!

How Do I Register?

Stitch and Glue Boatbuilding Instructor: Sam Devlin Dates: September 24 - 28 Time: 9 am - 5 pm (Monday - Friday) Cost: $550 members / $625 non-members Sam Devlin has been a strong proponent of the Stitch and Glue method of boatbuilding for the past 30 years. In this class students will build a Peeper, a 12’ rowing skiff of his own design. The class will take place at the Devlin Boatshop in Olympia; please call Edel O’Connor at CWB for more information.

Limit: 8 students

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Courses are filled on a first-come, first-served basis so we recommend early registration. All workshops are held at CWB’s Lake Union, Seattle location unless otherwise noted in the course description. We are constantly adding new programs. Please check our website at www.cwb.org for the latest listings and information or call us at (206) 382-2628. The Center for Wooden Boats keeps class size small to promote quality instruction and experience.

Visit www.cwb.org to register or call (206) 382-2628

U p c o m i n g Sail CamIsle - Labor Day Weekend at Cama September 1 - 3 at Cama Beach State Park Two days of racing, three days of activities, music, food, and an awards banquet on the final day. Register to bring your boat and race, or just come for the fun and rent a cabin at Cama Beach State Park. More information at www.camanosail.com

Guest Speaker: Gordon Miller Voyages to the New World and Beyond September 15, 4 - 6 pm, CWB Boathouse in Seattle A special lecture by Gordon Miller, maritime artist, who will share images and stories from his book. Copies of his book will be available.

Norm Blanchard W.O.O.D. Regatta September 29 & 30 This is the premier gathering of classic wooden (Wooden Open One Design) sailboats in the region, with two full days of racing and dynamite social events. The regatta honors CWB’s good friend, the late Norm Blanchard, perhaps the best-known name in wooden boat building in the Northwest. Race your own boat, rent one of ours or sign up on the crew list. We welcome all sailors so there even will be a “Classic Plastic” class. Watch for more details on www.cwb.org.

E v e n t s Text ‘BOAT’ to 20222 to Give $5!

Your donation dollars help CWB run the annual Lake Union Wooden Boat Festival, get kids of all ages out on the water and provide other free, communityoriented events throughout the year. And now, it’s easier than ever to donate - you can do it right from your mobile phone! Visit the information tent at the Festival for more information.

A one-time donation of $5.00 will be added to your mobile phone bill or deducted from your prepaid balance. All donations must be authorized by the account holder. All charges are billed by and payable to your mobile service provider. All donations must be authorized by the account holder. User must be age 18 or older or have parental permission to participate.

By texting YES, the user agrees to the terms and conditions. Service is available on most carriers. Message & Data Rates May Apply. Donations are collected for the benefit of The Center for Wooden Boats by the Mobile Giving Foundation and subject to the terms found at www.hmgf.org/t. You can unsubscribe at any time by texting STOP to short code 20222; text HELP to 20222 for help.

SAILING & NAVIGATION SailNOW! Learn to Sail at CWB Instructors: CWB Sailing Instructors Session 6: July 14 - August 18 Session 7: August 18 - September 23 Session 8: October 6 – November 10 Session 9: November 10 - December 9 Cost: $335 members / $375 nonmembers.

This is the signature CWB learn-to-sail program for adults and families. Students will learn the basic boat handling skills that are the foundation for a lifetime of sailing. Each session starts with Shore School, a two-hour class where sail theory and terminology are explained. After Shore School, a series of six on-the-water lessons gives you the opportunity to develop your skills toward sailing solo. Lessons are taught by dedicated, trained volunteer instructors in CWB’s fleet of classic Blanchard Jr. Knockabouts.

Get Zapped! Learn-to-Sail Intensive Instructors: CWB Sailing Instructors Cost: (for two students) $650 members / $700 non-members An intensive three-day sailing course for two people. This condensed and personalized version of the SailNOW! program is scheduled to fit your needs in a combination of three four-hour lessons. It’s a perfect way for couples, friends, parent-child duos and out-oftown guests to learn to sail in a short amount of time. Lessons are sailed in Blanchard Jr. Knockabouts and Lightnings.

To schedule, email your preferred dates and times to Mindy Ross mross@cwb.org at least two weeks in advance.

One-on-One Sailing Lessons Instructors: CWB Sailing Instructors Cost: $50 per hour members / $60 per hour non-members. $15 per hour for additional student in the boat.

For beginner sailors with sporadic schedules or those who would like to refresh their boat handling skills, we offer One-on-One sailing lessons. Work individually with an instructor to help identify skills to focus on and improve your sailing. Lessons are available by appointment in many of the classic vessels maintained by CWB. Livery Checkouts are complimentary as part of each lesson. Not sure if you want to learn to sail, but want to go for a sail to see what it’s like? This can be a great introductory experience!

SailMORE! Intermediate Sailing Instructors: CWB Sailing Instructors Session 2 (Racing Sloops): July 19, 26, August 2 Session 3 (Sprit Rigs): August 9,16, 23 Time: 6 - 8 pm (Thursdays) Cost: $130 per session member / $150 per session non-member Learn to sail the wide variety of boats in CWB’s Livery fleet. Focus will be on the unique attributes of gaff rig Beetle Cats, racing sloops and sprit rigs. Racing sloops include a Geary 18, San Francisco Bay Mercury and Lightning. Sprit Rigs will be our Woods Hole Spritsails Dewey & Plover, Hvalsoe 13 and Hvalsoe 15.

Learn to properly rig and sail each design. Extra attention will be given to docking and short tacking up the channel. Limit: 6 students each session. Prerequisite: CWB checkout

Dead Reckoning: An Introduction to Classical Navigation Instructor: Katey Noonan Session 2: August 25 Session 3: October 20 Time: 10 am - 1 pm (Saturdays) Cost: $40 members / $50 non-members Have you ever wondered how nautical navigation was performed before Loran, radar and GPS became commonplace? Ever wondered what they mean by “boxing” or “swinging” the compass? Join us as we explore non-electronic means of accurately travelling by boat from one place to another. At the end of the class students will be able to box the compass to 32 points, know the basic use and methods of classical navigation, know the basics of Deviation and Variation as they relate to chart navigation and be able to chart a basic course heading from CWB to Gas Works Park. Limit: 10 Students

RaceNOW! One-Design Racing Series Instructor: Oliver Davis Dates: July 20, 27, August 3, 10, 17, 24 & 31 Time: 6 pm - 8:30 pm (Fridays) Cost for the series: (skipper) $250 members / $300 non-members (crew) $190 members / $240 non-members Fun racing in classic wooden boats! RaceNOW! is an opportunity for intermediate skippers and novice crew to learn the fundamentals of sailboat racing. Each evening includes an introduction to racing strategy, tactics and the basics of the racing rules. Sailing in teams of three per boat, we head out in our fleet of Blanchard Jr. Knockabouts for weekly races, sailing drills and on-the-water coaching to improve your sailing performance. Sign up with friends, family, co-workers or meet new people.

Prerequisite: CWB checkout for skippers, basic understanding of sail theory for crew Limit: 15 people (five boats)

Online scheduling is available at www.cwb.org

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See Where Sailing Can Take You B y

Growing up in the Northwest, I had always found myself drawn to the water. Whether it was canoeing on Lake Sammamish or riding the ferryboats across Puget Sound, I always wished I could go farther - beyond the horizon and around the bend to that secret cove.

This winter I decided to try a free Sunday afternoon sail with The Center for Wooden Boats and I was an immediate convert. The romance of the sails in the wind and the waves gently lapping the boat were a kind of experience I hadn’t shared with the water. I immediately signed up for SailNOW! After my first lesson, I was convinced I wanted my own boat to go explore the Puget Sound. Scrolling through countless Craigslist ads, I finally stumbled upon an unusual boat that was just my style. A Bolger Bobcat that had been converted to a “microcruiser”.

Boat designer Phil Bolger brought an interesting perspective to the world of boats and his simple plywood construction methods made his designs accessible to a broad audience. I was proud to come across a boat of simple, robust construction that could accommodate me for overnight trips to those secret coves I sought. And all of that in 12 feet, 6 inches.

