Shavings Volume 10 Number 4a (July-August 1988)

2/SHAVINGS/July-August 1988

WOODEN BOAT FESTIVAL GROUNDS

T A B L E OF CONTENTS Festival Program of Events 3 Mariner's Marketplace 4 Video Room Schedule 6 Toy Boats 7 Why Wood? by Chas Dowd 8 My Ideal Boat 9-14 Daly's Owner-Restored Boat Trophy Winner 15 C W B Monographs Salish Canoe - Leslie L i n c o l n . . 16 Lake Union Dreamboat Corinne Anderson 17 Winds of History 19 Pinky, The Deck-Hand Dog Mildred Cole 21 Calendar of Events 23 How to Build a Museum Dick Wagner 24

Center for Wooden Boats 1010 Valley Street Seattle, WA 98109 (206) 382-2628 President: Dan Hinckley Director: Dick Wagner Assistant to the Director: Faye Kendall Commodore: Horace Ingram Editor: Corrine Anderson Typesetting and Production: Rich Hladky and Bondy Allen Contributors: Simon Watts, Peter Specter, Steve Osborn, Dick Wagner, Phil Thiel, Carol Hasse, Capt. A. G. Reynaud, Faye Kendall, Chas Dowd, Corrine Anderson, Leslie Lincoln.

Mildred Cole.

IT'S NEVER TOO L A T E . . . T O BE A VOLUNTEER The Lake Union Wooden Boat Festival, growing every year in popularity and attendance, wouldn't be possible without the help of a wonderful group of volunteers, helping out with production, construction of booths, sign-making, sales, information, and a little bit of whatever turns up. We can always use more help. If you'd like to be a part of this enthusiastic crew, and have the fun of experiencing a Festival event from the inside, please call Faye Kendall, 382-2628, and let her know when you would be available. As an added bonus, you'll be invited to the Volunteer's Potluck aboard the Wawona, Saturday, July 2, beverages provided by CWB, and gratitude provided by everyone. Join us — we guarantee a good time!

July-August 1988/SHAVINGS/3

PROGRAM OF EVENTS

JULY 2, 3, & 4 - 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Naval Reserve Center & Center for Wooden Boats, South end of Lake Union

S A T U R D A Y , June 2 11:00 a.m.

11:00 a.m. - 5:30 p . m .

12:00 noon 11:30, 1:00, 3:00 p.m.

12:00 noon - 5 p.m.

12:30 p.m.

1:00, 4:00 p.m.

1:00 p.m.

2:00 p.m.

2:00 p . m .

2:30 p.m.

3:30 p . m .

A H Day

Rowing race - slow boats Sailing videos, D r i l l H a l l Lake Union Challenge C u p - Quick and Daring Boatbuilding Contest Wawona history stage performance, on board the Wawona Folk music concert - aboard M / V A r r o Steve Philipp - maritime crafts of Puget Sound Indians, Drill Hall T o m Parker will be working on new bow pieces for the Wawona in the area west of the ship.

Rowing race - fast boats Songs of Sea and Ships, Stan James, Wawona El Toro sailing race Lee Ehrheart - Caulking demonstration Sailing races - two classes: fast and half-fast Toy Boat Building

SUNDAY, JULY 3 11:00 a.m.

11:00 a.m. - 5:30 p . m .

12:00 noon 11:30, 1:00, 3:00 p . m .

12:00 noon - 5 p.m.

12:30 p.m.

1:00, 4:00 p . m .

1:00 p.m.

2:00 p.m.

2:00 p.m.

2:30 p . m .

3:30 p . m .

A l l Day

Rowing race - slow boats Sailing videos, D r i l l H a l l Lake Union Challenge C u p - Quick and Daring Boatbuilding Contest Wawona history stage performance, on board the Wawona Folk musk concert - aboard M / V A r r o Steve Philipp - maritime crafts of Puget Sound Indians, Drill Hall Wawona - T o m Parker will be working on new bow pieces for the Wawona in the area west of the ship.

Rowing race - fast boats El Toro sailing race Fund-raising auction, boats, gear, tools, interesting goodies, D r i l l H a l l Lee Ehrheart - Caulking demonstration Sailing races - two classes: fast and half-fast T o y Boat Building

MONDAY, JULY 4 11:00 11:00 11:30 12:00 12:30 1:00 1:00 2:00 2:30 3:00 3:30 4:00 5:30 6:00

a.m. a.m. - 5:30 p.m.

1:00, 3:00 p . m . noon - 5 p . m . p.m.

p.m. p.m. p.m. p.m. p.m. p.m. p.m. p.m. p.m.

A l l Day

Rowing race - slow boats* Sailing videos, D r i l l H a l l Wawona history stage performance, on board the Wawona Folk music concert - aboard M / V A r r o Steve Philipp - maritime crafts of Puget Sound Indians, Drill H a l l N W Radio-controlled Ship Modelers, C W B Boathouse Rowing race - fast boats* EI T o r o sailing race Lee Ehrheart - Caulking demonstration A w a r d - the Daly C u p for best owner-restored boat.

Sailing races - two classes: fast and half-fast* Lake U n i o n Challenge C u p - The Race!

Awards - rowing, sailing and Lake Union Challenge cup Raffle drawing - announcement of winners

B O A T F E S T I V A L P H O T O M E M O R Y - Sponsored by the Fremont Public Association. Get your picture taken skippering one of our Boat Center dinghies, or become a part of the famous Fremont statue, Waiting for the [Good Ship] Interurban. Mariner's Marketplace.

B O A T FINISHES A N D FINISHING T E C H N I Q U E S - Demonstrations by Daly's near Drill H a l l Entrance. A l l weekend.

BUILDING MODEL ROWBOATS AND D I N G H I E S - Robert Ball and Thomas Walko, Drill Hall.

C A U L K I N G - Lee Ehrheart, North Quai C L A S S I C W O O D E N B O A T S - The whole point of the Wooden Boat Festival, lining the docks along the North edge of the Naval Reserve Grounds. Y o u are welcome to climb aboard (with owner's permission) and get a taste of life on the water.

FASHIONING A SPAR A N D DRESSING IT -Grays Harbor Historical Seaport. A l l weekend, Naval Reserve Grounds.

FOLK-SINGING, SEA SHANTIES, AND G E N E R A L M E R R I M E N T - O n board the M / V A r r o , North Quai.

HAND-THROWING ON

A POTTER'S W H E E L -

K N O T - T Y I N G D E M O N S T R A T I O N S - Experts in Sailor's knots will be selling their wares and demonstrating knot-tying through the weekend: Dennis Armstrong - on the North Quai K N O T - T Y I N G L E S S O N S F O R K I D S - A l l weekend in the Mariner's Marketplace.

M A R I N E P H O T O G R A P H Y - The best of the Northwest in two categories, Marine Scenics and Watercraft. Drill H a l l , all weekend. Winners on display at Seattle Aquarium, July 7-31.

QUICK A N D DARING BOATBUILDING C O N T E S T - 12-3 p.m., Sat. & Sun. Finished boats race on Monday at 4 p . m . Six teams race to see who can build a fast seaworthy boat in a short amount of time. Last year's winner was The Gossamer Penguin (inspired by Opus, the cartoon penguin) with a penguin schnoz figurehead, penguin tail at stern, paddle blades painted with penguin feet, and a crew decked out in full penguin regalia, black tails, beaked hats and all. The Quick and Daring contest is sponsored by Flounder Bay Boat Lumber, Ivar's, The Woodworker's Store, Lake Union Burger K i n g , Modular Video Systems, and Waterlines Magazine.

S A I L I N G V I D E O S - A full weekend schedule of some of the most exciting and interesting videos available on sailing, racing, cruising etc. Sponsored

by The Armchair Sailor. D r i l l H a l l . (See full schedule on Page 3)

Toy Boat Building

*Winners of Friday and Saturday races.

SPECIAL EVENTS DEMONSTRATIONS ETC. 101-FOOT S A I L - T R A I N I N G S C H O O N E R A D V E N T U R E S S - Open to the public, July 2 & 3.

A N T I Q U E E N G I N E S - Wawona Courtyard - Onelung engines gasp and pant for your amusement. The heartbeat of the dinosaurs.

B L A C K S M I T H I N G - Rich Stolsig and Jerry Culberson, A l l weekend, Wawona Courtyard.

SALISH MARITIME CRAFTS DEMONSTRAT I O N S - Steve Philipp, Drill H a l l , 12:30 p.m., every day.

T O Y B O A T B U I L D I N G - Build a toy boat; we provide wood, tools, masts, sails, everything you need.

Usually our busiest and most popular event. A l l weekend. Naval Reserve Grounds.

W A T E R T A X I - Free - Enjoy an escorted ride on board one of our rowboats or sailboats, from the North quai to the C W B Boathouse or back. Or make the cruise in one of the pedal-powered boats lent to us by Philip Thiel, builder and designer.

4/SHAVINGS/July-August 1988

VISIT THE MARINER'S MARKETPLACE Northwest Craftspeople Bring Their Wares to the Lake Union Wooden Boat Festival

For the first time this year, we are proud to have with us at the Boat Festival a number of fine craftspeople who will be displaying their wares just outside the entrance to the Naval Reserve Grounds. You'll see a number of marine-related items — handtooled fishing kniv silkscreened historic sailboat prints, leather-covered log books, rope sandals (non-skid and floatable), as well as jewelry, clothing and gift items. Take the time to stop and browse, and perhaps find a unique gift for yourself or one of your "boating" friends. And here's an troduction to a few of these fine people:

WHIRLY-GIGS TO GIVE YOU A WIND-READING. Beverly Rowan and Dawn Faley will be coming up from Oregon to bring us their very popular "whirlygigs," wind-powered, animated weather vanes. These sisters, sharing the chores and responsibilities of their business with their husbands and their father, have been producing their charming whirligigs for four years. They have a total of 23 different designs: some of their favorites are a fisherman, a Pacific dory man, two-man crosscut loggers , and a woman chopping wood.

H A N D M A D E K N I V E S - A Special Treasure We couldn't decide which of these two excellent knife-makers to invite, so we've invited both of them.

A handmade knife is something that will give you pleasure throughout your lifetime, and add a quality of artistry and craftsmanship to the moments you spend performing even the smallest tasks.

Adrienne Rice is a woman from Lopez Island whose beautiful knives are made primarily for working and fishing, with an emphasis on light weight, a keen edge and graceful design. She is one of only a few women in the United States who make knives from start to finish, handgrinding and heat-treating the blade, and making the handles from natural materials, such as ivory, horn, hardwoods, and antlers. Adrienne likes knifemaking because "it's a challenging craft, combining metalworking, woodworking, jewelry techniques, leatherworking and design."

Dave Reynolds, Terra Gladius Knives, is another fine knifemaker. Working in a garage equipped with a jury-rigged propane blast furnace, he creates a line of kitchen and hunting knives of many sizes and shapes.

He uses old logging saws for much of his work, cutting the shape on a cutting wheel, and then shaping it with grinders, sanders, and polishers. The blades are heat-treated to a cherry-red color to realign the atoms and create knife steel, and then plunged into a bath of Wesson oil (Dave says, "The old knifemakers say you don't use anything but olive o i l . " For economy, he uses Wesson). Tempered then by reheating to a given color to soften the steel, the blades are then ready for fitting to a hand-fashioned handle that "fits" the hand.

