Shavings Volume 11 Number 4a (July-August 1989)

2/SHAVINGS/July-August 1989

Table of Contents Festival Program of Events 3 Boathouse Dedication 4 Tom Parker on Volunteering 4 Northcoast Museum Tour 5 My Ideal Boat 6 Voyage of Discovery 10 Era: The original gas & diesel engines ......14 ROW: Rowers of Olympia 16 Why A Sliding Seat 17 The Great Capital to Capital Race 18 Calendar of Events/Workshops 20 Cover photos by Joe Bucklin

The Center For Wooden Boats 101 Valley Street Seattle, WA 98109

(206)382-2628 President: Dan Hinckley Director: Dick Wagner Assistant to Director: Fay Kendall

Board of Trustees John Black, Brian Conway, Caren Crandell, Jack Donohue, Grant D u l l , Steve Excell, A l i Fujino, Dan Hinckley, B i l l Keasler, Carter Kerr, Rhoady Lee, Blake Lewis, Jens Lund, Mike Milbum, Tom Parker, Bob Pickett, B i l l Van Vlack

Shavings

Contributors

This issue of Shavings was published by Northwest Yachting Magazine, 5206 Ballard Ave. N . W . , Seattle, WA 98107, (206)789-8116; in conjunction with the Center For Wooden Boats

John Davis, Tom Tucker, Dick Wagner, Steve Bunnell, Laura Arnow, Tom Parker, Myron Richards, Holly Hughes.

Camera work provided by Norwest Graphics, 5206 Ballard Ave. N.W., Seattle, WA 98107; (206)782-2415

July-August 1989/SHAVINGS/3

LAKE UNION WOODEN BOAT FESTIVAL PROGRAM OF EVENTS July 7, 8, & 9 - 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.

South end of Lake Union - Chandler's Cove, Center for Wooden Boats, Northwest Seaport & Navel Reserve Center

FRIDAY, JULY 7 11:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.

Sailing videos, Drill Hall

12:00 noon

Lake Union Challenge Cup - Quick and Daring Boatbuilding Contest Folk music concert - C W B Pavilion Steve Philipp - maritime crafts of Puget Sound Indians, Drill Hall Rowing race - fast and half-fast boats Lee Ehrheart - Caulking demonstration Sailing races - two classes: fast and half-fast Toy Boat Building Aboard Wawona - historic sea and ship videos

12:00 noon - 5:00p.m.

12:30 p.m.

1:00 p.m.

2:30 p.m.

3:30 p.m.

A l l Day A l l Day

SATURDAY, JULY 8

1:00 p.m.

1:00 p.m.

2:00 p.m.

2:30 p.m.

3:30 p.m.

Sailing videos, Drill Hall Lake Union Challenge Cup - Quick and Daring Boatbuilding Contest Folk music concert - C W B Pavilion Steve Philipp - maritime crafts of Puget Sound Indians, Drill Hall NW Radio-controlled Ship Modelers, C W B Boathouse Rowing race - fast and half fast-boats El Toro sailing race Lee Ehrheart - Caulking demonstration Sailing races - two classes: fast and half-fast

A l l Day A l l Day

Toy Boat Building Aboard Wawona - historic sea and ship videos

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

12:00 noon 12:00 noon-5:00 p.m.

12:30 p.m.

SUNDAY, JULY 9 11:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.

12:00 noon

3:30 p.m.

4:00 p.m.

5:30 p.m.

6:00 p.m.

Sailing videos, Drill Hall Lake Union Challenge Cup - Quick and Daring Boatbuilding Contest Folk music concert - CWB Pavilion Steve Philipp - maritime crafts of Puget Sound Indians, Drill Hall NW Radio-controlled Ship Modelers, C W B Boathouse Rowing race - fast and half fast-boats* El Toro sailing race Lee Ehrheart - Caulking demonstration Award - the Daly Cup for best owner-restored boat Auction - boats, gear, tools, art and other unique treasures, Drill Hall Sailing races - two classes: fast and half-fast* Lake Union Challenge Cup - The Race!

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

A l l Day A l l Day

Toy Boat Building Aboard Wawona - historic sea and ship videos

12:00 noon -5:00 p.m.

12:30 p.m.

1:00 p.m.

1:00 p.m.

2:00 p.m.

2:30 p.m.

2:45 p.m.

3:00 p.m.

•Winners of Friday and Saturday races.

Special Events Demonstrations and More 165 FOOT 1897 SCHOONER WAWONA Welcome aboard.

CONCERT BY PURE SOUND SOCIETY - Saturday, July 8, 8:00 p.m., $4.50 adult, $2.50 child, $I0.00 family.