In my childhood I’d spent many nights on a 48’ Pacemaker, White Gold, but aboard the Bobcat I can roll up onto the beach, sail through shoals in less than two feet of water, and drop anchor at remote gems hidden around Puget Sound.

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I continued through the rest of SailNOW! and then felt well-prepared to take my Bobcat out in the Sound.

My first adventures took me to Vashon’s Maury Island Aquatic Preserve, Dash Point State Park, and Tacoma’s Thea Foss Waterway. Launching in Seattle brought me beautiful views of Golden Gardens Park, Alki Point, and Elliott Bay. The Sound was opening up a whole cache of sights and sounds I’d never dreamed of.

I decided it was time to spend my first night aboard and so my wife and I sailed to Blake Island State Park a few miles west of Seattle - a decent trip in any boat - and had a blast exploring the beauty of the natural surroundings. Needless to say then we both were hooked.

To grow my experience further, I decided to sign up for the Small Craft Skills Academy with Howard Rice.

The academy was graciously hosted by Port Townsend’s Northwest Maritime Center; as a group we spent an entire week teaching each other, collaborating in the classroom and at sea, and learning great sailing skills.

I’m now ready to take my wife and I confidently into those unmarked harbors I’ve been steadily noting on my charts.

We concluded with a beautiful cruise in our small boats through Kilisut Harbor, down to the Nordland General Store in Marrowstone Island’s Mystery Bay, and around Fort Flagler State Park. The sail back to the marina was beautiful, with rainbows filling in the horizon and the sun setting over the Olympics.

I heartily encourage you to explore the world of boating and see where sailing could take you. Phil Bolger’s book, Boats with an Open Mind, presents some great ideas on what boats can be and where they can go but they still need you to sail them!

“Beached at Seward Park - picking up my wife and her bicycle for a dinner sail to Ivar’s.”

-photo: Andrew Jacobs

Andrew Jacobs graduated from CWB’s acclaimed learnto-sail program SailNOW! in March and immediately began to put his new-found skills to good use.

Mini-ferry service from Lake Union Park to the UW on the M/V Mocha 206-713-8446

Lake Union tours (ice cream cruise) on the M/V Fremont Avenue from Lake Union Park Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

www.SeattleFerryService.com

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Sail CamIsle 2012!

On Labor Day weekend, September 1-3, The Center for Wooden Boats and Camano Sail and Power will host Sail CamIsle 2012, Camano Island’s first annual weekend of multi-class small boat racing, at Cama Beach State Park. It may be windy. It may be rainy.

Or the sun could shine all weekend long. But one thing is certain: fun will be had by all, whether racing, watching, or participating in the host of on-shore family-friendly activities.

Racers! Bring your small open boat of any hull material, such as Lasers, Pelicans or other small, centerboard beach boats, and test your mettle against other hardy sailors in two days of buoy racing on Saratoga Passage. Boats must be hand launchable with help from CWB’s talented beach crew. CWB and Camano Sail and Power will have several dinghies for rent during the event, but boats are limited, so reserve yours now!

Races will begin at noon on Se ptember 1 and 2.

Registration forms and more information are available at www.camanosail.com Not ready to race yet? You have all summer to hone your skills in the livery or lessons at CWB at South Lake Union or Cama Beach. For sharpening your skills with modern dinghies contact Camano Sail and Power, www.camanosail.com.

Registration is just $60 and includes one awards banquet dinner.

Cabin accommodations are available and range from $67 to $164 a night with a three-night minimum. Cabins are limited and filling fast so make your reservation as soon as you register to race. CWB members who just want to watch and participate in the weekend’s other programs can email cama@cwb.org.

Sail CamIsle 2012 is made possible through partnership with Washington State Parks and by the generous sponsorship of Windermere Real Estate, Les Schwab Tires of Stanwood, Pope Chiropractic, South Whidbey Yacht Club, and thistledew graphics and photography.

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Festival Scavenger Hunt Boat Words Crossword

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This is the first clue for the annual Wooden Boat Festival Scavenger Hunt! Complete the puzzle to find the location of the next clue. Go there to start your adventure! There’s treasure at the end of this hunt (though the best treasure may be the hunt itself)!

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2. The left side of a boat.

4. The right side of a boat.

6. You need two of these to make a rowboat move.

7. The back of a boat.

8. The ‘body’ of a boat.

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1. A tool you can use to show which direction is north.

3. What you call a kitchen on a boat.

5. The front of a boat.

7. Something that catches wind to move a boat.

Unscramble the circled letters to find the location of the next clue. (the first letter is done for you)

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B ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ Need a hint? Visit the Festival Information Booth!

Ask the Captain!

Dear Captain Pete, I went sailing at CWB, and the skipper told me to trim in the sheets. I was confused! There are sheets on my bed! Did he want me to go to sleep?

Sincerely, Sleepy Sailor Dear Sleepy Sailor, The skipper wasn’t talking about bed sheets! I hope you didn’t fall asleep on the boat!

On a sailboat, a sheet is a line (sailors call ropes ‘lines’) that is attached to a sail. They are used to control the angle of the sails. When someone asks you to trim in the sheets, they want you pull the lines in to adjust the angle of the sail. By controlling the sheets, you can make sure that the wind is always filling your sails just right!

On boats with more than one sail, there are multiple sheets. The sheets on the mainsail are called the main sheets. The sheets for the jib are called jib sheets.

So why the funny name? The term comes from the Old English word for the corner of a sail: sceat.

So next time you’re out sailing, stay awake, and keep those sheets trimmed properly!

Fair Winds, Captain Pete

Write to Captain Pete at captainpete@cwb.org

The Book Nook! reviewed by Jennifer Senkler

Ibis: A True Whale Story

By John Himmelman and

Humphrey The Lost Whale

By Wendy Tokuda and Richard Hall Both for ages 5 and up If you know of a child fascinated by whales, these two books may be worth checking out. Both are based on true stories about a humpback whale in a pickle.

Humphrey swims astray up the Sacramento River off San Francisco Bay, while Ibis becomes entangled in fishing nets off Cape Cod. Each tale comes with a happy ending and will likely lead to a seemingly endless discussion about the marine mammal’s habitat, behavior and conservation. That’s the great part.

And even though one must first wade through some lackluster text and illustrations in order to get there, adults will quickly forgive once the kids’ questions start rolling. At least mine did when our three-year-old started boiling down the difference between salt and fresh water environments with this, “Can Humphrey live there?”.

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A Danish CWB B y

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The program includes skills programs To provide a gathering place where are double-ended lapstrake craft - inspired Viking boats, the center trains apprentices maritime history comes alive through direct by the Viking designs and construction like Malthe in wooden boat building for both youth and adults. I met two women experience and our small craft heritage is techniques – but also include the local craft skills, which are rapidly being lost in volunteers who were preparing a Viking enjoyed, preserved, and passed along to that have developed as “traditional” Danish Denmark as they are in the U.S. They warship replica for a journey to Germany boats in the post-Viking generations. also run an archaeological laboratory that this summer. The boat, with 80 rowing future generations.

In addition to displaying the recovered documents and researches Viking culture stations, will take several weeks to make So reads the Mission Statement of and technologies. the journey, stopping at numerous ports The Center for Wooden Boats in along the way. The replica boats take Seattle. What a unique idea – or is it? visitors to the museum on excursions Sharing maritime culture and skills to provide the experience of rowing while preserving the history of a local an authentic ancient craft. culture is such a great idea that others Preserving the unique local seem to have had a similar vision. On maritime culture and skills and craft, a recent trip to visit my daughter in passing the knowledge down, and Denmark, I was thrilled to find the enjoying the experience of working Vikingeskibsmuseet (Viking Ships with wood and traveling by water Museum) in Roskilde, Denmark. under natural power, s ounds a On the shore of the Roskilde Fjord, lot like CWB. The only difference about a half-hour train ride from in Denmark is that the boats being Copenhagen, I spoke with Birger, researched, preserved, replicated the chief boatwright and one of the and shared were first built more than founders of the museum, and his 1,000 years ago. If you have a chance current apprentice, Malthe, about their to go to Denmark, don’t miss visiting organization. The museum was started the Roslkilde Vikingeskibsmuseet. when the remains of several Viking In the meantime, check it out at: ships were identified and recovered www.vikingeskibsmuseet.dk from the fjord’s bottom in 1962.