H A N D M A D E SLIPPERS FOR C O L D MORNINGS ON SHORE OR ON THE WATER. Karl and Ellen Thompson, Soft Shoes Natural Footwear, started their business in 1981, when Ellen made her first pair of "Soft Shoes" for their small son. They were made of handspun wool, with suede soles, and soon people began asking for them. The business has steadily grown and developed — Ellen now makes all the Soft Shoes, and Karl makes moccasins. The soft crocheted handspun yarn, and the insole lining of sheepskin, make the Soft Shoes one of the nicest things you can do for your feet. K a r l and Ellen are usually demonstrating their craft in their booth, with Ellen spinning or crocheting and K a r l stitching moccasins or sewing and stuffing a baseball.

Ask for a copy of their mail-order brochure — you may find just the answer for future gift-giving.

B O A T S , BIRDS, A N D SHIPS WOOD SCULPTURES OF THE NORTHWEST Marianne Hoefer-Kravagna, from Lake Stevens, Wash., learned to appreciate the magic of wood from her grandfather, a logger in Snohomish County. Us-

ing old handtools, he created Christmas gifts for children from the bits and pieces of wood in his shop.

Marianne has recently returned to that childhood experience by creating her own hand-sculpted ships and sea life. She and her family mill their own lumber and kiln dry it to prepare it for carving. She uses the traditional method of "steambending" to shape the sails on her ships, and finishes all her pieces with a natural stain made from her own secret recipe. She finds the work therapeutic, both physically and emotionally, and enjoys sharing the beauty of the Northwest with her customers.

SHAKER BOXES, AN ELEGANTLY HANDCRAFTED TRADITION. David Wuller, from Eatonville, Wash., will be showing his beautiful Shaker boxes, accurate reproductions of the original Shaker craft. The boxes are made by first cutting the bevelled "fingers," bending the sides and fastening with copper tacks. The top and bottom ovals are then shaped to fit, and fastened with small pegs. After sanding and finishing, David ends up with a classic and elegant box, as delightful visually as it is functional. David is a self-taught craftsman, who builds traditional and folk toys, and small pieces of Shaker furniture. He recently returned from six months in Wales, where his boxes met with enthusiasm. He was invited to be a supplier to The American Museum in Britain.

WOODEN TOYS T H A T " T A K E YOU B A C K . " Richard Restoule, " O l ' Chipaway Toys," makes the kind of toys that we can all relate to. Simple in shape

July-August 1988/SHAVINGS/5 and sturdy in design, these trains, boats and airplanes, handmade from "scratch," can be all things to all ages. The small boat can be, for a child, a ferry boat one day, a tug boat the next. For an adult it might be a mantelpiece memory of childhood vacations on the family cruiser. Richard is a native American from the Chippewa nation, from which he derives his business name. He has been making wooden toys and showing them at arts and crafts shows for eight years. Pay him a visit, and just see if you aren't tempted to play with and enjoy his toys.

Here's a complete list of our craftspeople:

TIPPECANOE BOATS, A BOATSHOW F A V O R I T E Will Lesh, Tippecanoe Boats, has shown his handcrafted Wooden Toy Sailboats in the past at the Boatshow, and they are always met with delight. Ranging in size from 10" to 28", they are made of traditional boatbuilding materials such as Western Red Cedar for the hulls, spinnaker sailcloth for the sails, solid brass for the fittings and lead ballast for the keels. They sail beautifully, especially on a light piece of monofilament fishing line from the shore. It's a bit like flying a kite on the water. The sailboats are designed and built by W i l l and his family, and have a durability and beauty that will please wooden boat fans of all ages.

T o m Bates — Zebulon Engraving Engraved Stones Pat Colyar Stoneware and Porcelain L y n n Dee — Handpainted Originals Clothing and Silk Scarves Jocelyn Doyon Quartz crystal jewelry Cathy Fields Leather purses, log books Jim Hamilton — Pacific Marquetry Marquetry Gayle I. Hansen Seaweed pressings Hans and Imagean Heyn — The Leather Hut Leather bags, etc.

Marianna Hoefer-Kravogna Wood sculptures Eva Lau & Scott Huang — Lau's & Co. Handmade jewelry Simone Karel — Kaleidoscope Handmade bags W i l l Lesh — Tippecanoe Boats Toy sailboats Jim Madden — Reflections Press Silkscreen boat prints Dan & Louisa Millett Brass, copper, silver bracelets Ed Monger — Cedar River W i l d Woods Wood carvings

36' FRANCIS KINNEY S L O O P , blt in Sweden 1961. African mahog. on oak, outstanding Construction, one of only two built. At our dock now $49,950.

36' KNUTSON S L O O P , blt. New York 1957, Mahog. on oak. 3-21 Westerbeke diesel installed 1981. Vessel has had exc. care and maint. At our dock now $35,000

41'6" CHRIS C R A F T , dbl cabin, flying bridge. A 1950 classic, twin 175 hp Hercs, radar, VHF, DF. Prof, modifications have made this a beautiful liveaboard... $40,000

29' H E A V Y T U G S T Y L E CRUISER, 60 hp Isuzu dsl, new restoration in '85/86. New Dickinson dsl stove, DF, VHF, searchlight, 2000 mile+ cruising range and clean as they come $28,000.

HANAN MARINE The recognized number-one wooden boat brokerage in the Northwest.

2401 N. Northlake Way Seattle, WA 98103 "A BOAT FOR EVERYONE"

Richard Restoule — Ol' Chipaway Wooden Toys Wooden boats, trains, etc.

Dave Reynolds — Terra Gladius Knives Handmade knives Adrienne Rice — Madrona Knives Handmade knives Pat Ringbauer — Burgundy Rose Creations Quilted hats, bags, accessories Beverly Rowan, Dawn Faley — Yard & Deck Ornaments Whirligigs

Linda Smart — A Thousand Cranes G o l d and Silver Jewelry

Betty Vestuto - The Art Store Paintings on nautical charts

Carolie Tarble — Phoebe Indigo Design Weaving

David Wuller - Cambrian Designs Shaker boxes

Chia Thao Hmong Needlecraft Ellen & Karl Thompson — Soft Shoes Natural Footwear Handmade footwear Mark Troxel — Jenmar Rope sandals Janice Tucker — M a d Hatter Handknit and sewn hats

Janet Watson - Windsox by Womyn Windsox

6/SHAVINGS/July-August 1988

VIDEO ROOM SCHEDULE Sponsored by

ARMCHAIR SAILOR MARINE BOOK AND NAVIGATION CENTER

S A T U R D A Y , July 2 11:00 12:20 1:30 2:20 3:10 4:00 5:00

Sailing Film Festival To Win at All Costs Coastal Cruising in British Columbia Around Cape Horn Sails and Sailors: J-Boats '37 Born to Sail U. of W. Crew - The Early Years

S U N D A Y , July 3

M O N D A Y , July 4

11:00 11:50 12:45 1:40 2:50

11:00 12:10 12:40 2:30

3:40 4:40

The Ways at Wallace & Sons Hot Yachts, Cold Water Sails and Sailors: J-Boats '37 To Win at All Costs Coastal Cruising in Desolation Sound Patagonia Force 10 U. of W. Crew - The Early Years

3:30 4:20

To Win at All Costs The Bank Dory Ocean Racing Combo Coastal Cruising in British Columbia Sails and Sailors: J-Boats '37 Patagonia force 10

Around Cape Horn

Ocean Racing Combination

Onboard the massive bark Peking in 1929 during the last great days of commercial sail. Narrated by Captain Irving Johnson, shows spectacular scene during a wild storm as the ship rounded Cape Horn. 37 min.

Kialoa to Jamaica, 31 min.; Rapid Transit, the The building of one of the famous Banks dories, 1979 Transpac, 10 min.; Reckon With the Wind, explained John Gardner, curator of small craft at mountaineer Jim Whittaker, '76 Victoria to Maui Mystic Seaport Museum. 18 min.

Race, 31 min.; Maximum Effort, the first SORC of the Ron Holland 80' Kialoa, 28 min.

Born to Sail

Patagonia Force 10

Alain Colas aboard his towering four-masted, 230-foot schooner, navigates the Atlantic with 10,000 square meters of sail. 51 min.

Ten French adventurers set off for the tip of South America. Winner of the Adventure class at the La Rochelle Film Festival in 1983. 52 min.

The Ways at Wallace & Sons

Coastal Cruising in British Columbia

Sailing Film Festival

Valuable knowledge on safe harbors, provisioning, and navigation for one of the finest cruising areas in North America. 40 min.

Three films, including Have Windsurfer, Will Travel; Hall of Fame Regatta; and Sailing the Virgin Islands and Lake Tahoe 69 min.

Coastal Cruising in Desolation Sound

Sails and Sailors: J-Boats '37 (Yachting in the '30s)

Cruising in the waters of the Pacific Northwest. 50 min.

Hot Yachts, Cold Water The fastest racing yachts in the Pacific, in the St. Francis Yacht Club Perpetual Trophy Race, the Transpac, and the Six Meter Worlds. 45 min.

The Bank Dory

Includes period newsreel in color of famous 1937 race between Ranger and Endeavour II; Dorade; during the 1931 Transatlantic; Fastnet; Yankee's Cruise to England; and The Last J-Boat Race which details Ranger's construction, launching and her fantastic racing record during 1937. 45 min.

The story of the New England shipbuilders who gave birth to the ill-fated schooner John F. Leavitt, which went down on her maiden voyage. 40 min.

To Win at All Costs The Story of the America's Cup From a re-enactment of the first race in 1851 to the lifting of the Cup by Australia in 1983. Rare archival footage, paints, stills and drawings illustrate the men, yachts, materials and effort surrounding this controversial yachting event. 56 min.

U of W Crew - The Early Years 45 min.

All these videos and lots more are available for sale or for rent at the Armchair Sailor, 1500 Westlake Avenue North, Seattle, WA 98109, 283-0850.

July-August 1988/SHAVLNGS/7

T O Y BOAT, TOY BOAT They sail, they steam, they're jetpropelled, they're amphibious and submarine, they even fly. Some are painted all the colors of the rainbow.

One I know of had two V-8 juice-can outriggers, and there are hundreds and hundreds of them around Seattle and environs — the products of the Center for W o o d e n b o a t ' s t o y b o a t workshops.

This year you might have seen them evolving at the C W B site on Kid's Day. A p r i l 23, or at the downtown waterfront during Maritime Week. If not, be on the lookout at our Twelfth Annual Wooden Boat Festival at South Lake Union, July 2, 3, and 4.

If you want a reminder of what real, unbridled, flat-out creativity is, stop by the Toy Boat Workshop area at the show. We provide the materials — hull shapes, off-cut shapes from local cabinet shops, dowels, sail fabric, string, glue, nails, magic markers, drills, saws, hammers — and the young boatbuilders/designers provide the v i sion. John Gruenwald and his crew of helpers stand by if assistance is needed.

(You'll know this band of saints by their haloes.)

Every time we do this schtick, I'm astonished at its popularity. I guess being presented with the opportunity to be creative is very attractive. It may be that it just doesn't happen that often,

Photos by Larry Dahl be we adult or child. (During Kid's Day we used the Wawona because it was drizzling. I asked one of the volunteers how it was going on board. He replied, "Great! There's a bunch of adults up there building toy boats while their kids watch.") The simple act of doing can be a pleasure in itself. A d d learning to doing, and wrap it all up in a warm and friendly atmosphere of encouragement, and you just may have what makes all our efforts at the Center so well received.

— Faye Kendall

8/SHAVINGS/July-August 1988

THE TWELFTH EXPLANATION ABOUT WHY WE BUILD BOATS OUT OF WOOD Why wood?