ANTIQUE ENGINES - Wawona Courtyard - One lung engines gasp and pant for your amusement. The heartbeat of the dinosaurs. Also antique outboards.

B L A C K S M I T H I N G - All weekend, Wawona Courtyard.

M A R I N E P H O T O G R A P H Y - A lifetime of Seattle scenes taken by the Master, Josef Scaylea.

BOAT FINISHES AND FINISHING T E C H NIQUES - Demonstrations by Daly's near Drill Hall entrance. All weekend.

C A U L K I N G - Lee Ehrheart, North Quai.

CLASSIC WOODEN BOATS - The whole point of the Wooden Boat Festival, lining the docks along the North edge of the Navel Reserve Grounds. You are welcome to climb aboard (with owner's permission) and get a taste of life on the water.

FOLKSINGING, SEA SHANTIES, AND G E N E R A L M E R R I M E N T - At Club's pavilion.

1889 TUGBOAT ARTHUR FOSS - Just declared a National Landmark. Step aboard and visit the crew.

KNOT-TYING DEMONSTRATIONS - Experts in Sailor's knots will be selling their wares and demonstrating knot-tying through the weekend: Warren Scholl on the North Quai.

QUICK AND DARING BOATBUILDING CONT E S T - 12-3 p.m., Fri. & Sat. 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. The Quick and Daring contest is sponsored by Flounder Bay Boat Lumber,The Woodworker's Store and Lake Union Burger King.

SAILING VIDEOS - A full weekend schedule of some of the most exciting and interesting videos available on sailing, racing, cruising, etc. Sponsored by the Armchair Sailor. Drill Hall.

T O Y BOAT BUILDING - 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 CWB Boathouse or back.

4/SHAVINGS/July-August 1989

New Sign for Boathouse

forth.

A few month later Tom called and said, "It's ready." I drove to Tom's shop, Sea Chest International in White Rock, a summertime waterfront town with a wide beach facing south (a lee shore in winter) and a long row of shops facing the beach. It was a Saturday morning in early April and nothing was stirring. Tom hadn't arrived yet. I peeked through the window and it was like reaching into Santa's sack. I saw a picturesque jumble of models, brass fittings, carvings, charts and then I focused on the Boathouse carving and caught my breath. Grand and glorious, I thought. My eyes got a little damp, too.

Bringing it back to headquarters was fun. U.S. Customs has fat volumes listing every sort of item ever used for trade from Stone Age to the Electronic Age, but couldn't find "carved wooden nameboard" in their list, in order to compute duty. They finally decided to split the difference between wooden clothes pins and wooden clothes hangers.

Now Boathouse is clearly identified.

For those who can't read they can figure out what we're about from the old gaffer (or is a clothespin?) with a bone (or is it a dishcloth?) in her teeth. - Dick Wagner •

CWB Wish List

CWB Boathouse Dedication April 6 March 2 was the scheduled Boathouse dedication party. But due to a whim of Mother Nature the party was postponed.

The problem was the great Northwest snow storm of March 1. Granted, the roads were reasonably clear by the evening of March 2, but the two-foot deep blanket of heavy, wet snow on the roofs of Boathouse was still there. Remember, this is a floating structure. The Building Department carefully examined the working drawings for Boathouse and declared it suitable for occupancy by 150 people, except if there was a snow load. We said, " N o problem. When it snows in Seattle no one goes anywhere, especially a try-out-thc-boats museum."

So everyone is now forewarned. Don't knock on Boathouse door if you have to hitch up the horse and sleigh to get there.

Boathouse was dedicated on the reasonably warm, dry evening of April 6, and all had a good time. Here are some of the participants at the happy occasion, many whose names have often been mentioned in Shavings (photos by Victor Eskanazi):

The boats, exhibits and facilities of C W B would on a higher level of maritime heritage divinity if we had some or all of these items as tax deductible donations:

Boathouse had to have a sign and the long, blank wall on the entrance side had to have some embellishment. Tom Burnell, of White Rock, B . C . can carve up a storm, not to mention trailboards and figureheads.

I asked Tom if he could create a special Boathouse nameboard.

Tom is a busy artist. He is presently doing a series of paintings of the Bounty (Bligh's vessel) and the Bounty figurehead. However, he agreed he could provide something for us. We talked about it, making sweeping gestures and I think the terms "grand" and "glorious" were put

12" thickness planer; 24" thickness planer; 6" - 8" jointer; 8" -10" cut-off saw; Welding equipment (gas, arc, mig); 20" 24" chainsaw (electric preferred); Crane on a truck - two-ton capacity; Industrial grade hand power tools (circular saws, drills, grinders); One-gallon plastic laundry bleach containers; Children's life jackets, Coast Guard approved.