In addition to preserving and Noah Seixas grew up sailing on documenting these historic craft, and Long Island in New York, and constructing a museum building to came to Seattle 20 years ago for house the remains, the museum also work, but also because he was undertook the development of a skills “drawn to the area for the amazpreservation program, embarking ing Puget Sound possibilities”. on the construction of replicas of He’s a professor of public health the recovered historic craft. In the at the University of Washington, process, they had to re-create some of and builder and captain of his the special tools and skills that make own 16’ Melonseed Skiff. Noah the Viking ships unique; in doing so Clockwise from top left: A replica under construction. In the background is Roskilde Domkirke, where has been a CWB Board Member they have acted to preserve their ancient all the Danish Kings and Queens have been buried since Harald “Bluetooth” Gormsson, who died in for four years.

Danish heritage. Malthe explained that about 986. Detail of a replica under construction. An ancient Viking ship preserved inside the museum. the boats of most interest to the center Boatwright Birger working on a local traditional Frederikssunds jolle.

-photos: Noah Seixus

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Boat Restoration Already Underway at CWB Northlake B y

The Center for Wooden Boats Egret Sharpie Colleen Wagner is the first of what will be many boats to be repaired, restored or rehabilitated at CWB’s new North Lake Union Workshop & Warehouse, which opened May 4, properly christened with the smashing of a bottle of Fremont Brewery Summer Ale across her foundation.

The day after that celebration, CWB volunteers began the restoration of the 30’ flat- bottom sailboat inside the new shop, protected from the elements. They have sanded off her paint, replaced several bad ribs, crafted new half-round coaming trim and replaced several soft planks in her hull.

After new paint and varnish, the Colleen Wagner has rejoined our fleet looking just as pretty as the day she was completed in 2000 by students at Seattle Central Community College’s Marine Carpentry School.

“This new facility on the edge of Wallingford and Fremont is CWB’s second location on Lake Union, and the added shop space is critical as we expand our onthe-water programs,” said Dick Wagner, CWB’s Founding Director. “More and more people are coming every day to enjoy learning hands-on by taking our boats out on Lake Union, but that increases wear and tear on these historic boats so we needed this new shop site in order to keep up with maintenance and repairs.

“The new location also means a lot to Wallingford and Fremont. It is an example of how we can work together to expand access to our waterfront.”

For the next few years CWB will use the space to maintain the boats that the public uses in programs at the south end of Lake Union. The North Lake Union

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Workshop & Warehouse will give the public the opportunity to witness the skills of experienced boatwrights, take classes, and volunteer to help maintain Seattle’s working fleet of historic boats. CWB’s longer-term vision is to offer the public access to the water; our staff and volunteers continue working with King County Metro and other partners to develop a long-term plan to provide for public access to the water

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Council, and King County Executive Dow Constantine were critical to making this happen.” Davis also praised groups such as the Fremont and Wallingford Chambers of Commerce, the Fremont Community Council and The Wallingford Community Council. “No one was willing to quit on the vision,” said Davis.

Davis also singled out companies such as AnchorQEA, Mithun and the Seattle office

Volunteer Mark Wilkins helps with maintenance of the Sharpie Colleen Wagner at CWB’s new North Lake Union Workshop & Warehouse.

-photo: Edel O’Connor

consistent with the property’s zoning and shorelines designations.

“This new facility is the result of a strong collaboration with the Wallingford and Fremont neighborhoods, maritime groups, various public agencies, and King County Metro, the current owner of the site,” said Betsy Davis, CWB’s Executive Director.

“King County Councilmember Larry Phillips and the rest of the King County

of KPFF Consulting Engineers for donating professional services to the project and the Terex Corporation’s Aerial Work Platforms business segment, which loaned CWB a state-of-the-art Genie scissor lift, which allowed crews to more easily reach and repair the roof and walls of the warehouse.

Telecommunications giant CenturyLink has donated an historic, belt-driven drill press to CWB to use in the renovation boat shop.

“Without the generous help of our partners there is no way we could have reached this milestone so fast,” said Davis.

The new facility includes the building and uplands area, which CWB is leasing from King County Metro. Volunteers have straightened up the site, replaced the roof on the warehouse, repaired the electrical systems and windows, repaired the walls and put in a new secure door. The building now houses part of our historic boat collection, the tools needed to work on these wooden boats, and their sails and rigging.

The site was a fuel depot in the 1920s; Metro has owned it since the early ‘80s.

More than a decade ago King County, the previous owners and the state agreed on a clean-up, which has been completed in partnership with the Department of Ecology.

The site is zoned for industrial and urban maritime use. Sediment studies in the water adjacent to this site are ongoing and the dock facilities are no longer serviceable.

That is why this initial lease is just for the land side. CWB’s long-term vision for the site is for large and small historic ship restoration, storage and demonstration projects. Additionally, it is hoped that activities such as sail and rowboat rental, which are consistent with the zoning for the site, will be possible in the future.

When he’s not serving as CWB’s Community Engagement Lead, Dan Leach sheds his business clothes in favor of work duds and a carpenter’s apron for his other job as a CWB Boatwright.

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Chantey, A Puget Sound Classic B y

A not-too-uncommon dream of teenage boys growing up in Seattle in the 1950s was to somehow “discover” a long-neglected cruising sailboat tied to a backwater dock just waiting to be purchased for $500, re-commissioned and sailed off to the South Seas. After many fruitless searches from Olympia to Vancouver and Victoria, I began to imagine other solutions to my burning wanderlust, the most feasible being the conversion of a 30’ Bristol Bay gillnetter hull with the addition of a cabin, sailing rig and a cement keel. Voila, you have an ocean cruiser!

By this time the reality of growing up started exerting itself and sailing took a back seat to university, a trip to Alaska on a NOAA survey ship, Peace Corps and a paying job.

By chance, in 1964 I rented a houseboat from an absentee couple off on an archaeological dig in the Holy Land, only to learn on their return that they shared my passion for owning a traditional wooden sailboat; that new friendship reignited my fire. The couple, Dick and Colleen Wagner, started a search for a boat and found Sindbad, a 40’ schooner. She became their second child, eventually leading Dick and Colleen to found The Center for Wooden Boats to share this life-long love affair.

I, feeling beyond the $500 fixer-upper market, rededicated myself to finding a boat and not a project.

Over dinner one cold winter evening Dick said, “You should get in touch with Bob Schoen on Orcas Island to see if he is interested in selling Chantey. I heard he bought a big Laurent Giles cruising boat.” The rumor was true and it wasn’t

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long before I was on the ferry to meet the owners and go for a sail. Imagine a sunny day in February, fire in the woodstove, a nice breeze, and a sail around Westsound on a classic 32’ cutter. It was love at first sight and two weeks later Chantey was in Ballard on the Marco ways for a survey.

All was sound, the deal was done and soon she was moored behind my houseboat on Portage Bay. Chantey was built in Olympia, Washington, in 1936 by naval architect and shipwright, Heine Dole, for himself.

Her lines are basically those of Tally Ho Major, a 30’ cutter William Atkin designed in 1931. Dole wanted an inboard rudder and wheel steering so he added two feet to accommodate the steering gear in a small lazarette aft of the cockpit. He also added his personal touch to the cabins and interior layout, ending up with a longer, leaner look, and clean lines with a graceful sheer. Her roots in traditional Baltic boats are there, but she is much more of a racehorse than a Clydesdale, or should I say fjord pony.

With a 48’ mast, bowsprit and boomkin, Chantey carries about 800 square feet of working sail, with the staysail set on a boom with a traveler, and a flying jib set on the bowsprit with a roller furler. With her straight stem she is 28’ on the water, has a 9’ beam and her deep forefoot and long keel give her a 5’6” draft and a displacement of about 10 tons. I have it on good authority that she was the boat to beat in the ‘30s and ‘40s in South Sound races.