W e l l , the best reason to build a boat out of wood is so that you can build it yourself. Small ones can be built on a budget. Your family can help. Finally, if you're working in your garage you can do it at your own pace. Ask John Myers, who is building a small Russ Hatte-designed plywood sailboat in his garage with the help of his family.

Enthusiasm is the only essential. John likes to tell a story about the time they took the boys to the circus. Circus anticipation was high all week and circus talk dominated family conversation, especially at bedtime. The Myers left early enough to prowl around the menagerie and load up on cotton candy, but another event tangled them in traffic. They elected to look at boats until the traffic sorted itself out. When the last moment to abandon the marinas for the delights of clowns and trapeze artists arrived, it took main force to get Joshua back in the car, virtually in tears.

"We're true boat nuts," laughs his wife JaDene. 'I think it's a kind of birth defect."

John found their current boat-in-progress at one of our Festivals. JaDene was carrying their number two son, Jacob, and John was baby-sitting Joshua.

"It's a lie that I dragged her to the Show," John stoutly maintains. "I actually had a wheelchair."

Boats small enough to be built in a garage are not expensive. Material costs can be kept low if you're working with quarter-inch exterior grade plywood.

John's tools are mostly carpenter's tools bought to remodel their family room. " M y only power tools are a bandsaw, a disk sander, and a quarter-horse drill I use to drive screws," John says. "I used four planes, getting the most use out of the block and the rabbet plane. I used a dovetail saw a lot, cutting notches in the frames for the stringers. The rest of my tools are simple hand tools like hammers and screwdrivers. I also found out I needed a lot of clamps. Just plain C — clamps, mind you, but a whole lot of them.

Sometimes I'd have to stop a process midway and make the rounds of the neighbors, borrowing clamps. Somebody told me that the number of clamps I needed was always two more than I had."

Sometimes John had to improvise. To bend the ends of the stringers, he put a vaporizer on a C o l eman stove and stuck a length of flexible plastic tubing over the spout. He slid the other end over the end of each stringer in turn, plugging the leaks with rags. With this unconventional steambox, John didn't lose one stringer.

When he began, John had assumed that he was go-

ing to be working with relatively modern — and therefore easier — building techniques. " H o w hard could it be to build a multi-chine plywood boat, I asked myself," said John. "I found out that the answer was quite hard, actually." As far as new, simpler techniques are concerned, John realized after building the centerboard trunk, shaping the keel and assembling the moulds that not much has changed in boatbuilding. "In many ways, I found myself building a very traditional boat," he said.

There have been good surprises too. For one thing, John's skills, like his tools, are left over from his remodeling job. So far, they've been more than sufficient. Some problems never developed. JaDene hired a babysitter so she could go out in the garage and help John figure out the black art of lofting.

They kept waiting for the hard bits, but lofting turned out to be a lot easier to do than to read about. When we looked at the work in progress, John pointed out several places he wasn't completely satisfied with, but agreed immediately that when the boat was in the water, only he and the family would know of their existence.

John finds that the ability to set his own pace and do things in his own time has been a great help in the project. It gives the family time to do other things together that are important in maintaining perspective. When he runs up against a problem, he has time to go to his books and hunt up a solution. During the most intensive stage, when he was transferring the loft lines and building the moulds, JaDene occasionally brought him in from the garage to reintroduce him to the boys. John thinks that maintaining a pace like that would burn him out long before the boat was ready for the water.

"I stop and start; get burned out and then get motivated. If I come to a place where I need three hands, I can send one of the boys in to get JaDene to help. The boys are out here most of the time that I'm not working with epoxy or doing sanding.

Jacob mostly pounds on the strongback with his hammer, but Joshua does a good job of gophering when I need it."

Russ Hatte developed the design John's using from the Drascombe lugger. John has the profile drawing on the garage door leading into the house. The outline of a small cuddy is penciled in just forward of the mast.

"The cuddy is so the kids can get in out of the wind and rain for a bit," John explains. "We're probably going to lower the thwart that braces the trunk, too, so they can climb up there more easily.

It's important that they enjoy the boat and that boat trips will be happy times. We want them to enjoy sailing." The cuddy will take some space from the cockpit, so John plans to leave off a 20-inch long afterdeck originally designed to provide stowage for the outboard. That modification will also give the boys another seat.

A n d there is the final reason for building your own boat: you can make it just the way you want.

Why wood? Why not?

— Chas Dowd

July-August 1988/SHAVINGS/9

My Ideal Boat In the beginning, Henry Gordon, Chas Dowd and Dick Wagner sat in Dick's office one dreary winter evening, sipping Grant's Ale and talking, more or less, about the Boatshow issue of Shavings, Henry either burped or shouted 'Eureka!'.

At any rate, he had a revelation to share about how to make this issue a special one 'Let's get people to write about their 'dream' boat — it could be their first love, or an imagined ideal boat.' Chas composed the letter, Dick signed it and sent it out to about 100 people he guessed would have some interesting thoughts to pass on. Here is part of the letter, and their responses. We hope you will offer your thoughts for future issues.

"In the heart of every boat lover there is the Ideal Boat, You may never have owned her. She might have been glimpsed from a highway bridge as she sailed beneath your hurrying car. She may be the reason you kept the 1955 yachting magazine that has been mused over so much its print is starting to fade. She may have been a boat you met as a youngster, unable to do more than dream. But she's the boat you compare every other one to. Here's the chance to tell the world about her. . ."

Dear Dick: As I went to file your request for the ideal boat in the circular file, I found myself pausing with paroxysms of armjerking. Somehow I couldn't resist sitting down with my dictation machine and musing over my ideal boat. I guess the major reason is that I spent a great deal of time, prior to building Able, thinking about what my ideal boat is.

Just bringing the subject up again overwhelms me with nostalgic thoughts.

If I have learned anything after having owned the ideal boat for four years now, it is that the first requirement for an ideal boat would be that it would paint and varnish itself! Everything else is a mere detail.

I always felt that the ideal boat should be small enough to single-hand in and out of your slip when no other crew is available, yet large enough to make a safe and comfortable ocean passage. Having done them both, I feel that my 24-foot vessel fulfills this admirably. No vessel is without its compromise, and there are times when Able feels too small; other times, especially when I am doing the annual bottom sanding, it feels as if it's not small enough.

Another important requisite is that there be one good place to stand to put on and take off my trousers. That place exists in my cabin (I am 5' 2") under the generous skylight in the middle of the galley area (5' 7").

A s m a l l boat needs one of everything, including one comfortable place to sit. My most comfortable

many years, 1 must admit that I got tired of moving the food to have a reading period, then moving the

honeymoon with my 9-hp Farryman.

Even my faithful and able sailing companion, Bobbie Butler, has come around to the idea that oddball engines don't have to be mechanical curDr. B E R T R A M L E V Y wields a mean scalpel as a mudgeons. urologist. But he can be justly proud of the 24' Lyle Finally, my ideal boat has to be a Hess sloop he built in his Port Townsend back yard. good looker. I would be the first to admit that I am saddled with a strong It's as fine a piece of boatbuilding as you'll ever see. sense of spiritual materialism. If I can't be in love with the lines and layout of "If I can't be in love with the lines and layout of my my boat and rig, then I can't get enboat and rig, then I can't get enthusiastic about taking thusiastic about taking it for a long it for a ride." ride. (I have owned two fiberglass boats over the last 35 years, and somehow I never got around to naming reading to have an eating period, then moments have been with a sail bag them.) moving everything in order to take a bunched up behind my back and my In any case, I spend so much time at nap. Stowage in the 24-foot boat is feet up on the other settee, a good the helm that I get endless pleasure out tricky and is tantamount to writing book in hand. So, elaborate cabinetry of sighting the sheer as water flows by haiku verse. After four years, I am and settee design are not as important at six and a half knots. I would even now beginning to understand my as being able to place your sails in a space's weight distribution and I have admit to the childish behavior of setcomfortable resting position. ting my vane, climbing out on the this inexorable faith that the ideal will My ideal boat has to have a handy bowsprit and spending an afternoon be achieved.

At least I can function rig. A cutter certainly fills the b i l l , looking back at where I have gone around the vessel when she is fully although I am less enchanted with rather than where I'm going. ocean ready without feeling a sense of the bowsprit after having beat back up clutter.

I did not plan this to come out as an the horse latitudes. Somehow there is a Ode To My Vessel. But as I said at the As far as auxiliary power is concernfundamental design flaw if you have to beginning of this tome, I had a fairly ed, the engine must crank. Carrying release the wind vane and run off clear vision of what my ideal boat enough fuel on ocean voyages to keep downwind to furl your Yankee onto the battery charged is an impossibility would be before I bought my timbers the bowsprit, and then harden up and in a small vessel. I found it much more go through the whole process of resetin 1978. I was even presumptuous successful to let the batteries go dead ting your vane. I guess a furling jib is enough to name my vessel accordingly: and just crank the engine when crossthe answer, but the dinosaur in me Able. Able to do ocean passage making shipping lanes. The Norwegian resists contraptions. ing, and able to take out and ride behemoth with which I suffered for Another important requirement is around the bay after work, like an easy three years was not an adequate soluthat all the gear should have its place. chair. To that end, five years later, tion, but now I am having a wonderful Having cruised the 16-foot Fancy for Able fills the bill fine.

Sincerely.

Bertram

10/SHAVINGS/July-August 1988

Say SIMON W A T T S three times with your eyes closed, click your heels, and Simon the Wizard from San Francisco will come and teach you how to build a lapstrake boat. Between the time of his story and now, he has been an engineer, architecture student and furniture builder. His current workshops in lapstrake construction have produced a variety of traditional boats from coast to coast, and a rabid fan club of Simon Watts fans.

The first week of summer holidays we set to work. Cleaned out the mud — a job for Sisyphus because the tide brought it right back in — and inspected the holes. Replacing planks was far beyond our combined skills so we had to patch them. This was the England of 1947 and there was a desperate shortage of everything. After scouting around we got our hands on some lead flashing, which, I regret to say, we filched from a bombed-out building.

We were already back in school when the reply cameCutting sheet lead with gardening shears is laborious work. We did by telegraph: 'Delia Yours' . . there was no money fashion some patches, suitably stepped mentioned."

Her name was Delia. She was leaning against a crumbling wharf on a muddy estuary ten miles from the sea.

A pretty little lapstrake boat with a cabin, two berths and a roomy cockpit.

The spars and rigging lay on the dock alongside. Delia was half full of mud and it seemed the tide had been running in and out as if there were no boat there at all. I remember the chocolatebrown highwater mark around the cabin.

1 and a schoolboy friend were on holiday in Norfolk. We fell in love with Delia and on the spot decided to salvage her — repair wasn't quite the word. We would clean the mud out,

to fit the laps, then nailed them to the hull. Years later I discovered that this is a legitimate technique and even has a name — a tingle.

By now the holidays were half over and Delia still had not shaken herself free from the mud and risen with the tide. One morning we came down to find that some vandal, needing rollers in a hurry, had sawn our mast into two-foot lengths. That was the end of our dream. Delia never did leave that wharf but now, some forty years later, I have a cherished Nordic Folkboat.

Her name? you've guessed it: Delia.

patch the holes in the hull and be sailing up and down the estuary that summer.