Tom Parker on Volunteers Tom Parker became King of the Maintenance Volunteers because of his woodworking skills, design skills, easy manner, love of traditional boats, and because the Director knows how to put the touch on Tom - coffee and pie at Denny's - and Tom will agree to do almost anything legal, and some things on the edge.

After six years of "meet me at Denny's," Tom's got the routine down, especially when the Director brings a sketch pad to the "curatorial meeting." But this time (fresh strawberry pie - fantastic!) I fooled him. This session was to peek into Tom's mind and find what he thought about our volunteer program.

Tom is 48, and has put in enough time as a boatbuilder to have a cynical crust about people who gush romantically about working on classic boats, In the manner of the old master craftsmen., Tom has developed some facial expressions and hand movements to signal his friends that he's hearing "the old master craftsmen" stuff from a visitor. So when I asked his view of the volunteers, the reply was different than I thought. What follows is pretty much what I noted from our meeting, with some best guess bridges over the strawberry and whipped cream smudges on my notes: "This will sound trite, a cliche, but they are crucially important. C W B has quadrupled in size since 1983, and the volunteers have done almost all of the boat repair and a good part of the site work and facilities.

We Want You! C W B is truly a product of the volunteers. In the beginning everyone was a C W B volunteer. Now, after ten years, with a site, buildings, tools, ever expanding fleet, telephones, Files and lots of paper, we have a paid staff of two.

Some is done with smoke and mirrors, the rest with volunteers.

We always welcome those who wish to freely donate their time and skills, but we are especially interested in specific talents: Carpenter, Graphics designer, Librarian/archivist, Photographer, Publicist, Receptionist/typist, Sailing instructor.

If you wish to donate some of your free time for any of these positions, please send a brief letter of interest.

Professionals built the Boat Shop and Boat House, but volunteers built the floats, pavilion and Oar House. On a good Saturday volunteers get more physical work done than the staff can do in a week. They may not always work efficiently, but that doesn't matter, because we end up ahead of where we were. The most skilled craftsman can only work on one thing at a time. One skilled manager and a bunch of volunteers can carry on several projects at the same time. The manager just says, "Get a bigger hammer," or "There's the paint." Without the volunteers it would be like Ahab shouting orders, but there's no one there.

"The wonder of having a steady crew of volunteers here is we don't give them the

glamor of working on a 200-year-old ship.

Sometimes we ask them to move two tons of dirt today, to make the site look better and make it easier for the visitors to get around. And it's usually cold, rainy and windy.

"They stick to their jobs, too. Just look at the work Helen (Lang) and Nona (Sullivan) have done the last three or four years landscaping a 60 degree slope, sawing planks for the terraces, hacksawing pipe to hold the planks, fighting the battle of the horsetail rushes - Helen in her late 70's and Nona in her early 80's! They make me happy. Absolutely indispensable. " A n d David (Dirt Devil) Erskine has moved dirt by the ton. Whenever we find

beer inspired vandalism by a 4X4 through Ecology Island, David repeatedly resets the timber edges, refills the tire tracks. But I noticed the las grabbed the shovel and rake.

"They know they can quit any time, but they know it won't get done without someone doing it.

I'm thinking of Victor (Eskenazi) in the shop one Saturday afternoon, learning to leather oars, and then staying till after 10 that night because we needed oars for the pilot gig leathered for the regatta the next day.

"I think we have picked up new volunteers from those who say, This ought to be fixed. My answer is. You're absolutely right, and here's the hammer. Around here we don't say they, we say we.

"There are diverse reasons people come to us. Dave's a mechanic who likes people, likes to talk. He can lean on his shovel and visit, tell them about a boat we have or a workshop coming up, or who all these other people are, shoveling, hammering, painting or killing horsetails. It's interesting to see volunteers switch from building something to helping Horace with the boat rental, or helping kids do toy boatbuilding.

They have the confidence and skill to get involved in the teaching experience. " I f I seem glad when a volunteer shows up, I'm not putting them on. Give me a weekend with six of them and I get positively misty-eyed. Well, almost." •

July-August 1989/SHAVINGS/5

Northeast Museum Tour Offered The Center for Wooden Boats is offering a tour of Northeast maritime museums.

This will be a ten-day excursion, from New York to Boston. The tentative schedule includes visits to 23 museums or historic ships.

John Dickson, C W B member, will meet the group at the airport in New York with his 15-passenger van, and be the tour guide for the trip. John is an experienced museum guide, and knows the territory.

The dates are October 20 through October 29. The cost, including round trip airfare (Seatlle-NYC; Boston-Seattle) and accommodations, is $810, of which $10 is a donation to C W B . Meals are extra.

The following is the proposed schedule and details: October 20th (Friday) - Seattle to New York City.

October 21st - South Street Seaport Manhattan; Connecticut River Museum Essex, C T .