Chantey is the essence of a traditional Northwest boat: red cedar planking on oak frames, Douglas fir stem and keel deadwood, teak decks, rail caps and cabin

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sides, and a solid spruce mast. In my time, the topsides were dark green, rails, cabin tops, mast and bowsprit were buff, with the rail cap, cabin sides and hatches bright and the teak decks natural. For years her mast had two three-foot black bands aloft

Over the years Amos and I gained a working acquaintance with virtually every nook and cranny of Chantey, inside and out, from bottom painting on the grid at Shilshole to unstepping the mast to refasten the sail track and replace the galvanized

Chantey’s lines basically are those of William Atkin’s Tally Ho, a 30’ cutter he designed in 1931. Talley Ho’s sail plan, above, was published in Atkin’s book Of Yachts and Men.

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to make her easy to pick out in a crowd.

A removable doghouse over the main hatch made winter cruising almost too comfortable, with lines and pulleys for an auxiliary wheel for steering and hot air rising up the companionway to keep the helmsman toasty. Belowdecks, the main cabin was paneled with knotty pine, had a chart table with drawers below, opposite the galley amidships, and a moveable table for eating across from a quarter-berth. The fo’c’sle forward of the mast had two berths over water tanks and a head.

Though, at the time, many older boats had been modernized to take advantage of marine electronics, Chantey still had only one battery, to start her engine. The bilges were pumped by hand, as was fresh water in the galley; cabin and running lights were kerosene; not a radio in sight; soundings were taken with a lead line, and the anchor was winched up by hand.

I soon learned that classic wooden boats are great assets when it comes to making friends, a boon to the armchair sailor that I was in the beginning. A wonderfully generous Dutch couple, Nellie and Jan Rombout, shared their keen interest in sailing and boat upkeep with me for years. Jan’s skill as a rigger was legendary: he could fix anything. Later my dock neighbor, Amos Leavitt, became a true mentor, sharing his life of sailing experience, which included making the last sailing trip from Seattle to the Bering Sea to fish cod on the C.A. Thayer when he was 18 years old. The Thayer, now at the Maritime Museum in San Francisco, is the sister ship of the Wawona, a long-time Seattle fixture. Later Amos crewed on Ed Kennell’s schooner, Gracie S, which was purchased by actor and adventurer Sterling Hayden and renamed Wanderer.

rigging with stainless. Jobs such as digging out the lead putty from all the fastenings to paint the heads with Rustoleum ® to stop rust bleeding and then refilling them with fiberglass putty or re-seaming the decks with Kuhl’s compound rolled out by hand and pressed in with a putty knife or stripping and redoing varnish and paint all seemed endless. Another major effort was replacing the old rusty iron fuel tanks and the ailing Redwing gas engine with fiberglass tanks that we laid up to fit under the decks and a Swedish Albin 2-cylinder diesel auxiliary engine.

Taking on a wooden boat is not a commitment to be taken lightly: maintenance never stops, but neither does the pleasure one gets from hours of sailing and knowing everything is as it should be. I’ll never forget a time I was getting Chantey ready for a trip around Vancouver Island and had her on the ways at University Boat Mart to unstep the mast and caulk, re-seam and paint the hull. I had the topsides and brightwork stripped and was sanding away when a young man came by for a look at the apparent turmoil.

In my mind, I would be back in the water and ready to go in a week but, after a long appraisal, he asked, “How many years until you are finished and can sail her?” In truth, the work is never finished, but a few days later I was in the water right on schedule and headed north.

It was a memorable trip from beginning to end. The tidal currents running through Seymour Narrows made it feel like I was in a toy boat; I could only imagine what it must have been like to pass Ripple Rock at full flood before it was dynamited. On the way to Winter Harbour, I passed a gillnetter that had caught an orca calf in his net and was towing it in to the dock

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My wife, Cathy Taggett, and I have been sailing our 26’ Kent-built Ranger, Condesa, throughout the Salish Sea since we purchased it in 1995. Several years ago, we discovered that our six-knot hull speed is a theoretical number and has nothing to do with real conditions on the high seas.

While returning from a month in Desolation Sound, we took a break at Hornby Island, British Columbia, to do a little fishing for sole on the south side of the island. After about 15 minutes of jigging a Sonic lure over the sand, my rod was almost pulled out of my hand by what turned out to be a 25-pound king salmon. Once we landed that beautiful fish, we had to deal with not enough ice to pack that much fish into our cooler. So off we sailed to False Bay at Lasqueti Island, where we loaded up with ice and fish at a small general store.

We were so excited by the fish that we didn’t pay enough attention to the changing weather pattern. By the next day, False Bay was living up to its name by totally disappearing into a wave-torn shallow inlet.

Earlier that morning several larger sailboats had left to head south and, in less than an hour, they had returned to the “vanishing bay” because it was too rough in the Strait of Georgia.

With its surrounding rocks, we felt that False Bay was rapidly becoming more dangerous than the wind-torn open waters of the Strait. We made our decision to weigh anchor and head out to where a sailboat belonged, free of the land and buffered by plenty of sailing room on all sides of us.

Cathy fired up the engine and I raised the storm jib. With the engine running in neutral (which came in handy a couple of times to

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maneuver out of deep depressions following an exceptionally large wave, and to avoid hitting a small powerboat that obviously didn’t see us as it angled across our bow) and

Condesa finds a safe haven at the dock.

with the gale driving us at a steady 35 knots in four to six-foot waves, we were pushed along by the wind, the currents and the tide at an amazing 11.5 knots over the bottom.

In what seemed like a lifetime, but was actually the fastest time we had ever made over this route, we eased into the protection of Nanaimo Bay with new skills in our pocket, an experience to tell on the dock when people asked “How was it out

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there?”, a cooler full of king salmon, and the knowledge that hull speed is just a “theoretical number”.

-photo courtesy of Ron Snyder

Ron Snyder and Cathy Taggett are the owners of The Circle of Trees Art Studio and Homestead in Blaine, Washington where Cathy is an artist, and a Master Gardener.

Ron is a retired Seattle Public Schools Principal, and a former CWB Board Member.

Currently, Ron is the Co-Director of The Drayton Harbor Maritime-sponsored Blaine Community Sailing School, which has just won the US Sailing Association Award as the Outstanding Community Sailing School in the area of unique and creative programming.

Chantey, A Puget Sound Classic c o n t i n u E D

to send it to Marine World. The whole town turned out to see it lifted off the boat and into a plywood box, which was then somehow loaded into a DC-3 for the trip to San Diego.

Crossing the Nahwitti Bar at the north end of the island lived up to its nasty reputation for misery, but rounding Cape Scott and heading down the outside was worth every pounding minute and finally dropping anchor at the head of Browning Arm in the entrance to Quatsino Sound put the frosting on the cake. In Coal Harbor at the head of the inlet active whaling was still going on and I’ll never forget watching whales being winched up on the flensing platform and being taken apart in such a short period of time. The meat went to two side-by-side crews for packaging, Canadians and Japanese. The boxes being filled by the Canadians were labeled “whale meat, unfit for human consumption” and the Japanese boxes were labeled in English “Finest whale meat, hand packed for highest quality”. Though virtually unthinkable today, I have to admit that my whale stew that night tasted like the finest beef tenderloin.

The British Columbia fleet of salmon trollers was still large and very active at that time in the ‘60s. Places such as the government dock at Hot Springs Cove were crowded at night and there was a steady stream of tired fishermen going down the boardwalk to soak in the pools at water’s edge. That is, all but the Japanese Canadian trollers, whose day didn’t end until they had cleaned, salted and boxed up the roe from their day’s catch, a time-consuming

job. At the head of a nearby inlet, I spent a day spincasting a Daredevil in pools of the Mahatta River filled with “big” sea-run cutthroat and caught and released enough hard-fighting and jumping fish to last me a lifetime. I have pictures to prove it!

Memories of the ones that made it to the frying pan that night can still make me salivate.

The last leg of the trip started on a bright September day in Tofino as I sailed out into a typical late summer fog bank. It wasn’t until late that afternoon that I could finally see more than 100 feet as I made my way into Neah Bay to clear customs. There is nothing quite like hearing the swish of the propeller of an unseen freighter as it passes you in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and hopefully has you located on its radar, or the sense of relief to make your landfall after a day of being glued to the compass and going totally on dead reckoning. After four months on Chantey, my most vivid memory of getting back to Seattle is how unbelievably noisy the city was!