First we must buy the boat. We decided no reasonable owner could refuse an offer of five pounds so we composed a careful letter and dropped it in the letter box. It came back two days later with a note from the post office: the owner had moved to South Africa and would we care to pay the air mail? So we dispatched the letter a second time and were already back in school when the reply came by telegraph: "Delia Y o u r s , " it stated succinctly. Money was not mentioned.

CAPTAIN A. F. REYNAUD is 90 years old. He has been sailing the deep seas since age 14, and is still going strong. He is a master of sail, all oceans. I'd venture to say he has sailed over more saltwater than any of us, so when the Captain speaks, there's more than an encyclopedia of experience behind every word.

"A long stretch, a deep, soul satisfying drink, and you know you're aboard an ideal boat."

To my mind and heart, the ideal boat is a sixty-five foot schooner, with topmasts and gaff headed rig, a square sail on the fore mast, and a diesel motor for auxiliary power.

That's just the beginning: she should be built of wood, the best of teak, oak, cedar and fir, that will last indefinitely with the care such a vessel should rate.

Thus she would always be ideal.

The masts should be well stayed, and ratlines on both sides to get aloft and secure the topsails. Not too lofty, and sails well designed to make steering an easy task. Plenty of belaying pins and cleats to secure the running gear.

Bulwarks, life lines and stanchions to keep the crew aboard at all times.

Ground tackle to be varied, and of the proper size to secure the vessel under all circumstances.

A schooner that large would be ideal for sailing on long, protracted voyages, well able to take whatever weather conditions may befall her, and be sea kindly in every respect.

Below deck — full head room and ample ventilation, ready access to all parts, and a cabin sole without too many levels.

A good beamy deck, easy to get around on in heavy weather, and a cockpit to provide a bit of shelter from heavy spray and wind. The trunk cabins and skylights should be watertight in heavy weather, and big enough to provide light and ventilation to the cabin.

Well laid out quarters are a joy forever, and contribute to the crew's comfort and safety. The galley and a head aft for convenience, and a navigator's area with the essential instruments. There's more to work out, but this should give you a fairly good idea of what it takes to make a boat.

With all this you can go below after a hard blow, peel off your oil skins, stand close to the galley range, and let the warmth thaw out your cold hands.

Then let one of the crew put an oversized mug of hot, buttered rum in your hands, and you sit back and take in the warm comfortable quarters, and spend the watch below relaxing.

Then she eases up, and you see a flash of sun on the sea, then hear the sound of a sail fluttering up in the breeze as it's being set. A long stretch, a deep, soul satisfying drink, and you know you're aboard an ideal boat.

July-August 1988/SHAVINGS/11 My old shipmate, Jack Weingand, Jack and Jean went up to the and I spent hundreds of hours sailing Wooden Boat Festival in '84 and Jack and Jean, or Jack and I, sailed his lug-rigged, Speck-built "Sid S k i f f , visited Ray Speck, who had moved up her all over San Pablo and San FranNavron, discussing the ideal boat. She there from Sausalito. Jack took the cisco bays, up various creeks and must be fairly small, traditionally rig- drawings from G o o d Boats with him sloughs, the Delta and the Petaluma ged, and able to take the ground, for and asked Ray if they could be scaled River. We enjoyed her immensely.

Jack and I were both lovers of Riddle up. of the Sands and enjoyed poking around in thin water and small coves.

S T E V E O S B O R N is a Captain in the Sausalito Fire She had to be a good sea boat, for San Dept. He has been known to spend hours "inspecting" Francisco Bay can kick up some pretty heavy weather on short notice. She Sausalito's waterfront, with special attention (for fire must comfortably sleep two and not be safety, of course) to the moorings of classic wooden too cramped for extended cruising.

We were both marine history nuts with extensive libraries, which we combed from Architectura Navalis Mercatoria to Xanthippe. We compared lines and discussed sailing narratives for years.

One boat that kept coming up in conversation was George Holmes' Humber Y a w l , Eel, designed and built in 1896. She was a little small at 21' on deck and 19' on the waterline, but Roger Taylor's comments in G o o d Boats provided the clincher. He said that Holmes had had fifteen boats in fifteen years and he kept Eel for the next fifteen. He finally sold her to another man who had had many boats over the years. He kept her for twenty!

She had to be good to seduce a couple of restless boat nuts like them. The original Eel is still going strong and was sold a year or two ago.

national Airport was shut down during the afternoon due to high winds. An extremely rare occurrence. La Mouette finished third in her class! She carried the big j i b , single reefed main and full mizzen for the whole race and, at times, ran over nine knots! We sailed the 13.3 NM course in 2 hrs. 29 min. for an average speed of 5.36 knots.

Most of that time, my heart was in my mouth, but everything held together and she drove on, exhibiting much less stress than her owner.

boats. If Steve becomes Chief, the odds in the No Name Tavern, I hear, are that Sausalito will have a fleet of fire boats, all gaff rigged.

I am fifty years old and have been on the water since I was six. I have worked on trollers, sailed square rig, dipping lug, gaff, lateen and Marconi boats. La Mouette is the finest Seaboat and best all around boat I have ever sailed. Ray and La Mouette "You can stop searching for the ideal K i t put together a masterpiece.

boat, for I already have her and I don't intend to part I intend to keep her for the rest of with her." my days. When I retire, I hope to sail The phone rang; it was Jack, "Steve, we've seen Ray. He's going to build us a twenty-three foot Eel!"

La Mouette (the little gull) is built of Port Orford Cedar, lapstrake over oak frames, copper fastened. The deck is painted canvas over Irish Felt over first growth Red Cedar. She has an 'L' shaped centerplate, is 23' by 8' and draws 28" with the plate up. Her rig is a high-peaked gaff yawl. She was delivered by Ray and Kit Africa, who was co-builder on the project, in 1985, rigged by Summer '86 and proved to be "If she were just a couple of feet an even better boat than expected. She longer, she would be really com-was featured in the M a r c h / A p r i l 1987 fortable. . " issue of WoodenBoat magazine.

In 1987, Jack died in an accident. I was fortunate to be able to raise enough money to buy her from Jean and have sailed her quite a few miles since, including some ocean sailing.

Jack and I had an ambition. We wanted to sail La Mouette in the annual Master Mariners' Regatta on San Francisco Bay. I joined the Master Mariners' Benevolent Association this year and entered her. She is classed as G-III. Gaff rig under 30').

her up to Puget Sound and spend some time exploring the Sound and the San Juans, etc. That should make a good sail and a good yarn.

As I said, you can stop searching for the ideal boat. She's tied up at Galilee Harbor in Sausalito, here in San Francisco Bay. Come visit, and I'll take you for a sail.

The race was held Sunday, 29 M a y 1988. The winds were predicted 20 to 30 knots, gusting to 45. Later, we found that the winds were gusting to 50-60 knots, and San Francisco Inter-

is a Contributing Editor of WoodenBoat magazine and writes "On the ' Waterfront" and the most incisive, thoroughly researched, crisply written articles, often on controversial subjects like the National Maritime Museum, the Great Lakes schooner, Alvin Clark, and the sinking of the John F. Leavitt. This touching childhood memory is a most appreciated donation from a guy who writes for a living.

PETER H. SPECTRE

'It was stable and it didn't leak and it didn't cost $35 and it was mine.

When I was a boy, growing up on Cape C o d in Massachusetts, I lived for a couple of years in Truro, way down the Cape next to Provincetown. It was a tiny town then, no more than a couple of hundred people year round, perhaps 500 or so in the summer, a general store and a post office and a boatyard down at the mouth of the Pamet River where it emptied into Cape C o d Bay. There wasn't a whole lot to do. To break the boredom I used to hitchhike into Provincetown and hang around on the fish pier, or hunt for arrowheads on C o r n H i l l (in two years I found only one, broken at that), or help a friend, who lived on a farm, shoot rats in the chicken barn, or, when I was really desperate, put pennies on the railroad tracks and wait for the single train of the day to pass by and flatten them out. But my favorite pastime was to go down to the Pamet and poke around the boatyard.

strip with a simple name like Frenchie with no hailing port, and in the next frame it would become something like Shikuma, and then Henry Shikuma from H i l o , and then Henry and Ellen from Oahu, and then Missie B from Dubuque, and later the S. S. Helen Barrow from Spokane, and so on — a charming, nonsensical gag.

One of the carpenters at the boatyard told me the asking price of the punt was $35, which doesn't sound like much now and probably wasn't much then, but it might as well have been a thousand dollars as far as I was concerned. Broke or not, I was a Pogo fan and I had to have that punt. So I decided to build a copy of it, even though I had never built a boat before, or anything else more complicated than a lashed — together treehouse. I ran back home and got a ruler and took off a few rough dimensions, and then when nobody was looking stole some boards I can't remember much about the from a construction job. place now, only that at one point when I built that punt in a day, caulking I was suffering from an acute case of I-gotta-have-a-boat, I saw a punt by the seams with strips of cloth cut from an old flannel shirt, painted it the next the door of a shed with a sign on it: For day, and launched it the third. It wasn't Sale. It was a boat without style; a coufancy and it was the butt of a lot of ple of side planks, a cross-planked botjokes, but it was good enough for tom, flat transoms at both ends, but it m u c k i n g around in the salt-marshes reminded me of the punt that Walt and for fishing in a nearby freshwater Kelley's cartoon character Pogo used pond, and it was stable and it didn't to pole with his friends around the leak and it didn't cost $35 and it was Okeefenokee Swamp. Pogo's punt mine. If that isn't the definition of an would start out in the first frame of a

ideal boat, I don't know what is.

• 12/SHAVINGS/July-August 1988

PHILIP THIEL is a Naval Architect (Webb Institute and Univ. of Michigan) and a Terrestrial Architect (MIT).

He taught Naval Architecture at MIT — entered as an instructor and left as a student — and now teaches Architecture at the University of Washington. Phil gets in his maritime licks at school by dreaming up all sorts of waterfront design projects for the students.

"Camping in a pedal-powered, screw-propelled canal cruiser, anyone?" dimensions about sixteen feet by five feet, to be built of exterior-grade plywood and soft-wood framing. A six-foot-six navigating platform amidships, sheltered by a Bimini top, would serve as a place for spreading sleeping bags at night. Aft would be a cockpit and storage for a W . C . and dressing, and forward a similar space for cooking, with icebox and spirit stove, both enclosable with removable fabric shelters. A l s o forward would be space for a folding bicycle, essential for procuring fresh bread, wine, fruit and cheese from the nearest villages. An outboard swing-up rudder would be

a place for spreading sleeping bags at night. Aft would be a cockpit and storage for a W . C . and dressing, and forward a similar space for cooking, with icebox and spirit stove, both enclosable with removable fabric shelters. A l s o forward would be space for a folding bicycle, essential for procuring fresh bread, wine, fruit and Here are my preliminary specifica- cheese from the nearest villages. An outtions: a shapely but essentially flat- board swing-up rudder would be controlled by a tiller and lines to the amidbottomed, square-ended hull, with dimensions about sixteen feet by five ships operating position, and propulsion feet, to be built of exterior-grade provided by two side-by-side retractable plywood and soft-wood framing. A six- drop-in Seacycle drive units in wells built ed for easy construction at low cost by reasonably competent lay-persons, perhaps at some canal-side side on the Continent, maybe by a group of likeminded people who would enjoy sharing a spring of boat construction and a summer of cruising the European canals as part of a small flotilla.