October 22nd - U.S. Coast Guard Academy - Museum and training ship Eagle; New London Maritime Museum; Tale of the Whale Museum.

October 23rd - Mystic Seaport M u seum - Stay on Joseph Conrad.

October 24th - Newport Yachting Museum; Naval War College Museum; Herreshoff Museum - Bristol, RI; USS Massachusetts battleship/hostel.

October 25th - Battleship Cove - Fall River, M A ; The Marine Museum; W h a l ing Museum - New Bedford, M A ; Concordia Boatyard - S. Dartmouth, M A .

October 26th - Mayflower II - P l y mouth Rock; Beaver II - " T e a Party" ship and museum; Kendall Whaling Museum Sharon, M A .

October 27th - Peabody Museum Salem, M A ; Custom House Museum; Sailor's Memorial - Gloucester, M A .

October 28th - Boston Naval Shipyard Museum; USS Constitution; M I M I Gloucester Schooner sail.

October 29th - (Sunday) - Return Boston to Seattle.

Accommodations:

Griswold Inn,

Essex, CT - An historic New England Inn, has a fine maritime art collection and a "hunt breakfast" Sunday; two nights on the Joseph Conrad at Mystic Seaport's dock; two nights on the U S S Massachusetts battleship at Fall River; New York and Boston A Y H hostels (checking on other options).

Meals: Lobster feast at the Marine Museum, Fall River. They will open in the evening and have a reception for us. Hopefully we can make similar arrangements to meet staff and members at other museums.

We will be a small enough group that we will be able to get some good behind-thescenes tours and information. The van is supplied with cooking gear for doing our own meals when necessary. We w i l l , of course, also have to sample New England clam chowder and other seafood as we journey along!

October 30th - (Monday) Bath Maritime Museum; Small Crafts Center - Bath Apprentice Shop; Percy and Small Shipyard.

October 31st - Apprentice Shop Rockport, M E ; North End Shipyard Cooperative - Rockport, M E ; Maine Sail Charter Fleet.

November 1st - Belfast Museum; Penobscott Marine Museum - Searsport; Maine Maritime Academy - Castine.

November 2nd - Wooden Boat Magazine office and boat shop - Brooklin, M E .

November 3rd - Return to Boston.

November 4th - (Saturday) - Return to Seattle.

If there is sufficient interest, this tour may be extended for six more days, to visit

If you are interested, please contact C W B at 206-382-2628. •

maritime heritage sites in Maine, and then loop back to Boston. The cost would be approximately $250 extra. The itinerary of the Maine option is:

6/SHAVINGS/July-August 1989

My Ideal Boat

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

Myron Richards: 30' Brigantine Myron Richards is a close facsimile to romantic a with some hull unsuited to the renaissance man. He is machinist, Seattle purpose. I am sure that there are small good symphony musician (first French horn), looking square riggers around, but I never boat designer, boat builder, and high saw them. school English teacher. Myron has lovingly One evening in your own living room I restored a 1935 31-foot William Deed cutsaw your copy of Masting & Rigging the ter.

Clipper Ship & Ocean Carrier, by Harold A. Underhill. I soon sent sway and got Dear Dick, a copy of my own, and the enclosed plan Your letter of April 28th hit a nerve that began to take shape. It went through several started a search through my boat plan files. revisions before it reached the final stage.

This is the boat that would be the result of You asked for descriptions, not plans, so winning big in the state lottery. Shop space here goes. My ideal ship is a Brigantine of would be rented, two or more shipwrights the following dimensions: would be hired, a search initiated for wood, hardware etc.

Length on deck 30' Waterline length 26' 8" Obviously not every dream boat should Breadth 11'9" be built; some should remain dreams as they are rather impractical. This one is of that Draft 4' 9" sort.

Total length 47' 6" tip of boom to end The idea for this boat was a long time in of main boom formation. It started out as a kind of Displacement 16,000 pounds discontent with the few boats with crossed Outside ballast 4,000 pounds yards that I encountered. None of them Sail area 814 Sq. Ft. seemed little more than attempts to be

The foremast would have four square sails: Course and lower topsail both on fixed yards, and upper topsail and topgallant on hoisting yards. The lower mast would terminate at the crane for the lower topsail yard. The topmast would be fidded and would lie forward of the lower mast.

There would be no separate topgallant mast, as one has to temper dreams a little on occasion.

Fore and aft sails would be; a jib flown from the end of the jib boom to the top of the foretopmast, and a staysail flown from halfway between the bowsprit end and the jib boom end. The top of its stay would be just above the limit of the upper topsail yard hoist. There would be no staysail flown from the stay from stemhead to top of lower foremast.