Over the years I sailed Chantey virtually into every corner of Puget Sound, the San Juan and Gulf Islands and the inlets and islands east of Vancouver Island. It was a time when one knew literally every wooden cruising sailboat by sight. A chance or planed meeting in a quiet anchorage was always cause for a night of stories and the opportunity to catch up on the “members” of our unique group. In the ‘60s not many recreational boats ventured north of Campbell River and it was still common to be invited in for tea at a lighthouse keeper’s cottage or be given a salmon

by a commercial troller anchored nearby (usually with a comment such as, “Oh, it’s a little undersized and I can’t sell it, so just help me out”). In many ways, life was much simpler and lived at a slower pace in the small remote communities of fishermen and loggers up and down the coast - a way of life when the only communication was by marine radio where everyone listened in on your conversation, supplies arrived infrequently on coastal steamers and you might make only one or two trips to “town” a year.

I loved my days with Chantey and had very mixed emotions as I watched ironically from Dick and Colleen’s dock - her new steward/owner sail her away to have his turn. The last time I saw her was some years ago in Bellingham. She was painted white, but still as beautiful as ever and looking like she was being well taken care of. She would be 75 years old now and I hope still has a long life ahead. She was a great friend to me.

Bruce Richardson, a charter member of CWB, moved to Decourcy Island, British Columbia, years ago after a career “in building, teaching and inventing things.”

His current interests include woodcarving, (Northwest coast native-style masks and bowls), lily hybridizing and, of course, puttering around boats, “particularly my own 25’ Nova Scotia lobster boat, that I have taken great pains to disguise the fiberglass hull of and fill the interior with wood”.

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A new Northwest maritime history web search tool makes it easy to find out where explorers first landed, where native canoes came ashore, where maritime artifacts are stored and where the region’s nationally registered historic vessels are home-ported.

The Center for Wooden Boats, Northwest Seaport, The Virginia V Foundation and the Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society, along with the Pacific Northwest Maritime Heritage Council, the Maritime Heritage Coalition of Portland, Oregon, and Britannia Heritage Shipyard in Richmond, British Columbia, and the maritime news website Three Sheets Northwest, have jointly launched the new Northwest Maritime Heritage search site. The online resource allows users to quickly find the region’s historic ships, lighthouses, maritime museums and events to help them explore the region’s nautical past.

“The new site will make it easier for patrons of all of Seattle’s maritime heritage ships and museums to discover the other amazing maritime heritage sites around the region, and for those who don’t yet know about our award-winning museum to find us,” said Dick Wagner, CWB Founding Director. “This new search tool will help better inform and educate the public about the Northwest’s maritime history and at the same time use technology to help increase regional tourism.”

The new site is powered by Three Sheets Northwest, the region’s only website providing daily boating news, views and community. The Northwest Maritime Heritage site provides multiple ways for visitors to find and engage with the vast number of places, attractions, vessels and organizations that provide the foundation of the Northwest’s thriving maritime heritage and culture. The site features a powerful search tool, maps showing the location of heritage sites and easy-to-browse categories of maritime attractions, organizations and vessels throughout the Northwest. The data in the site was originally collected through a program created by King County’s cultural services agency, 4Culture.

“It’s estimated that more than half a million people visit Northwest maritime heritage sites, maritime museums, historic vessels, lighthouses and other locations in British Columbia, Washington and Oregon every year,” said Les Bolton, Executive Director of the Grays Harbor Historical Seaport Authority, and one of the co-chairs of the Pacific Northwest Maritime Heritage Council. “This new online search tool is designed to make it easier for people to find the exact type of maritime heritage sites or vessels that appeal to them.”

“The site is easy to navigate, allowing the user to search by the type of attraction they are interested in,” said Bryan Klassen, Director of the Britannia Heritage Shipyard in Richmond, British Columbia, and another co-chair of the Pacific Northwest Maritime Heritage Council. “Tourists from B.C. to Oregon will be able to use this new tool to find new maritime heritage sites that they might not otherwise know about, and plan visits.”

There is no charge to use the new search tool at www.threesheetsnw.com/ maritimeheritage and anyone interested is encouraged to log in today to reconnect with more of their maritime history.

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The Dawn of Our Evolution B y

What a ride the genus homo sapiens has been on! In a far, far away place at an astronomical time before now, small tribes of our ancestors learned to make tools of bones and stones, cloths of fiber and skins, and pots of clay. There were no similar objects to use as examples. These first people used their imagination and opposable thumbs to invent practical, functional means to survive. Their ideas have always been in fashion. Thank these people for kayaks, outriggers, canoes and surfboards. They advanced technology through experiments, thousands of years before lectures, texts and patent laws.

There was a big chasm between the tribes of Og and the tribes of Vanderbilt. Learning by hand and mind, based on instincts and curiosity, was transferred to schools with desks, blackboards, books and teachers with college degrees.

Learning became processes and procedures fashioned by degree-laden experts. That system didn’t work for every kid. Youth of African, Hispanic, Polynesian and American Indian descent found difficulty following the twists and turns of algebra, geometry, integral and differential calculus, the laws of physics, chemistry and biology. Many dropped out with the belief that they were unfit for proscribed education.

Then came The Center for Wooden Boats, stumbling into the world of Og, where people learned through direct experience.

CWB was founded to preserve our small craft heritage by preserving the heritage skills. First we provided sailing and boatbuilding instruction for our most common visitors: middle-age, middle-class people. We noticed that when they completed learning to sail traditional boats or building a traditional boat, they were reluctant to go home. CWB was a place they held as special because here they learned by using the creative and the analytic parts of their brains, the same way they had learned to walk, talk and ride a two-wheeled bike - just like the Og family learned to make boats and tools.

CWB was not ignoring the youth. Elementary school kids came on field trips to CWB, where they were introduced to the complexity of handling boats and hand tools and they left

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with the toy boats they had built without lectures or written instructions. But where were the middle and high school youth? Through partnerships with social service agencies, we found clumps of kids who had dropped out or been kicked out of school. They came to us with their doubts of succeeding - and sometimes our doubts, after we read their police records. In only a few days, they were sailing without instructors. Did that give them self-confidence to solve complex challenges of math and science? Is water wet?

Early voyagers in the South Seas employed double canoes as they traveled from island to island. Pandamus leaf sails of the Oceanic lateen type, such as those on the New Caledonia canoe above, were attached to movable masts that were held in place by shrouds. The masts were forked at the top and the sail was raised by a halyard that passed over the fork. Double canoes also could be propelled by paddles, long poles for punting and sculls.

The sculls were inserted through holes in the central plank of the platform, given a half-turn and then thrust from fore to aft to propel the canoe. The lookout on the bow warned of rocks.

The self-confidence they gained from sailing opened their minds and emotions to a world of more complex challenges.

Pretty soon, sailing and boatbuilding were platforms for using fractions, addition, subtraction, multiplication and geometry. Science and math, teamwork and leadership were in their grasp. Hydrodynamics and aerodynamics were in their vocabularies.

Hands-on learning was our ancestors’ entry experience of survival. We are borrowing what they did to give lifetime learning experiences to our visitors - life-changing for some who come here believing education is impossible. Every year, about 100,000 youth, adults and living legends have maritime heritage experiences at CWB. At the end of a session of All Aboard, one of our summer camp programs for 16-year-old disadvantaged youth, two girls, Heidi and Allahtash, wrote this poem commemorating the launching of a 26’ Aleut Umiaq their group had built.

Boat Blessing We bless this day, we bless this boat whose spirit will live strong in our hearts.

We thank all the Gods for blessing us with wood and cloth to build this beautiful Umiaq.

The energy, the sweat, the blood and tears will always be remembered.

As we continue our voyage of life we will still work as a team. The currents of life are rough, but we will overcome all of them, keeping ourselves afloat.

We stand tall and we float high on our long future ride.

We know that our spirits will forever be aboard the Umiaq.

Allahtash and Heidi and their All Aboard classmates are the reason we exist. These kids came to us aloof, mistrustful and disillusioned. They believed they were destined to fail.

They left with skills that will be lifetime assets and a spirit of accomplishment they will never forget.

Top that, Harvard!

With a Little Help from Our Friends B y

Fund-raising is the life blood of any nonprofit organization but friend-raising comes before fund-raising. The Center for Wooden Boats would still be a dream if we didn’t have good friends.