As a professional, my "ideal boat" is always the next one I design. At this point in my life-cycle I am looking toward retirement and an adventure in exploring the back-country canals of Europe (where the ruling draft is less than two meters and the speed limit six kilometers an hour) camping aboard a pedal-powered, screw-propelled, twoperson canal cruiser. Having designed and built two similar boats (the Dorycycle and the Sharpycycle) I am enchanted by the pleasure of cycling on water, with its independent, sure control and freedom from noise, vibration and odor. Thus my ideal boat is intend-

foot-six navigating platform amidships, sheltered by a Bimini top, would serve as

into the hull.

Camping in a canal cruiser, anyone?

G E O R G E LEVIN is such a dynamic force, he could probably orbit as the Planet Levin. He has raced suicide dinghies, raised dogs, engineered boats and waterfront structures, and created the most exquisite cabinetry. George's pride and joy is his basement shop in the old Seattle house overlooking Shilshole that he has remodeled into a cabinetmakers showcase. He has happily discovered the original floor of maple laid on a floating sleeper system. It was set up for ballroom dancing, but makes a super workshop for George, who dances through life anyway.

PILGRIM . . ."She was a great boat. I will never forget her."

I consider myself lucky to have owned the ideal boat. Little Pilgrim was a 26' x 9' x 5' cutter designed by H. C. Hanson and patterned after the C o l i n Archer North Sea boats. She was a well-fed and well-behaved lady with adequate comfort for two. A tiny galley with a Shipmate stove starboard, a hanging locker to port, was located at the foot of the companionway ladder. Bunks port and starboard completed the sumptuous accommodations. Oh yes, the head, located forward just beneath a generous hatch, allowed one to perform certain necessary biological functions while, at the same time, tipping one's hat to friends and strangers as they strolled by on the dock.

Pilgrim was a cinch to single-hand, and in her motherly way always looked after my well-being. Her 6-knot hull speed taught me patience and familiarized me with many a Puget Sound shoreline.

Though she was a fairly decent light air boat, considering her matronly proportions, she really came into her own when it blew. It was a friend who paid her the ultimate compliment. We passed each other out in Elliott Bay one blustery day and, as he put it, "Here I was fighting for my life and there was George, one leg slung over his tiller, oblivious to it all, playing with his dog!"

Pilgrim and I stuck together about ten years. She took me anywhere I wanted to go. She was my home for three of those years. I have run into her now and then. She has had some good times and some bad since we parted. Last seen she was looking good.

She was a great boat. I will never forget her.

July-August 1988/SHAVINGS/13

DICK W A G N E R fancies himself a good sailor, but his navigation is suspect. He set a course from New Haven to San Francisco 32 years ago to pursue a career in Architecture, but made his landfall in Seattle, where he got caught in the dreaded wooden boat vortex.

Sometimes my ideal boat is 31', sometimes 37' long. Always she has the lines of a Folkboat, carvel planked instead of lapstrake. The hull would be teak over oak, copper riveted; decks and house teak as well. Although her proportions and underbody would be a scaled up Folkboat design, her inboard rig would be sloop at 31', cutter at 37' (both Marconi).

"I loved the smell of pine tar and thump of oars on She would have a low, tasteful, pilothouse with an inboard thole pins from reading Treasure Island, before the rounded wheel and beveled glass ports, and a real experience came." cockpit (with a tiller) big enough to My ideal boat can't be described.

There are too many memories of being in a state of emotional intoxication on too many rowing, paddling, and sailing vessels. With some it happened many times. It could be the companions, the scene, the feel of the craft under way, completing a difficult passage, working with the crew as a precision machine, just gazing at the boat at anchor or on the ways. At these moments, each boat was ideal.

My sense of ideal boats came to me long before I got my first "boat high."

The fishing trips in a charter boat on Long Island with my uncle Joe don't count. I found those boats were big trucks with lots of exhaust fumes and they rolled in greasy swells. The beginning was Treasure Island. It was one of the first classy books I owned — quality printing, bulletproof binding, and full color, full page illustrations with translucent paper doilies over. I was about eight. It is still the adventure with which I compare all others. I memorized the credits: by R. L. Stevenson, illustrations by N. C. Wyeth.

I soon learned in grade school that Robert Louis Stevenson wasn't just lucky with Treasure Island. But it was ten years later, in college, when I found out that Nathaniel Wyeth was as influential an illustrator as Stevenson was an author. But these two were already giants to me. The exciting tale and evocative illustrations supplied me with material for daydreams for a lifetime.

My standards of boat proportions, curves, timber dimensions, size and appearance of hardware, and joinery details came from the Wyeth illustrations. More subtle feelings also seeped into my head — the warmth of varnished wood in the glow of an oil lamp, the curves a boat should have, the grace of a proper vessel. I think I loved the smell of pine tar and thump of oars on thole pins from reading Treasure Island, before the real experience came.

As a matter of fact, I associate my ideal boat with a box of apples. The apple barrel episode on the deck of the schooner Hispaniola is forever imprinted on my mental boat index.

sleep in. Great ventilation with many bronze opening ports and an "open" interior would make her a comfortable live-aboard — along with a wet locker and shower one could step into from the pilot house, before the galley. A

Reliable depth sound(s) and radar would be electronic navigation gear priorities, after sextant, compasses, anchors, and a genuine suit of Hasse & Petrich sails were aboard. Every detail would be for ease of handling, comfort and joy of sailing. There would most certainly be a dry comfortable double bunk with full sitting headroom and a cozy quarter berth for passage making, a workable navigation station and galley.

She would be built in Port Townsend, and cedar would be OK for the hull if teak couldn't be found. Every outrageously talented craftsperson in Port Townsend would have a hand in her making, and when she left the docks I would know she could survive a roll or a pitchpole. She would have

C A R O L H A S S E is partner in Hasse & Petrich,

Port Townsend Sailmakers, and a charter boat skipper. Carol stops at C W B frequently on her way to the airport for a charter in such dull places as San Francisco, Hawaii or Tahiti. Life is tough for Carol. Let's all bow our heads in sorrow for the burdens she must bear.

"She would have such sweet lines every harbor would welcome her with delight, and she would ride the waves and winds with an enrapturing motion an great ease, causing sailors and seabirds alike to hav heart palpitations." great anchor windlass with unbreakable bow rollers would adorn her decks, otherwise free of clutter. The engine room would be spotless, easily accessed, well ventilated and "isolated offstage in a sound-proof booth." The diesel stove would have a water jacket for hot water always on top. Pumps would run off the engine to sluice the decks with saltwater or pump bilges in a hot second.

such sweet lines every harbor would welcome her with delight, and she would ride the waves and winds with an enrapturing motion and great ease, causing sailors and seabirds alike to have heart palpitations.

14/SHAVINGS/July-August 1988

CHAS DOWD is CWB's Mr. Literature. He teaches Boeing executives how to become bilingual.

Their native language is Engineer; Chas teaches them to speak and write English. He reads with relish everything about boats, including even those dense 18th century journals of the British sailors. Chas is the sort of person who would be perfect for a voyage with Herman Melville and Blackbeard the Pirate as fellow crew members.

"We're getting more ideal by the minute. . ."

Once I decided that I wasn't going to make an antipodean solo circumnavigation, I decided that my ideal boat would be a little Sam Crocker raiseddeck cutter design called a Stone Horse. Only 23 feet long and designed quite emphatically for two-person cruising, it would be perfect for sailing the San Juans, the G u l f Islands, maybe all the way up the Inside Passage to Alaska. It would be easy to singlehand, easy to maintain, and easy on the pocketbook. Even Ideal Boats are driven by some considerations of economy.

But deciding on the model is the smallest part of defining an Ideal Boat.

There is a very nice version of the Stone Horse being built today by Edey and Duff, made out of fiberglass. To be my Ideal Boat, my Stone Horse

would have to be made out of wood; Port Orford cedar over oak, in fact. As long as I'm having it custom-built, I'd like it a little longer than the fiberglass version - 25 feet instead of 23. The extra two feet will make the starboard seat a settee where Deb and I can sit side by side or where she can curl up evenings and read.

She'll have to be satisfied with lamplight. I've read many cautionary tales recently about the ravages of electrolysis; of boats dissolving like hard candies in the rain. Unable to understand the technical defenses against the hydrogen ion, I was able to grasp a single fact: much of the problem starts with a boat's electrical system.

Therefore, no electrical system, no

electrolysis. It's not a practical solution for the Mauritania, but at 25 feet, it's mine. The cabin lighting and running lights will be kerosene or coal o i l , the stove propane. Without ship power, there's no need for an engine, so I'll settle for a nice dependable outboard mounted on a bracket for easy removal once it has taken us out of the marina.

The Stone Horse has a nice big cockpit for daysailing. However, her cabin is too small for anything other than an occasional overnight with another couple, so I will get rid of the quarter berths that extend under the cockpit seats. They're too coffinlike for anything but claustrophobia and I know I'd never sleep in one. The space we've saved gives us enough stowage on one side for a cockpit boom tent. In the good weather, I'll probably sleep outside anyway, and a boom tent would be, well, ideal. In place of the other quarter berth, we'll put a set of longitudinal tubes for chart stowage.

The rest of the space will be stowage for the outboard, accessible from the cockpit. We're getting more ideal by the minute. In fact there's so much stowage, there might be room with the boom tent for a jackyard or Yankee topsail. I confess a secret longing for one of these exotic light-air sails. It means that Sam Crocker's original jibheaded rig will need to be converted to a gaff, but that's okay too.

Now that we've redesigned the accommodation, enlarged the size, and changed the rig, there doesn't seem much to do but choose a name. There are altogether too many boats beautiful in design, rig, and finish that have been disfigured with names like Mama's M i n k , Banker's Hours, or Monkey Business. Aboard the M o o n drifter or the Windsong, I'd be afraid somebody would try to read my aura or tell me about crystals. The best name for a boat is your wife's, a naval hero's, or a place. Nobody can take issue with a boat named The Lady Deb, Admiral Nelson, or Village Point.

My current boat is named for my wife. The Stone Horse is a reef somewhere near Buzzard's Bay, so a place name would be too much of a good thing. I have too little faith in my sailorly skills to attempt Nelson, FarÂŹ ragut, or John Paul Jones. I think I'll settle for a competent seaman, steadfast and practical: L t . William Bush.

There, that's ideal.

July-August 1988/SHAVINGS/15

C A N A C A N O E WIN AGAIN? "The Love Boat," a wooden canoe built in Marysville in 1927 by Steve Philipp, was the winner of the first D a ly's SeaFin Marine Products trophy at the 1987 Wooden Boat Festival.

The Daly's SeaFin Marine Products trophy will be presented to the winner on Monday, July 4 at 3:00 p . m . The name of the winning boat and its owner will be inscribed on a perpetual plaque which is permanently displayed at the Center for Wooden Boats.

Daly's is once again sponsoring the competition for wooden boat owners to show off their restoration jobs at the 12th Annual Wooden Boat Festival.

Owner-restored pre-1960 wooden boats will be judged by a team headed

by J i m Daly, owner of Daly's Marine W o o d Finishing Products, at the Lake Union Wooden Boat Festival between

10:00 a.m. and 12:00 noon on Sunday, July 3, 1988.

According to Jim Daly, last year's contest sparked interest from many boat owners who had carefully and lovingly restored their boats and were anxious to show them off for the judges. Daly's had prepared for ail possibilities (they thought) by having a trophy with two screw-on tops (both a power boat and a sail boat) so that it would be appropriate for whichever one won. " Y o u can imagine our surprise when we awarded the trophy to a canoe," said Daly, "but what deserving winners Steve Philipp and his Love Boat were."