There would be two staysails between the masts. The main staysail would be on a stay from the lower foremast, just above the house, to the top of the lower mainmast. A main topmast staysail would fly on a vertical wire abaft the foremast and on up at an

angle to follow a stay from the top of the lower foremast top a few feet below the top of the main topmast.

Two sails would be on the main, a large gaff main with two deep reefs and a topsail set flying. The main topmast would also be fidded.

A l l standing rigging would be set up with deadeyes and lanyards. A l l stays would be of wire, but all shrouds would be softline wormed, parcelled and served.

There would be over a hundred different lines to play with and they would all be led to the proper place as shown in UnderÂŹ hill. The ship could serve to teach how square rig worked and was handled.

Deck arrangement starting from forward would be a sunken foredeck behind very flared sides to create a wide base to secure the forecourse tacks when beating.

The break in the deck would be before the foremast to give a more solid bury to the mast. Bulwarks would continue all around the rest of the deck. Just aft of the foremast is the forward house terminating enough

July-August 1989/SHAVINGS/7 ahead of the mainmast for easy passage to a companionway on the centerline.

Aft of the mainmast is a lower short house followed by a cockpit with wheel steering at the stern. A companionway leads below on the port side of the engine house.

Accommodations include a narrow shelf bunk under the foredeck, a wood stove abaft the foremast with a sink to starboard followed by a double berth extending under the deck and partially into the aft house. On the port side is a fore and aft bench behind a fixed table. Behind the back of the bench is a deep narrow pilot berth. This cabin has 6' headroom under the beams.

The aft house contains a one cylinder diesel with feathering prop control, a normal size bunk to port and a toilet to starboard. Headroom is about 5'.

Hull is round bottom sawn frame, mostly of fir including planking. Decks would be planked with fir also. Housetops to be canvased.

Altogether a most impractical boat, but wouldn't it be great fun to be out on the sound on a Sunday afternoon and see the interest generated?

Thanks for asking!

Tom Tucker: The Alegria, 39' ketch.

Tom Tucker is a boat designer-builder rigged sloops Lyra and Lyra II which were were taken years before while we were residing near Port Townsend. He has been published in Woodenboat magazines #10building his sloop the Tern. They showed designing and building wooden boats, priand 31. He can be contacted at Tucker myself all bundled up in multiple layers of Yacht Design, P.O. Box 328, Port sweaters and I thought; " A m I ever glad marily sailboats, since 1968 in Santa Cruz, California, Port Townsend, Washington, Townsend, WA 98368, (206) 385-7346. that I'm not building boats in that cold damp place anymore." and Honolulu, Hawaii. His experience ranges from 8'dinghies to 40'cruising boatsSwinging at anchor in Honolulu, the W e l l , here it is four years later and that's tradewinds cooling the boat through the exactly what I'm doing, designing and built with plywood, cold molded, or plank open forehatch and skylight, I was looking building boats in the Northwest again. This on frame. He is an experienced dinghy and over some photographs sent by my friend time we are building Alegria, a cold ocean cruising sailor and lived aboard his own 36' ketch for 4-1/2 years. His mostDenis well Digen, owner of the Hadlock Boat- molded ketch of my own design at Hadlock known designs are the 21' and 27' gaff works near Port Townsend. These photos Boatworks. Intended for both local and

ocean cruising, she is conservatively modern under water with a traditional appearance topside.

Alegria is 39'2" L O D , 34'7" L W L , 11'5" beam and displaces 24,000 lbs. The lines show a fine entry and a long flat run aft. There is moderate deadrise in the sections, and she has a narrow beam relative to the L W L (at least by modern standards.)

The airfoil section fin keel is quite long, for better course keeping and for easier hauling out on the ways. There is 8,500 lbs. of lead

8/SHAVINGS/July-August 1989 designed rig. The spars will be hollow spruce with a modern double spreader rig.

For power she w i l l have a 50 h.p.

Perkins 4-108 diesel with 80 gals, of fuel, and she will carry 100 gals, of water in her tanks.

Down below there will be a U shaped galley, a quarter berth and chart table, a dinette and a settee berth, an enclosed head with a shower, a work bench, and a double bunk in the forepeak. Also there will be plenty of lockers everywhere.

The construction is 7/8" thick fir strip planking ring nailed and epoxy glued together, with two diagonal layers of 1/8" red cedar veneers and one 1/8" meranti veneer layer stapled and glued to the strip planking, to make a skin thickness of 1 1/4" over laminated frames every 40".

on the bottom part of the fin. The rudder is on a skeg which has an aperture for the prop in it. Although this will increase resistance we wanted the prop protected by the skeg rather than out in the open between the keel and skeg. Hopefully, all this adds up to an

easily driven hull that will stand up to her rig, balance well, and have an easy motion at sea.