Friends don’t come in a box with instructions for assembly. They come because they are inspired emotionally and functionally. For 35 years, CWB has offered a series of inspirational experiences that have affected our community and nation.

Through being a maritime museum of hands-on learning, we have been graciously supported by many friends – individuals, local, state and federal government agencies, non-profit foundations and forprofit businesses.

Here are some of the recent programs that we and our friends believe will enlarge and enhance the CWB experiences: The National Trust for Historic Preservation awarded $6,000 for “Creating Context at Cama Beach: The Boathouse Era on Puget Sound 1890-1970”. This will interpret the golden age of small craft Boathouses with emphasis on the history of the Cama Beach rental operation and how it compared to the hundreds of others on Puget Sound. Andrew Washburn, Manager of CWB at Cama Beach, will direct this project.

“Lake Union History Afoot and Afloat” was awarded $4,420 as a King County 4Culture Education Project. CWB Youth Educator Chris Maccini will work with our King County public and private school partners to present a unique Social Studies curriculum for grades 2-5. Students paddling our traditional boats will travel to historical sites on Lake Union and participate in

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i c k

appropriate hands-on activities at those sites.

For example, they might weave inner cedar bark at a Duwamish longhouse site or fly a model plane at the site of Bill Boeing’s first seaplane base.

King County 4Culture also awarded funds for a Heritage Special Project, “Persistent Work, Phase II”. Andrew Washburn will continue the project documenting the history

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a g n E r

own Ambassadors thanks to a grant of $20,000 from Seattle’s Department of Neighborhoods, which was inspired by an initial grant from the Rotary Club of Lake Union. CWB is working as part of Neighbors of Lake Union Park and helping lead volunteer recruitment, training and stewardship with the support of staffers Diana Hennick (Visitor Services) and

activities and history of the Park and its historic vessels. A mobile cart will provide brochures, maps, transportation directions and details of on-going programs. A Lake Union Park website will be an online source for information too.

For many years, CWB has had a Pirate pond boat building program at Alternative School #1. With a grant of $3,000 from the Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, this after-school workshop for youth ages 9-17 will expand to a second Seattle public school. The students will be introduced to boat design, use of woodworking tools, the physics of sailing and races at the Lake Union Park model boat pond.

CWB’s learn-by-doing programs have become an integral part of our community’s fabric with more than a little help from our generous friends.

National Trust for Historic Preservation

This bright red, wood-frame building has been a landmark along Seattle’s Salmon Bay since the 1920s. Originally a furniture factory, it was leased by George Broom’s Sons sailmaking and rigging business from the early 1970s until 2010, when the business moved closer to Fishermen’s Terminal. The building, owned by Time Oil Company, was slated for demolition. The photo is one of the images in an exhibit at CWB depicting Phase I of the Persistent Work project, documenting maritime industrial heritage in Lake Union and Salmon Bay. - photo: Abby Inpanbutr

of the maritime industrial heritage of Lake Union and Salmon Bay. Visitors to Lake Union Park and the Historic Ships Wharf will have their

Be An Ambassador

Visitors to Lake Union Park this summer will find an extra added attraction. The first corps of Lake Union Park Ambassadors will be on hand to provide visitors from near and far with a friendly welcome and information about the Park and neighborhood, as well as directions, events schedules and a story or two.

The Park Ambassadors in particular will connect residents of the neighborhoods surrounding Lake Union to the park and the activities it hosts and encourage the residents to get involved and participate. They will orient and direct park visitors to places, facilities, parking, restaurants and more and hand out informational printed materials such as maps and guides.

If that sounds like a volunteer job just made for you, it’s time to apply. Park Ambassadors will need to commit to a two-day training session and at least two four-hour shifts per month. Available shifts are 10 am to 2 pm or 2 pm to 6 pm Saturdays or Sundays through August. Park Ambassadors are considered volunteers at both The Center for Wooden Boats and MOHAI; as such, they are eligible for all of the regular volunteer benefits offered by each of these organizations.

To lear n more about the Ambassador prog ram, email volunteer@cwb.org. Applications may be downloaded and sub mitted at www.cwb.org/ambassador.

Lara Schmidt (Volunteer Coordination).

The new volunteer Ambassadors will welcome visitors, answer questions about the neighborhood, and help them learn the what, when and why of exhibits, events,

Seattle Office of

The Boats of Simon Watts Modern-day versions of classic, historic small boats are Simon Watts’ stock in trade. Hundreds have built them in the small classes that Simon has taught, principally on the West Coast. But one man can teach only so many classes. So for about 10 years, plans and building manuals for some of Simon’s most popular boats were available through a commercial firm in Canada.

Now the plans and building manuals for six of his most popular boats will be available through The Center for Wooden Boats, the exclusive West Coast distributor. The manuals are on CDs so builders can print out whatever parts they need. The plans are on the same discs and any large format printer can print them out on 30’ x 40’ paper.

The six classic boats for which plans will be available are: The Petaluma, a 19’6” lapstrake recreational rowing shell with sliding seat and outriggers, suitable for builders with intermediate level building experience.

Silver Thread, a 16’ traditional Cornish lug and mizzen. An all-purpose little ketch used for the inshore fishery. Some experience required.

Sea Urchin, a 10’ traditional rowboat, native to Nova Scotia’s south shore. A good children’s boat that also can be used as tender to a larger vessel. Intermediate level experience.

Norwegian Sailing Pram, a good building project for young people and for teaching sailing.

Handles well under oars or sail and can be car-topped. Suitable for novice boatbuilders.

Lapstrake Canoe. A 16’ traditional canoe that can carry two adults and their gear or be singlehanded. Suitable for novice boatbuilders.

International Fourteen, a fast lapstrake racing boat with a pedigree going back to the 1930s.

A challenge both to build and to sail but well worth the effort.

Of the boats, Simon says: “I chose boats that combined elegance with practicality and had a history going back, in some cases, hundreds or even a thousand years. I call them classics because they were (in the words of a student) carpentry made art. Mature designs that had reached a balance between the purpose for which they were built, the materials then available and the skills and techniques current at the time.”

Simon’s friend and colleague of many years, Bill Nielsen, lofted each boat and then developed detailed plans showing crucial parts, such as a transom or stem, full-size. He also drew the molds full-size so there was no need for lofting. Builders could skip that time-consuming step and proceed directly to making patterns. Bill’s plans drawings are so detailed, Simon said, that a veteran Nova Scotia boatbuilder looked at them and said, “I’ve built ships with less than that.”

Plans and a building manual for four of the six boats are finished. Bill Neilsen is still working on the Silver Thread drawings and the last boat in the series, an International Fourteen, vintage 1948, is under construction and won’t be available until late fall of 2012.

Plans and manuals for each boat are available on CDs and can be ordered at store@cwb.org

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The Care and Feeding of CWB Save Money To Help CWB By

Dan lEach

One of the many ways you can help The Center for Wooden Boats financially is by spending less money. What? That sounds a little counterintuitive doesn’t it? But it’s true. Pull out that membership (or renewal) packet that our Member Services goddess Judith sent you when you signed up (or renewed) and take a look at the flyer detailing the CWB Member Discounts.

So how does helping you save money help CWB? It helps a lot by letting these businesses know that there are a lot of CWB members, and that those members pay attention and care when a business helps CWB. The best way for you to show them that is to use the discounts they offer, take advantage of every special, enjoy any free appetizers, and then smile and tell them “Thank You for supporting CWB” when you pay your bill.

It sounds like such a small thing, but you would be amazed at the impact it can have when we meet with those businesses later on to ask them for more support, to sponsor an event or a program such as job skills training. If just a few CWB members have given them business and thanked them for their support, it makes it so much easier for that business owner to say “Yes” when we ask for help.

So if you have not looked at the Member Discount program in a while, you may want to. There are a lot of discounts; including several that are new this year.

For example, the folks at Clipper Vacations have signed up to make sure CWB members can afford to take a little time off this year. They aren’t just about fast catamarans to Victoria. Clipper vacations can set you up with a getaway to Victoria or Vancouver, the Canadian Rockies, the San Juan Islands, or all around the state of Washington. And CWB members get 10% off when they book that vacation.