Deadline for entry in the 1988 "Best Owner-Restored Wooden Boat C o m petition" is July 1. C a l l the Center for Wooden Boats for entry forms. The number is 382-2628.

16/SHAVINGS/July-August 1988

INDIGENOUS BOATS OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST One of the ways in which C W B seeks to fulfill its role as the Northwest's only small craft museum is by sponsoring the p u b l i c a t i o n of a series of monographs on the small boats born in the Northwest. Tracking down the myths about the oldtime craft and straining out the realities takes dedication, luck and lots of time. Our monographs, therefore, are as rare as dinosaur eggs, and hatch at about the same frequency.

Now we are proud to announce that Volume Three will be ready for distribution in October. It doesn't have an official name yet, but it's about the first people of Puget Sound, the Salish Indians, and their canoes. These people built a wide variety of canoes — all exquisitely crafted. Leslie Lincoln has patiently researched the information, measured and drawn several types, and woven together the techniques and mystiques of these highly sophisticated

maritime people. The following excerpts give a sense of the sweep of this exciting monograph.

The Poulsbo Boat was our first publication. Written by T o m Beard, it tells about those curvaceous, buoyant launches that everyone in Puget Sound fell in love with, when Ronald Young first built them. The monograph gives the history, building technique and lines drawings. Marty Loken was editor and designer.

Volume Two, The Davis Boat, was a total Marty Loken production. This is about three generations of the ingenious David family of Metlakatla, Alaska, who built the most seaworthy and finely crafted rowing boats. It's an exciting saga, covering the Great Seattle Fire, Y u k o n G o l d Rush, emigration of a good portion of the Tsimshian people from British Columbia to Alaska, and a most ingenious boat marketing scheme.

CEDAR CANOES OF THE COAST SALISH Excerpts from CWB Monograph Number Three

By Leslie Lincoln The Salish Canoe Monograph, written in conjunction with Master's thesis research, combines archival and contemporary photographs, illustrations and scholarly prose of Coast Salish watercraft form, evolution, fishing strategies and cultural adaptions.

Everyday tasks for the Coast Salish such as shellfish gathering, fishing, sea mammal and fowl hunting, travelling for seasonal work as well as upriver and coast trade, were all dependent on the canoe.

Communication and travel occurred along the natural waterways, or trails connecting them.

The 48-page booklet, each page i l lustrated, aims to educate and delight the reader with a history of this ancient Indian canoeing life in the place now known as Washington State.

A wider coastal orientation of canoe types all along the Pacific Northwest coast is included. A view back toward water migration pathways and the firstcontact history is brought forward through paintings of the rich years of the eighteenth century; photographs ranging in time from the nineteenth century to the outboard motors of the twentieth century; the continued legacy of "War Canoe Racing," and the epoxy saturation techniques of today's cedar dugouts.

The Northwest coastal waters have been peopled for many thousands of years. For over two thousand years a stable coastally adapted society has travelled throughout the Sound and riverine valleys. Linguistic evidence suggests that the Coast Salish style canoe, the SDA'KWHIL, has been the main canoe used in these waters for centuries. These indigenous hunting and travelling canoes were Puget Sound's earliest small craft.

Most Northwest Coast men knew how to carve. It has been said that anyone could make a canoe, but the tools and tricks of the trade were jealously guarded secrets. To make a

Washington the L u m m i , Nooksack, and the M a k a h continue to participate in the annual racing circuit, where as many as twenty-two of the 50-foot, eleven-man racing cedar dugouts can be found gathered together. One-man "singles," two-man "doubles," and sixman, 42-foot canoes are also part of the weekend events, including both men's and women's teams. Races are held most every weekend from M a y through August, hosted by different Indian bands or tribes. Gatherings on the beaches, evening dances, the Slehal gambling-bone games, and delicious food make the races an enjoyable community festival for all ages. fine canoe is one of the highest and most respected skills of the carvers.

Canoe-making power could be acquired in an initial spirit-vision encounter, like power from other spirits; it could also be inherited from a dead relative in the same way as other inherited spirit powers. (Elmendorf 1960: 190). Alone, and out of sight of other people, the canoe carver might receive mystic help. Sometimes, as he approached the spot of his canoe carving early in the morning, he would hear if properly sanctioned, the rhythmic chop-chop of a supernatural assistant w o r k i n g o n his c a n o e . The woodpecker, especially the northern pileated redhead, was the most common dream spirit of canoe builders among the Coast Salish of British C o l umbia. The canoe maker who dreamed of it was certain of success in his profession. (Barnett 1955: 111).

Steve Brown, a carver of the Northwest Coast traditions explained simply: "When you cut down a tree, you have to make peace with that spirit, you have to promise you will make that tree into something that will be lasting and beautiful."

The Salish canoe has an important position in Native spiritual dances, songs and myths. An ancient winter c e r e m o n i a l , the S p i r i t C a n o e

Ceremony, brings to light a tradition that has become suppressed but was once a prominent part of the spiritual renewal rituals of the Puget Sound Coast Salish heritage.

The riverine Spirit Canoe carried the trained shamans across the threshold of the ordinary world of into the Land of the Dead, where a lost soul, spiritpart, or spirit guardian could be recovered. The use of the spirit canoe indicates the transitional power of the watercraft, the power for transporting not simply the material object and people across the water, but for carrying the supernatural powers of the shamans into another world.

Large ceremonial canoes which could transport whole villages of people and their goods, made possible such social gatherings as the winter ceremonial dances and Potlatch exchanges. The opportunity for such group travel resulted in a high degree of inter-tribal communication and marriage. Offshore sea mammal hunting, slave raids and retaliatory warfare made demanding use of the seaworthy dugouts.

Presently the canoe-racing circuit continues the traditions of social gatherings along the waterfront. The sport of racing canoes is a central way of life for many of the Coast Salish people of British C o l u m b i a . In

According to a legend recorded in a 1930s LaConner newspaper, when a cedar tree is felled, the tree spirit is killed. Once it is carved into a canoe and launched, the spirit is brought back to life. If the racing canoe loses, its spirit is disgraced; some call for it to be beheaded. If the racing vessel wins, the cedar canoe spirit is honored.

Old-growth red cedars are being felled in Washington's National Forests for a Native Canoe Project for the 1989 State Centennial. Many tribes are taking this opportunity to carve racing and traditional canoes. Respect is given to this natural resource, the cedar, through careful carving, spreading, and ongoing care of the watercraft, and best of all, time well spent on the water.

July-August 1988/SHAVINGS/17 A n d the next monograph, tentatively scheduled to be published in 1989, will be on the Lake U n i o n Dreamboat — a dashing little motor-cruiser built during the 1920s and '30s. It is a favorite

among classic boat owners and a boat that gives us a glimpse of the impact of 20th century social changes through the history of her development. Its story is a fascinating one. C W B is seek-

ing donations to help sponsor the w r i t i n g and p u b l i s h i n g o f this monograph. If you'd like to help, call Dick Wagner at 382-2628. Or if you have any anecdotes, pictures, plans,

drawings, stories, etc. about the Dreamboat, call Corrine Anderson, 467-9610.

LAKE UNION DREAM BOAT

Which is the "real" Lake Union on the Dreamboat. I called his home; Dreamboat? Do you know? (Read the he wasn't i n . I explained to his wife that I would like to talk to M r . Blanarticle to find out). chard about the Lake Union Dreamboat, and she said, in some form or another, " O h , no you don't." Stunned but undaunted, I continued the pursuit

By Corrine Anderson and learned that Blanchard Boat C o m The Lake Union Dream Boat, first pany had built the Blanchard 32' manufactured in the 1920s, is a boat and 36' Raised-deck motor-launch, but that has captured the hearts and minds had nothing (expressed pretty emin the Northwest boating world for the phatically) to do with the "Lake Union better part of this century — partly for Dreamboat." I managed to set up an her name, partly for her style, and appointment with Norm Blanchard, in partly for her place in Northwest any case, to begin my education. A n d boating history. She has come to stand what a charming and valuable resource for a class of power cruisers that are he was. Spending his teenage years beamong the favorites of classic boat ing very much a part of his father's owners. I, myself, had no idea what a boatyard in the 1920s, he eventually "Dream Boat" was when I chose to assumed leadership of the company, begin the research for this monograph and is definitely an encyclopedia of in— it just sounded like it ought to be formation on boatbuilding history. fun. A n d it has been. I've learned a lot M o v i n g from those initial interviews about the Northwest social history, to research in the Pacific Motor Boat about the intrigues of boatyard com- magazines of the 1920s, and more inpetition, and about the love affairs that terviews with current Dreamboat people have with their boats. owners, the story began to emerge. A My first clue that the research involved some sorting out of misinformation came when I called on Norman Blanchard, Jr., son of the founder of the N. J. Blanchard Boat C o . on Lake Union. I had been told that M r . Blanchard was the best firsthand resource

little bit of American social history helps put it all in perspective.

The 1920s — a time of financial growth and change, lodged between the disasters of W o r l d War I and the Depression. A new middle class was emerging — people who acquired their

wealth not from family connections, but f r o m hard w o r k and ent r e p r e n e u r i a l endeavors i n the economy of the New W o r l d . People who had money to spend to reward themselves for their endeavors.

Production-line manufacturing, a relatively new industrial concept, was making more material goods available to more people. Economic democracy, the opportunity to "have" things, was extending its hand to more and more American citizens, and this was true in the world of yachts and boating as well as in other industries.

Those boat builders who were alert to change were recognizing that their "appeal must go far below the wealthy . . . to produce the family type of boat."* There was also an awareness that the idea of boating, as a "superlatively desirable form of recreation," could and should be sold to the public at large. Within the industry, boat manufacturers were being told that "it must be made as easy for a man of moderate means to acquire a boat as it is for him to get a car." To facilitate that process, the concept of the "stock" boat was being introduced. No longer would the average man, with little or no experience in boats, have to be intimidated by a "sheaf of blueprints."

No longer would he have to hire a

Naval architect, and discuss hull design knowledgeably, in order to find his way to the waterways. Pacific Motor Boat magazine, in December 1924, predicts a major change in the boating world, a day when a man could "walk into a sales room and pick out the model he wants from boats actually on display." A revolutionary concept, there was skepticism about mass production — surely there would be a decline in quality. It was noted with some surprise in November of 1923 that a stock racing boat, seen in a race in Detroit, "can and does hold up as well as a more expensive, specially ordered craft." At that time East Coast manufacturers had been producing stock boats for some time, but the notion was just beginning to see its effect in the West, with Lake Union Drydock C o . and Washington KD Boat C o . being mentioned in 1923 as producing stock runabouts and smaller boats.

The automobile in those years was still considered a luxury, for Sunday drives and pleasure outings. "Motor boating" and "automobiling" were referred to in the same sentence as equally attractive family activities, and certain boats were advertised as "costing no more than the average car." The free and spacious waterways of Puget Sound offered an excellent

18/SHAVINGS/July-August 1988 alternative, at least in the eyes of boat manufacturers, to the increasingly crowded highways, where drivers were "forced to crawl along in an endless procession."