She is ketch rigged for ease of handling with no working sails exceeding 350 sq. ft. in area. There is about 800 sq. ft. in the

The frames were laminated on the loft floor and they are continuous over the keel, sheer to sheer. They were set up upside down along with temporary molds on a girder frame and the inner keel laminated over them. After the planking was done the hull was faired and covered with a layer of glass cloth in epoxy resin.

As she was built in a space just a bit wider than the hull, we had to roll her over in continuous slings running through blocks over the boat. That's about as much progress as we've made so far.

The next step will be to laminate in the floor timbers, then start all the rest of it, the bulkheads, interior, deck, cabin, etc. It w i l l obviously be awhile before anyone feels the tradewinds through Alegria's skylight, but that's boatbuilding, and it's worth the wait.

July-August

1989/SHAVINGS/9

Holly Hughes: The Crane and the Beryle E. Holly Hughes is either writing about boats (National Fisherman or Alaska Fisherman's Journal, among others) or fooling around boats. She's going fishing in Alaska this summer - her ninth season.

She lives on her 36-foot sloop Mikea.

I didn't choose my ideal boat; she chose me. It happened one foggy morning while running from Petersburg to Ketchikan. I was fighting to stay awake until my watch would end at 8 a.m. when the Crane appeared out of the mist, steaming up the channel, parting the water in a long, trailing V. She was wearing a fresh coat of paint and the dawn light was breaking on her bow wave. I blinked and thought, " M y god, what a boat," wondering if she was an apparition of a sleep-deprived mind. Then she was gone, swallowed up by the fog.

Much later, I met the owner of the Crane and went aboard. I learned she was built for the Bureau of Fisheries in 1928 by the Johnson Bothers at Port Blakely. At a massive 131 tons, she was "built to push icebergs around," as one old-timer put it.

(She has 12" by 12" frames on 18" centers, 3" port Orford cedar planking and a 4" skin). She spent her early days in the halibut and fur seal trade in the Bering Sea, then later in the Shumagin Islands as a fisheries patrol and research vessel. Today, she works as a seine tender in Southeast Alaska.

So, why have I fallen in love with this boat? Darned if I know. A l l I know is that my knees started to shake when I saw her and I felt like I might faint. (Is it love or lack of sleep? Sometimes there's a fine line.) I always imagined my weakness was for the elegant lines, the sweeping transom stems, the sleek, fast sloops, and here I was,

falling in love with a solidly-built 87' workboat instead. What am I to make of this. I thought it might be just a phase I was going through, and I'd come around eventually to the "right" boat.

But four years later, it happened again with another boat. This time it was the Beryl E, built as a trap tender for Southeast

Alaska. This time I saw her clearly, but my reaction was the same: I swooned. The Beryl E is built schooner style, with her house aft, a sweeping foredeck, a plumb bow and a horseshoe stern. I foolishly wanted to buy her and, even more foolishly, didn't. I've seen her since she was sold, and she still makes my knees shake, even though

I now have a beautiful 36-foot sloop. I can't explain it, but there it is: my ideal boat, no fault of mine, seems to be a 80'-90' wood workboat. A n d there's still something inexplicable that happens when I think of her underway, slicing cleanly through the water, the sense of endless time rolling off the stern with her wake, courting me still.

10/SHAVINGS/July-August 1989

A Voyage of Discovery

by Dick Wagner A long distance, single handed sail is done through a decision of instinct. There is always a rationale after -I had to leave the rat race; I had to spend some time alone; I had to test myself. But I can't describe exactly why I did it. Opportunities arise to

take a turn in our life (that's instinct) or follow the predictable path (that's logic).

In the summer of 1 9 8 7 , I took the turn.

I went to Juneau, Alaska, to sail back a boat that was donated to the Center for Wooden Boats a passage of about 1,000

miles. The gear I brought was minimal.

John Black lent his charts which he used on his rowing trip from Seattle to Juneau a few years ago. I gathered my old ditty bag, knife, flashlight, and books I'd been meaning to read. I rolled up my 30-year-old

Helly Hansen foul weather gear, after I added a few more stitches to the various rips. The sail twine baseball stitches contrasted with the dark green cloth. Tom Parker calls it my Frankenstein suit. My wife, Colleen and kids, Mike and David, gave me a Timex watch and a big batch of chocolate chip cookies. I don't trust electric gizmos so I took a nice brass wind up clock with exposed alarm bells to wake me at tide changes. The classic wind up stopped running after the second day. The Timex never lost a second.

Tom, Faye and Horace, the heart of the Center, gave me a bottle of Lemon Hart 151 proof rum. They know I'm partial to a bit of rum after a rough day out on the boats.