Another interesting member benefit is at Off Center Harbor, a new online site that caters to wooden boat lovers everywhere. CWB’s own Dick Wagner writes for the site, which is filled with classic boating topics and videos of wooden boats.

We don’t limit our outreach out just to businesses that are purely maritime in nature. We like all kinds of hands-on crafts. One new Member Discounts participant this year is Keystone Arts & Crafts, an online store that provides recycled yarn for those who enjoy the craft of knitting.

Details about all these offers, and more can be found online anytime at www. cwb.org/support-cwb/become-member

Thank you to all our wonderful business partners who provide discounted goods and services to members of The Center for Wooden Boats:

Alberto’s Fiberglass Repair Art By Fire Ltd Birchard & Agee Marine Services Brilliantly Boxed Camano Sail and Power Clipper Vacations Crosscut Hardwoods Daly’s Paint & Decorating Fisheries Supply GetStoraganized Helly Hansen Inner Chapters Bookstore & Cafe Jillian’s Billiards Club Keystone Art & Craft Little Stone Flyfisher Michael Rosenberg Photography Off Center Harbor Pilates Seattle International Psychic Awakenings!

Sailing Directions Seastar Restaurant and Raw Bar Seattle Seaplanes Seven Star Women’s Kung Fu Starpath School of Navigation The Landlocked Sailor Tillicum Village & Tours, Inc. Waypoint Marine If you and others at your business love what CWB does and want to help us make membership an even more attractive proposition, please consider joining the Member Discounts program. Contact Dan Leach at CWB, 206-382-2628 ext.31, or e-mail dleach@cwb.org

Group Sail at CWB We offer sailing excursions on Lake Union for your community, school or business group (6-50 people) aboard our classic wooden boats. Have fun with friends and family while connecting with maritime heritage and skills. To schedule an hour or an afternoon sail, row or paddle in one of our CastOFF! Public Sail boats, contact groupsail@cwb.org. Available Tuesday-Saturday Cost: $120 per hour/boat for members or educational organizations/$175 non-members.

Whether you’re a business group looking to build some teamwork or just a bunch of folks out for an afternoon on the water, the 65’ classic gaffrigged 1927 Biloxi Schooner Lavengro is just one of the vessels available for Group Sails. A frequent visitor to Lake Union’s Historic Ships Wharf, Lavengro plies Northwest waters as a charter and sailing training vessel where the art of raising sails is exhilarating whether you are heaving on the lines or just observing.

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Shavings

The Care and Feeding of CWB Over The Bar

CWB Wish List Help CWB by donating your new or old items for the Office, Boatshop, Youth Programs, Adult Programs and Cama Beach. Contact us at (206)382-2628 or cwb@cwb.org if you would like to donate any items from the list below.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Coffee, coffee, coffee!

CLEAN tin cans (food cans) Sturdy dock carts Boat fenders Dock line Manilla line - any size Rain barrels Digital cameras Office paper, any color, any size Card stock, any color, any size Sandpaper Anchors in excess of 50 lbs Cordless power drills Crab pots Well-running outboard motors (5-15 hp) Spotting scope Binoculars Handheld VHF radios Rubber hip-waders/boots Paint and scrub brushes Nautical films Wine corks Spruce, Yellow Cedar, Red Cedar, Fir and White Oak wood Buckets Large unused sponges Blocks and cleats Decorative punches, rubber stamps, and other paper craft supplies Origami paper Cotton butcher’s twine Plastic or wooden clothes hangars Durable plastic storage bins with lids, 20 to 50 gallon capacity Retail display shelves and fixtures Lemonade or iced tea dispenser Vise grips Used nautical books AA Batteries Stationary Compressor 4” Angle Grinder Trim router Sawzall Circular saw Gasoline-powered pressure washer Woodworking hand tools - carpenters combination squares - tape measures - utility knives - bevel gauges - block planes - hand saws - chisels

Bob Hayward of Shoreline, Washington, first discovered The Center for Wooden Boats in our early years, when the phone in our houseboat kitchen was CWB’s main line. He told me then he was about to retire and was thinking that he and his wife, Mary, would like a little boat for blue sky cruising.

Before long, the Haywards had a trim little cruiser from Sam Devlin and the sometime cruise was underway - down the Mississippi, across the Gulf of Mexico and up the East Coast. They trailered the boat from Seattle to the Midwest to begin their adventure, sometimes sleeping in the boat along the highway rather than waste time finding a motel. What a dream way to begin his retirement!

When they came back, Bob spent thousands of hours at CWB, happily helping keep our boats in good shape, cutting toy boat hulls and sailing.

He had a partner in his volunteer adventures. Jim Feltrup – who this year completes his 25th year as a CWB volunteer – fondly recalls Bob as “an all-around volunteer for the Boatshop and for sailing. He was especially interested in the success of CWB and was very good with visitors.” Bob and Jim were famous among volunteers and staff for their approach to maintaining our fleet.

They each would singlehand boats from the Livery, putting them through their paces on Lake Union to make sure they knew every problem that needed attention. It didn’t hurt that the “inspections” got them out on the water regularly!

Together Bob and Jim cut thousands of toy boat hulls for events, using a jigs they made themselves. It was their tradition to volunteer for the first shift at the CWB booth at the big Seattle Boat Show every January. They also like to participate in radiocontrolled model meets at CWB. “Bob had served on a PT boat in World War II and built the most beautiful PT radio-controlled model,” Jim said. “I had a model tugboat.”

Bob also served on the first team operating our steam launch Puffin.

Bob Hayward passed away in May at the age of 86. Farewell Bob, a good and faithful friend.

– Dick Wagner

Volunteer of the Year!

Long-time CWB Volunteer David Bergey and his wife, Marian, (center) were on a Holland America Lines cruise to Hawaii when Ship’s Captain Henk Draper (right) asked to meet with him. David was surprised at the request but went along with it - and got another surprise when Captain Draper presented him with CWB’s 2012 Volunteer of the Year Award.

Hotel Manager Robert Versteeg (left) assisted with the presentation. David is CWB’s key volunteer in staging and managing offsite storage of historic boats and myriad other things that we don’t have room for at our on-the-water locations. If the Bergeys hadn’t been at sea, David would have received his award on April 28 at the end of CWB’s annual Member Appreciation Day. Nearly 80 households encompassing 170 individuals enjoyed a day of free activities for members, including boat rides and toy boat building.

– photo courtesy of Holland America Lines.

The

Steamship

V

Virginia

The Virginia V Foundation is a non-profit organization that depends on the support of volunteers, passengers, members and donors to maintain and preserve this National Historic Landmark.

Celebrating Her 90th Anniversary!

1922 Volunteer or become a member and experience this local historic vessel!

Help keep us steaming by holding your next event aboard this historic vessel, or by joining us on a public cruise.

The Steamer Virginia V Foundation (206) 624-9119 info@virginiav.org

www.VirginiaV.org Shavings

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Buy a Boat from CWB! The Center for Wooden Boats accepts donated boats that do not quite fit with our programs. We find good homes for these boats and use the proceeds to fund our operations. Contact the front desk for more info or call Steve Greaves at 206-371-0486. Also check our website - www.cwb.org - for new boats and sale prices!

 Inventory Reduction Sale  Sometimes it takes a while for just the right person to discover the wide variety of boats for sale at The Center for Wooden Boats. When that happens we reduce some prices to make those boats as affordable and available as possible. And that’s why we are having an Inventory Reduction Sale.

Our inventory of donated boats we can’t use for our programs can change rapidly. So don’t wait another minute. Check out the boats above and also go to our web site, www.cwb.org, to see other boats that may be just what you are looking for.

Some of our boats for sale can be seen at CWB at South Lake Union; just walk-in and ask the Front Desk person for the dock location and keys.

Others are in off-site storage so an appointment is necessary. Contact our Boat Donation/Sales Manager, Steve Greaves, at boatsforsale@cwb.org Every boat you buy puts more dollars to work in our direct experience education programs, so thanks for looking – and buying.

CWB Can Now Accept Car Donations!

Wood Duck. 19’ Core Sound Sharpie. Mid ’90s construction.

9.9hp Yanmar Diesel. Gaff rigged. Comes with cover.