During that time, the N. J. Blanchard Boat C o . was one of the biggest and most well known local boat builders. Norman Blanchard, Sr., having built several boats as a very young man, had sold his first boat shortly after the 8th grade for $400, collected all in gold pieces. Blanchard, Jr., reporting on this "tidy sum" says that his father spread the gold coins into all his pockets as he walked home from this major transaction so as not to attract attention and get "knocked on the head." Blanchard, Sr., after apprenticing with and working in partnership with other boat builders for almost 20 years, opened his own company after W o r l d War I, and was soon famous on the West Coast for turning out some of the most beautiful and elegant custom boats of the times. But, as in many industries, it was often feast or famine for the boatyards. There was either too much to do, or too little. So Blanchard dreamed up the Blanchard 36, the first stock cruiser in the Northwest. Designed by Lee Coolidge, (described as a down-East, well-educated gentleman with a Van Dyke goatee, nicknamed "Duke"), it was described as a "hunter-

cruiser," with a spacious interior cabin with all the comforts of home, sleeping accommodations for six, full headroom overall, a raised deck forward with her own 9-foot dinghy, and a spacious cockpit area with a canvas cover in the stern. Asked about the designation "hunter-cruiser," Blanchard, Jr. reports that it was popular in those days to "pull out and get 50-100 ducks at a time. There was no season on them, or any limits."

The idea was to create something that could keep the boatyard busy during the leaner months when they weren't filling custom orders, and it was by and large successful. By November of 1924, two of the Blanchard 36s were nearing completion, and during the next year a 32-foot version was introduced as well. In July of 1926, Pacific Motor Boating magazine reports on a novel advertising stunt pulled off by N. J. Blanchard. Having a Blanchard 36 ready for delivery to West Seattle, he chose to load it on a truck and drive it through downtown Seattle during the noon hour, stopping traffic and creating no small amount of hoop-la. He was a man who clearly knew his marketing as well as his boatbuilding.

So, what does this have to to with the Lake Union Dreamboat? To find this out we need to backtrack a little more, to the first decade of the 1900s.

Otis Cutting was a young draftsman then, working at the Robert M o r a n shipyard in Seattle. In his spare time he designed his own "dream boat," a 40-foot motor cruiser. A n d by 1910 he had the means to have his boat, the Klootchman, built by Taylor and Grandy on Vashon Island. Within a year that boat was damaged quite badly in a boating accident and Cutting had another Klootchman built to replace it. Two other men, F. S. Blattner, a Tacoma attorney, and J. R. Seaborn of Seattle, ordered the same boat — copied in its entirety. Of those four boats, only J. R. Seaborn's still exists. Originally called the Kingkole, she is now the Lawana — over 70 years old, owned and lovingly restored by Gene and Jean Spargo of Tacoma; the "grandmother' of the Lake U n i o n Dreamboat.

Otis Cutting founded the Lake Union Drydock & Machine Works in 1919 in partnership with J. L. M c L e a n .

By 1926, Cutting was ready to reproduce his 40 foot cruiser, now 16 years old, tried and seasoned, as a stock boat. In October of 1926 Cutting introduced his "Dream Boat" to the readers of Pacific Motor Boat magazine. This was his production boat, with "comfort, safety, and economical operation" being of paramount importance. Its lines, with the raised deck, and the unenclosed

covered cockpit, made it similar in appearance, though by no means identical, to the Blanchard 36. (Blanchard, Jr. says that, "I always maintained that ours were prettier.") It was no doubt these similarities, the fact that they were both the first stock cruisers of their size, and the fact that they began an era in which many a man and his family might "dream" of their own boat, that the name of Cutting's boat eventually became the appellation for a class of boats. Nowadays, though perhaps not formally listed as such, the "Lake Union Dream Boat" includes not only the Blanchards and the LUDDCO boats, but also a number of boats of similar design built by other Northwest manufactures in the late 20s and early 30s. Y o u can see one of these "knock-offs," the Elroy, in the process of repair and restoration at the C W B dock. A n d Marty Loken will have his Blanchard 36, the Mer-Na moored on the North Quai at the Boat Festival.

The Mer-Na was the last built of the Blanchard "Dreamboats," being put on the market just as the depression of the 30s hit the American people. The MerNa, more than almost any other boat in her class, has been lovingly restored to her original condition, including even the original light fixtures. * The Orba is a 45' Lake Union Dream Boat. The Mer-na is a Blanchard 36'.

July-August

WINDS OF HISTORY The unruly crew of sailors dragged their watch officer down to the shoreline and out onto the pier where their ship was tied.

Cries for "Justice!" and "Bring the Captain!" rang out in the night.

The first mate stood the forlorn looking officer against a piling. The rest of the crew backed off. The mate called, "Captain, you'd best come out to hear the crew's complaint."

A scene from the pages of Captain Vancouver's journal of 1792? Not exactly. Just part of the fun during this season's Sea, Sail and Science Camp co-sponsored by the Pacific Science Center, The Pure Sound Society, and the Sailing Vessel Sylvia.

The dunked watch officer was one of the Science Center's staff of marine biologists. The crew were 25 fifth graders and six parents from the

intrigue of small boat seamanship.

There is no more saltier Northwest sailing experience than crewing for Sylvia's Captain Les Bolton. A s expidiÂŹ tion commander, he brought home the term "hands-on" learning. Both vessels are designed to take advantage of a crew full of ready hands. Said Les, "I love to get kids on this boat."

A n d how did the twin-masted, tenoared, Launch fare with the Sylvia's expansive sails and iron lung? D i d two standing lug sails and a shallow draft keel keep up with a main and topsail, mizzen, two head sails and a drifter?

L a u n c h skipper D o u g Dolstad displayed utmost confidence in his longboat.

1988/SHAVINGS/19

"The only time Sylvia preceded us to our destination was when we let her go by us whilst we explored some islet too alluring to pass on by. Of course, there was the time those scurvy dogs directed us onto a mud flat as a 'short cut.' They got ahead of us that time too."

The young mariners were given a fair dose of Puget Sound ecology as part of the program. The staff led many varied marine science activities and provided an on-going dialogue about the region's natural history. T w o staff members conducted dives at island encampments to bring up living representatives of our underwater neighbors for close inspection and identification.

Ron Oswell was one of the parents along on this trip. He had never set a gaff-rigged sail nor pulled a twelvefoot oar. The blisters he earned rowing across Rosario Strait left an indelible impression. "The day spent on the Launch was one of the great experiences of my life. I'm having a bumper sticker made that says, 'I Rowed Rosario'."

For more information on the Sea. Sail and Science program, call the Pacific Science Center at (206; 443-2925.

The unruly their watch shoreline and their ship was

crew of sailors dragged officer down to the out onto the pier where tied.

Continued on page 20

The ship's Captain climbed on deck and hung a lantern in the shrouds.

"What be the charges against this man?"

"Captain, he led our watch through dangerous waters," replied the mate.

"We were lucky to come away with our lives." " A s it was we were soaked through and miserable." called another.

"He's too tall," joined a third, "and he keeps forgetting our names."

"He tells bad jokes."

"Then take h i m ! " hollered the Captain. A n d with the the crew rushed forward and threw the officer off the pier.

Shoreline School District. This group spent six days studying traditional seamanship and the coastal ecology of Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands in the same manner as the Northwest's earliest explorers.

They traveled on board not one, but two, traditional sailing vessels: the Sylvia - a 60-ton, gaff-rigged, Baltic Ketch built in 1892, and the HMS Discovery's Launch — the Pure Sound Society's replica of Captain George Vancouver's longboat used to chart Puget Sound in 1792. The two vessels match the exhilaration and elegance of big ship sailing with the challenge and

20/SHAVINGS/July-August 1988

DINING AROUND L A K E UNION

July-August 1988/SHAVINGS/21 1. ) Sandwich, Kettle chips, soft drink (mineral waters and flavored seltzers) and cookie or fruit.

2. ) 1/2 sandwich, 1/2 pt. salad, drink cookie or fruit.

3. ) Two-salad combo with baguette, drink, cookie or fruit.

Sandwiches w i l l include eight choices, among them Turkey & Swiss; Egg Salad: Salami: Provolone & Swiss; and Roast Beef. A l l sandwiches come with Dijon mustard, mayonnaise, fresh PINKY T H E D E C K H A N D DOG

We've thrown the idea around for years: "Wouldn't it be nice if we could provide a picnic lunch with our rowboat use?" This year, the idea has become a reality. The Center for Wooden boats, and Nick & Sully's restaurant and delicatessen take-out, are offering this delightful experience to you, to enjoy with a special friend, to treat your out-of-town guests, to give as a Gift Certificate for a special occasion. If you've never been boating on Lake U n i o n , you've missed some beautiful views, and a very special experience. Here's how it works: Y o u reserve a boat for use between the hours of 11:30 and 1:30, usage rate $7 per hour ($5 per hour for C W B members), and place your lunch order with us — see menu samples below.

We'll order the lunches and they'll be delivered and waiting for you when you come to the Center to launch yourself onto Lake Union and a truly unique meal. We'll even have some suggestions for pleasant places to row to, and how long it takes to get there.

Lunches will be $6.50 each, minimum order two lunches with boat rental.

Reservations must be made by 10 a.m. of the day of "departure," though it would be wise to call in earlier —

there are only a small number of boats available. Our boats range in size, and will hold 2-6 people. A $10 deposit is required, cash or credit card, refundable in case of rain or heavy winds.

Nick and Sully's restaurant, take-out and catering service on Eastlake is a unique experience in itself. Opened in 1983 by A n n Nicklason and Jeannette Sullivan, it has recently been purchased by new partners, Greg Macdonald and Lisa Kelly. Greg and Lisa are continuing the traditional services that made Nick and Sully's a special place from the very beginning — using only the freshest foods every day, baking all their baked goods on the premises, providing a pleasant bistro-like ambiance, a great place to have a delicious moderately-priced meal and chat with an old friend, or a new one. Among their newer attractions are an outdoor courtyard, Saturday and Sunday brunches, live acoustic music on Friday and Saturday evenings, and a line of "sinful desserts."

The picnic menus will offer a wide range of choices within the framework of three basic lunches:

It was necessity — and circumstances — and natural talents that led us to having a dog for a deckhand.

In those days we sailed El Condor, a 24 foot sharpie schooner. For a couple of youngsters with few demands it more than sufficed. A Chesapeake Bay dog, Pinky, joined the crew and immediately boat became a tighter fit.

A baby boy signed on and things got really cramped. It wasn't the baby — it was all the gear he needed.

An evening ashore at friend John Adam's meant carrying baby and gear up a dark and narrow path. Pinky liked to carry something in her mouth. As she heeled and carried the lit flashlight, our path was lit very effectively.

Pinky was, of course, a natural retriever and strong swimmer. A great game was to pull on the end of a line.

A n d if you own a retriever you can never throw anything away. They chase after it and grab it for you. A l l these propensities led to her helping us dock. As we came alongside, we'd throw a line up on the dock; she would leap ashore, grabbing the line and hold on 'til we scrambled up to secure it. She never quite got the hang of it to cleat it down herself. Helpful strangers on the dock were not allowed to intervene in this process. Pinky had a certain authority.

tomatoes and lettuce, unless otherwise requested. Three choices of bread. A multitude of flavored seltzers and mineral waters. Five kinds of cookies (or, for 50 cents extra, a chocolate glazed brownie). A variety of chips.

T H E U L T I M A T E S E A T T L E PICN I C E X P E R I E N C E begins June 24 and will continue throughout the summer, every day, except for our Festival dates, July 2-4. C a l l us now and make a reservation.

One summer we were without oars for our skiff. Pinky just naturally jumped into the water, grabbed the painter and p u l l e d us ashore.

Sometimes she took the captain ashore, then on command towed the skiff back to the boat, circling once. I had one chance to jump into the skiff, baby in arms, and back to the beach we'd go. Luckily she was not a fast swimmer, just a strong one.