Funny, but after my first day under way, which was physically and emotionally exhausting, I toasted myself with a straight shot and it hit me like an earthquake. After that, I took it with half water, and only after all was secured in a protected moorage.

About half way home, at Port Hardy, I gave the bottle, still more full than empty, to a couple of fishermen. I didn't need the rum.

A l i Fujino gave me a beautiful hand bound blank paper book. It seemed too good for current calculations and notes on temperature, clouds, wind, barometer, and the time at the headlands. So I used the book for my journal.

I left Seattle by Alaska Airlines in the morning and arrived in Juneau in early afternoon. It took two months to do the same distance in reverse under sail. The day, July 21, was one of those crisp, clear moments when every visitor in the Northwest thinks they just discovered paradise. I was memorizing the Coast Pilot for the first 100 miles south of Juneau, but as I glanced to the east I saw the Coast Range. It wasn't the line of upside down ice cream cones learned in third grade geography. I saw instead a high plain with the surface of a waffle, the edges white, the crevices green.

Juneau was actually hot - that day, at least. Every car had a dog aboard, mainly Husky variations. I think it had to do with the urban bear problem. The dogs were a kind of smoke alarm if a bear was prowling in the vicinity. My guess is the dogs would be more an attractive nuisance. Saw a garbage can flattened by a bear when the critter couldn't get the lid off. Looked like one of those beer cans after the football lineman in the TV commercial crushes it.

There's a salmon stream right in the middle of town. Thirty-pound and larger Kings were coming to spawn that day. You can stop at the bridge and watch them on the way from the bank to the drugstore.

Juneau isn't a pretty city. It was built for expediency as a gold mining town.

There is a narrow shelf just above high tide and then an almost vertical 1,000-foot hillside, forested except for the occasional bare spot indicating an avalanche. The people cling to the narrow beach. The bears have the rest.

The boat is a 25-foot Bolger-designed sharpie. It has a cat yawl rig. Bolger called the original Black Skimmer. Mine is called Porch. The builder told his faithful dog that one day they would settle down and

July-August 1 9 8 9 / S H A V I N G S / l l

the dog could enjoy his sunset years on a porch. By the time the boat was built, the dog was pretty long in the tooth, so the builder told his dog, "Here's your porch."

Except the paint was a bit shabby, the boat was in good shape. I took off the next morning with what I figured was enough groceries and water (10 gallons) for two weeks. Turned out I managed to find a settlement about every week, so I always had a reserve, although the second week would have been boring. Used a half gallon of water per day including a daily shave and sponge bath. Dishes were washed in salt water. I saved dirty clothes for the laundromat, except when it rained. Then I showered and washed clothes in the cockpit.

The cabin had one kerosene lamp and a propane stove. No electricity. The stove I looked like a cast iron spider. No falderal trim at all. But it worked like a champ.

Could boil water for coffee in a minute. I loved the stove.

There was no mattress. I slept on the wood sole, with a thin carpet cover. The first night I was dead tired, but I woke up about every 15 minutes because the hip on the down side was stiff, so I rolled over and over all night. Figured I would get used to it, that a hard bed was good for the back.

Never got used to it. Hips always sore in the morning.

The gear included with the boat was a good set of sails, compass (hand bearing with one sight missing) lead line, 2 anchors with rode and a bucket for a head. I had everything I needed except a mattress and fishing gear. About the former, I figured the boat would have creature comforts.

About the latter, the Coast Pilot characterized July and August as having Northerly winds 60 percent of the time. I figured I'd be driving downhill all day long, with no time to fool with fishing. Turned out '87 was a great summer in the Northwest, no rain, no wind. There was a water shortage.

Salmon streams dried up. I had about onethird fair winds, one-third head winds, and one-third no winds. Lots of time anchored in a quiet cove to j i g for cod, if I could.

The passage involved every sea experience imaginable. Hot, cold, storms, icebergs, whales, fog, reefs, dragging anchors, broken spars, wild currents. Each day was different. Some days a little of everything happened.

It began with a spanking 10 knot breeze right on my tail, down Gastineau Channel.

Within minutes Juneau was out of sight. As I entered wide, long, north-south Stephens Passage, with Taku Inlet to the east, I remembered John Black's warning, "There's a strong westerly at Taku Inlet."

As I cleared Gastineau in early afternoon the wind actually eased to a mere three knots and I thought John Black was losing his mind. Then as I was stripping down to grab some sun rays, the boat heeled 20 degrees and started roaring across Stephens with a rooster tail wake. There was a 30 knot west wind. I frantically hopped back to the tiller with my pants around my ankles and eased the sheet because the unstayed spars were bent like quarter circles.