Price Reduced: $6,900

CWB has accepted donations of boats for a number of years, but we’re excited to announce that we can now accept donations of cars and vehicles, too! An external service handles these donations, and CWB gets nearly 70% of the final sale price of the donated vehicle. If you choose to donate your car through this program, you may qualify for tax incentives, and you’ll also be helping support CWB! It’s a win-win!

To donate a used car (running or not!) please fill out the form on our website: www.cwb.org/ support-cwb/donate/

17’ Plywood outboard cruiser Puget Sound outboard cruiser right out of the 1950s.

Evinrude Lark outboard with remote controls and trailer.

Keep dry in the cabin while fishing on Puget Sound.

24’ San Juan sloop 1973 Fiberglass hull, Yamaha 9.9 4-stroke outboard, sails and rigging. Ready for cruising and racing.

Price Reduced: $3,900

Price Reduced: $1,900

The cure for all that ails you is water.

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY, CWB!

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Shavings

An Adventuress Adventure By

The day dawned with the usual gray overcast with threats of rain, a typical Pacific Northwest Saturday in the middle of March 1978. Earlier that week Colleen Wagner had coerced me into giving a knotting demonstration on board the 101’ schooner Adventuress for an event.

As I journeyed into Seattle that March morning, I was worried about where I could park my car without having to pay a parking fee and what would sailing on the Adventuress with a group of strangers be like - let alone talking about knots.

There was a light drizzle when we gathered on Pier 67 to sign in with Colleen and wait for the Adventuress to arrive. The clouds were swirling from dark to light gray and the wind was gusting. People were getting cold and rapidly becoming discouraged.

Then, about 45 minutes later, someone pointed out a white speck motoring down Puget Sound heading in our direction. The buzz in the crowd was that the Adventuress was coming. She appeared to be bobbing like a cork in the dark and turbulent waters. As she neared we could see several people onboard scurrying about, making ready to dock at Pier 67. Docking lines were strung out and fenders dropped over the side as the Adventuress glided up to the pier. Standing at the wheel, calmly giving orders, was a distinguished gentleman.

He had flowing white hair blowing in the wind, a true seasoned mariner. I learned later that he was Captain Karl Mehrer, the skipper of the Adventuress.

DEnnis armstrong

The 101’ 1913 Crowninshield schooner Adventuress still provides boatloads of visitors with an introduction to the joys of sailing. Old hands also appreciate the tradition of all hands on deck when it comes to raising the Adventuress’s sails or even getting a turn at the wheel. Learn more at www.soundexp.org – photo: Zachary Simonson-Bond

Between swells, we all scrambled down the boarding ladder. It is an odd feeling to be stepping off of the ladder and have the deck fall away below you. All of the guests were hustled below for a quick orientation about what to do in case of emergency.

At the conclusion of the lecture by the Captain, a mate asked if we should prepare to get under way. The order was

given. We could hear footsteps above us on the deck as lines were loosened and the engine started. Captain Mehrer looked at us with a wry grin and said, “They won’t leave the dock without me.”

As we motored away from the dock we were assigned to sailing stations and given duties. I was assigned to the second watch, whatever that was. As we motored into

Skilled craftsmenship Modern innovation Bronze - Carbon -Wood -Aluminum Whether you own a modern cruiser or a traditional yacht our aim is to make your sailing experience safer, easier and more fun!

Just completed; Bronze hardware for Sch. Martha’s new foremast.

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Elliott Bay, all hands began the process of raising sails.

First up, was the mainsail, followed by the foresail; next the head sails were raised. When everything was ready the engine was shut off and the bow turned into the wind. I will never forget the sensation as the sails filled and the Adventuress accelerated down the bay like a proud racehorse showing her heels to all comers.

The next time I was on deck, we were rounding Blake Island and heading back to Seattle. On this leg the wind was to our backs and drove the Adventuress even faster. I happened to be standing by the wheel when Captain Mehrer turned and said, “Here, take the wheel and hold this heading while I get a cup of coffee.”

This was the first time that I had sailed on a vessel of this magnitude. My sailing experience up ‘til then consisted of sailing El Toros on Green Lake. It was a truly unforgettable moment to be allowed to guide that powerful racehorse up the bay at what felt like 30 knots. This was a far cry from the tippy little boats I had sailed on Green Lake.

That sailing experience inspired me to seek other adventures on the big boats and to become involved with The Center for Wooden Boats and the Northwest Schooner Society. If you ever are offered an opportunity to sail on one of the large schooners on a windy day, take it. It will be an adventure that you will never forget.

[Editors note: Adventuress came north to Seattle in 1952, and today she serves as the flagship of Sound Experience, a non-profit organization dedicated to the protection of Puget Sound. Carrying more than 3,500 passengers each year on educational expeditions, the vessel has become an icon for environmental awareness and stewardship.]

Dennis Armstrong is a retired geologist who “tries to keep current with the ongoing developments in the geology of the of the Puget Sound basin”. He is a long-time member of CWB with a fascination for the ins and outs of what can be done with string, rope, and wire.

He has used that knowledge both to teach knot-tying classes and to train CWB volunteers.

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2012 FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS A complete schedule of highlights and activities will be available at the entrances and in the information tent during the 2012 Lake Union Wooden Boat Festival.

Free Boat Rides

Toy Boat Building & Kite Making

Take a trip on Lake Union by sail, row, paddle, steam, electric or power boat. Boats available vary but they all fill up fast! Sign up at the Outdoor Classroom/Free Rides Station.

Throughout the Festival, kids of all ages will be able to build their own tiny wooden ships to sail in the model boat pond and paper kites to fly from the rolling hills of Lake Union Park. Parents can help and watch their children learn to use hand tools to drill a hole for a mast, decorate their boats, and add line to their kites.

Nautical Trivia At 4pm on Saturday, Sunday, and Tuesday, salty sailors and landlubbers alike will have the chance to compete in Nautical Trivia in the Jillian’s pub tent for special prizes and the admiration of trivia rivals. Trivia questions will range from Festival stats and facts to a special round provided and sponsored by our friends at MOHAI.

Mariner’s Night at the Mariners On Monday, July 2, take a break from the fun at the Festival and head down to Safeco Field for a night at a Mariners game! Special tickets to the game can be purchased for $15 in advance by visiting www.mariners.com/cwb. Half of the proceeds come back to The Center for Wooden Boats!

Pond Boat Sailing

NLU Workshop & Warehouse Tours In May, CWB celebrated the opening of the North Lake Union Workshop & Warehouse! This formerly vacant building is now home to some of CWB’s collection of boats that are too fragile or precious to keep in the water. Come take a behind-the-scenes look at these boats and see what projects we’re working on at the moment!

Pirate Storytime on Arthur Foss Shiver me timbers! All pirates and pirate wannabes should head for the 113-year-old tugboat Arthur Foss on the Historic Ships Wharf for pirate tales and legends. Check the Schedule at the Information Tent and throughout the Festival grounds for times.

Ask a Boatwright

Lake Union Park is home to a 100’ diameter model boat pond. There are only a handful of these ponds in the United States, and South Lake Union is lucky enough to call one of them our own! Model boats, designed after the R-boat Pirate in CWB’s collection, will be available for the public to sail and enjoy. A great way to learn the principles of sailing!

At designated times during the Festival (check the Schedule), visitors can drop in to the CWB Boatshop to ask CWB’s resident boatwright questions about wooden boat maintentance, repair, construction and ownership! This is your chance for some technical advice from a professional boatwright!

Local Microbrew Night 

Microsoft Music Stage on July 4

Kick back and enjoy a variety of Northwest Brews at Microbrew Night! Buy a punchcard at the door and sample more than half a dozen local beers, and chat with some of the brewers themselves! CWB staff will also be on hand to pour beer and swap sea tales (visitors must be 21+) .

From 3pm until 9pm on the 4th of July visitors to Lake Union Park will enjoy music from local bands Hey Marseilles, Star Anna and the Laughing Dogs, and Campfire Ok. A huge “Thank You!” to One Reel, Microsoft, Starbucks and The Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce for teaming up to bring this free family event to the Lake Union Wooden Boat Festival.

A HUGE THANKS to Our 2012 Festival Sponsors!

Seattle Office of