Pinky had a lab friend up near Nanaimo who used to swim out into the kelp bed, bite off a kelp ball and take it onto the beach for her puppies to play with. She probably would have been a good deckhand too, if the necessity and circumstances had been right.

- Mildred Cole

22/SHAVINGS/July-August 1988

July-August 1988/SHAVINGS/23

CALENDAR OF EVENTS August 1-6 QUICK A N D S I M P L E P L Y W O O D P R A M - For Parent/Child Teams 7-9 p.m., Mon., Wed., Thurs,; 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Sat. Instructor: Wind Whitehill Wind Whitehill, Seattle boatbuilder, will instruct the class in building a simple 8-foot plywood pram designed by John Gardner. An ideal family project! It's easy to build, easy to row, easy to load on your car and take to an outing. Parent/child team: $90 for C W B members, $100 non-members. (This class also taught for adults-only at other times. Ask for our next class flyer in September.)

July 2, 3, 4 C W B 12th A N N U A L W O O D E N B O A T FESTIVAL 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. daily. Lake Union Naval Reserve Center and C W B site.

July 2 P O T L U C K SUPPER FOR B O A T F E S T I V A L V O L U N T E E R S A N D EXHIBITORS 7 p.m.. Aboard schooner Wawona.

Traditional reunion/gathering where volunteers and exhibitors can make new friends and say hello to old ones. Tableware and beverages provided. Bring your ukulele.

July 11 • 23 BUILDING T H E M A I N E G U I D E C A N O E 8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. daily, C W B Boatshop Instructor: Jerry Stelmok Nationally known canoe builder and instructor, Jerry Stelmok, will instruct a small class in the building of a 17' 6" Thurlow-designed guide boat of wood/canvas construction. Wood/canvas canoes represent a technique used since the 1890s. Many consider this the finest technique for building a lightweight and strong canoe.

Woodworking experience necessary. $500 for members/$550 for non-members.

July 15 CWB MONTHLY MEETING 8 p.m., C W B Boatshop Jerry Stelmok, himself, will talk about what he knows — the history and revival of the woodcanvas canoe.

July 30-31 S T E A M BENDING W O R K S H O P 9 a.m. - 5 p.m., C W B Boatshop Instructor: Eric Hvalsoe Class will learn selection and preparation of bending oak, and install new frames in a 16-foot classic rowing boat. $45 members/$55 non-members.

August 8 - 12 BASIC NAVIGATION Tues., 7:30 - 10 p.m., C W B Boatshop Instructor: Capt. Larry Gellerman A comprehensive introduction to marine navigation, including tides and currents, inland water navigation, development of maps and charts, chart reading, dead reckoning and plotting, celestial navigation, and much more, including discussion of electronic navigational aids.

August 19 C W B M O N T H L Y M E E T I N G 8 p.m., C W B Boatshop To be announced.

August 20 - 27 (Launching August 28, 10 a.m.)

L A P S T R A K E BOATBUILDING: T H E LAWLEY TENDER 8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. daily, C W B Boatshop Instructor: Eric Hvalsoe Once again Eric will teach a small class to build this sweet-lined yacht tender, one of our favorites at C W B , 9 1/2 feet with plumb stem and graceful sheer line. Woodworking experience necessary. $360 for C W B members/$400 for non-members.

October 22 - 29 (Launching October 30, 10 a.m.)

BUILDING T H E " P E T A L U M A " 18:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. daily, C W B Boatshop Instructor: Simon Watts Under the leadership of Simon Watts, another nationally known author and boatbuilder, a small class will build a 19 1/2 foot lapstrake rowing shell while learning basic boatbuilding skills. Simon Watts has 30 years experience in woodworking and teaching, and has taught many successful workshops at the Center for Wooden Boats. Woodworking experience necessary. $500 for C W B members,/$550 for non-members.

Seattle Central Community College.

Marine Carpentry Program Length: Marine Carpentry is a two-year program.

Program Description: The Marine Carpentry Program is an intensive study in the building and repair of wood and fiberglass boats. The courses are designed to prepare students for entry-level employment in the boat building industry.

Employment Opportunities: Graduates of the Marine Carpentry

Program can be found working in boat yards throughout the Puget Sound area. Seattle has an abundance of work for boat repair yards.

Many graduates of the program have used the skills they have acquired to find employment in related fields.

Nature of Work: Boat builders must be able to perform a number of different jobs including plumbing, rigging, electrical wiring, painting, woodworking and fiberglass laminations. Boat builders have to work with many different materials and often in confined spaces.

Wages: Apprentices earn $6-$8 an hour, journeymen earn $13.75 an hour.

24/SHAVINGS/July-August 1988

HOW TO BUILD A MUSEUM We're proud of the Center for Wooden Boats' leadership role in the development of South Lake Union Park.

C W B ' s Board of Trustees: Dan Hinkley, President Corrine Anderson John Black Archie C o n n Caren Crandell A l i Fujino Rick Hendon Blake Lewis T o m Parker Bob Pickett Bill Van Vlack A n d y Wichert Members Capt. Ahab and the Crew John Foster Bob and Diane Forman Mrs. Klaus Engle Lee Ehrheart Hamilton Eckert J i m , Barbara and Jennifer Sonnette Gene Galipeau and Family Stephen Gary and Family

Our first building, the Boatshop, was built at a rented moorage in Ballard, and towed to Waterway 4 by the 1922 cruiser Arro when we received our shorelines permit in 1983. The next buildings, the Pavilion and Oarhouse, were built by volunteers which is the best kind of cost, but work progresses on a geologic timetable.

Our last major structure, the Education Center, is on track for completion this year. It will grow quickly at contractor's pace. It will be done in situ, so we can all kibbitz. But what is it for? Talks (an audience of 100), exhibits, workshops and demonstration (except woodworking) and more space for our growing book, magazine and drawing collection are some of the uses. More than that, the building will complete our harbor, providing a windbreak on the north side.

Its design and site location evoke pictures of Seattle's turn-of-the-century lakeside. The Education Center will have wide decks all around, shingle roofs with generous overhangs, a second floor, modestly poking through the protecting roof — a simple, symmetrical structure, with roof and deck overhangs giving it a light, hovering effect, lying at the end of a long pier, with a flock of small rowing and sailing boats moored around. This building is another essential link in the experience we aim to provide — a visit to an old Seattle boat livery.

What it took to get from the street debris dump which was the last function at Waterway 4, to where we are was far more than drawing up the structures and hammering them together. In fact, the process couldn't have been more complex and convoluted.

It's " M r . Blandings Builds His Dream House" deja vu, with a few more local quirks thrown in.

Our upland site is a former Indian canoe landing, coal depot, lumber m i l l , and asphalt plant. In order to plant anything an asphalt layer of three to eight inches must be dug up. Below that is a fill of broken sidewalks, streets, buildings, coal and sawdust which must be removed before topsoil can be added. From time to time we have come across buried footing walls and slabs.

Then there is the lost tank car. The asphalt plant buried a railroad tank car to store the asphalt, but no one can remember exactly where it is, so the City has required us to keep vehicles and people off the tank car zone in case of a cave-in. Our interim solution is the rectangular mountain of dirt we built at the southwest corner of our site, which we euphemistically call "Ecology Island." Our Building Committee is considering planting palms there and renting it as a getaway for those who can't quite afford Bora Bora.

The more we build, the more mysteries of our site are revealed. Our neighbors, Northwest Seaport, have just enthusiastically begun digging footings for their wood storage building, and discovered a pool of quicksand. Imagine the discussions that event has stimulated among builders, engineers and City inspectors.

The City recently purchased the Evergreen Florist warehouse property just southwest of our site, to include in the future South Lake Union Park. We have been informed this building will be torn down, but no one knows when. Our plans must consider all possible configurations of the Evergreen site, which provides endless speculations for future use, involving open space, a building, open space and buildings, an underground towing tank for hull designs, and maybe the the long dreamed of boatbuilder's forest of red-, yellow-, and Port Orford cedar, Douglas fir, Sitka spruce, Gary oak, yew, and locust.

What else? Until we built Ecology Island, an occasional duck or high-heeled shoe was trapped in asphalt puddles which bloomed in summer. A beaver chomped down a thriving willow at shoreside, Canada geese have held up traffic as they nonchalantly conduct their spring broods on hikes across our site. Flotation has to be added periodically by a diver with lots of polyfoam drums to keep our floating village more or less level and above water.

The Lake level factor is another concern. It drops 30 inches from summertime high to wintertime low which involves adjusting our mooring lines. Tools dropped overboard is another part of life at C W B .

It's fun to fish for them with our big magnet. Y o u hardly ever get the tool you lost, but there is lots of other ferrous junk down there, especially bent nails.

The trick and trials of construction on South Lake Union makes life interesting for us. When you visit here, keep a sharp eye for the monster Lake U n i o n sturgeon. Boats who ram these babies get the worst of it. A n d did I tell you about our sea lion visitors... ?

— Dick Wagner T H E GIVING IS GOOD T H E GOOD A R E GIVING John Gardner, Associated Curator for Small Craft at Mystic Seaport Museum, and the beacon of our small craft heritage, has written in the winter issue of The Log of Mystic Seaport: "What is undoubtedly the most recent progressive and promising development in museum utilization and preservation of our small craft heritage might have seemed experimental and risky a few years ago.

It is now an established and proven success that can well serve as a model for other museum efforts. To be specific, this is the Center for Wooden Boats in Seattle."

This is heady stuff, coming from a premier maritime museum and the guru of traditional small craft. But, it's not time yet to bask in our glory. As the great maritime historian, Yogi Berra said, "It ain't over til it's over."

C W B is now in the midst of a fundraising campaign to complete our site development and boat restoration plans. These are needed in order to effectively continue our programs: providing heritage small craft for the public to use, workshops to learn time-tested boatshop skills, and building a park where there was a city dump.

M a n y have contributed to this campaign. Please consider adding your name to this honor roll or 1987-1988 Capital Fund donors.

C W B Membership CWB Board of Trustees Oakmead Foundation Seattle Times Seattle Foundation SAFECO Burlington Northern Foundation Washington Mutual Bank Pacific Northwest Bell Committee of Thirty-Three Port of Seattle AG Industries

$4,000 $15,200 $32,000 $1,500 $20,000 $3,000 $75,000 $500 $3,500 $11,500 $2,000 $5,000

FUNDRAISING AUCTION SUNDAY, JULY 3, 2 P.M. Ordinarily one of our best-kept secrets at the Lake Union Wooden Boat Festival, our annual auction has still been a major source of funds for The Center for Wooden Boats. People "in the know" come back year after year to bid on nautical treasures and Seattle experiences, chuckling with delight as they acquire their great bargains, knowing they are supporting their favorite museum in the process. Here's your chance to come and compete with the old regulars, and go home with something special. Just a small sampling of the donated auction items are: Lifetime Membership in the Center for Wooden Boats Sailing instruction at C W B Photo of your boat by Marty Loken Dinners for two at Duke's Restaurant, and Benjamin's Breakfast for four at the Blue Goose A lifetime subscription to WoodenBoat Magazine Ivory carvings, nautical prints, and other artwork A custom boat-logo design from Ben Dennis Associates Photo of your boat from Frank Winterer Photography Award-winning sparkling wines from Covey Run Tools, tool boxes, several hotel packages, sailing cruises, nautical equipment, and lots more Come and join us at 2 p.m. Sunday in the Naval D r i l l H a l l on the Festival grounds.