I covered the next five miles in about five minutes, it seemed, and then I passed the Jet Stream, and it got back to an easy breeze the rest of the day. I still can't figure what caused the phenomenon. There is a big glacier to the east. Logic indicates that the cold air tumbling down the glacier could shoot across the passage from the east.

I soon discovered that Alaska weather is not similar to anything I was familiar with because Alaska is not Puget Sound. The waters are colder, deeper, wider. The mountains are steeper. The tides are bigger.

Multiply everything in Puget Sound, including wildlife by four and divide the Puget Sound population by four. That's Southeast Alaska.

Extracts from my journal:

". . . / can't describe exactly why I did it.

Opportunities arise to take a turn in your life (that's instinct) or follow the predictÂŹ able path (that's logic). In the summer of 1987,I took the turn."

22 J u l y . Alaska: nature rules. B i g , rough, wild. Wind speed and direction changes by whim of the glaciers and valleys. Juneau's big problem is bears in the garbage. Lots of eagles, too. They take cats and yappy dogs.

23 July. First ice calf off Port SnetÂŹ tisham. Sailed into Port and coasted along south shore. Anchored at a river mouth.

Bald eagle stands on gravel beach 50 feet away and glares at me. 24 J u l y . It's cold this morning, but fresh as bread from the oven. The sound of waterfalls is everywhere. Ice and snow melting and roaring down vertical mountainsides. Glacial run-

off is pea soup green. This boat is self steering on the wind. I'm sitting in the companionway hatch whittlin' and watching the scenery go by. A mini-tidal wave just passed, with a rush of cold air and smell of Phenol. Maybe a glacier calved to the south.

26 July. Sailed near glacier ice. Bright baby blue. One had a most delicate structure, like a moorish castle., I turned away for a moment and heard a noise like a cannon shot. I whirled around and the moorish castle had collapsed into a lump, with lots of iceberg ice cubes floating around. I continued close hauled, sitting in

the companionway out of the wind, reading. No obstructions ahead. After about 45 minutes, I glanced astern. There, 200 feet behind, were two ice chunks the size of a house, about 60 feet apart. My wake went right between them.

27 J u l y . First four days have seen only a few boats, now I'm sailing in the midst of a seiner fleet One played Lawrence Welk on his loud speaker. Just cleared Cape Fanshaw in puffy SE winds, and breeze picked up to 20 knots. Crossing to west shore of Fredrick Sound to find anchorage.

Whale mist ahead. Whales close to shore jumping and rolling. One rose 50 feet off starboard beam. I gawked as a black barnacled column with little pig eyes slowly rose, then a whoosh to port, and another rises on that side. Sailed through a game of follow the leader I guess. Rounded a point and anchored in a stream, with the point sheltering me from the wind and swell.

28 July. Socked in at Whale Cove, Kupreanof Island. Went to sleep last night to the sound of whales exhaling and constant nattering of shorebirds. Awoke to a fog and total stillness. The tide is high, covering the beach to tree line, so I guess the birds have taken a nap.

It's cold. Across the Sound is Patterson, Leconte and Baird glaciers. Up hook. I'm

12/SHAVINGS/July-August 1989

gliding along the kelp line in the fog with a light northwest wind and favoring current, heading to St. Petersburg. The fog muffles all sound except the gravel rolling on the beach.

29 July. Petersburg. More fishing boats than Seattle. Cars all have dents on the right side. I figure there's a tight right turn with a big spruce next to the road somewhere in Petersburg. Sailed out of town, down Wrangel Narrows with fog just lifting and Northwest wind behind me. The tide and wind carried me the whole length of the Narrows in 6-1/2 hours. The Narrows are a placid waterfront park in contrast with the wild shores I've been sailing along. Pea gravel beaches, grass at high water. Gentle sloped sides shores to a spruce and cedar backdrop. About one mile wide, 20 miles long. The tide meets in the middle.

31 July. Roaring down Clarence Strait at night straight towards Tongass Narrows with a 30 knot tail wind. The waves were teeming with phosphorescence. I was galloping in a black tunnel on a track of diamonds.

2 August. Crossing Dixon Inlet, my first encounter with the North Pacific.

Milbanke Sound, and Queen Charlotte Sound yet to come. Fifteen knot southeast wind and swell from the west. It wasn't too lumpy. The little boat has an easy motion as I took three-mile tacks off and on the

"... Alaska: nature rules. Big, rough, wild.

Wind speed and direction changes by whim of the glaciers and valleys. Juneau's big problem is bears in the garbage. Lots of eagles, too. They take cats and yappy dogs." mainland. The Coast Pilot calls this a dangerous shore because of the constant swell and no harbors. But this sharpie draws only 12 inches with the boards up.

There's a little notch shown on the chart I was curious about checking out. I stood on the cockpit seats as I sailed into this crack in the rocks looking at the water color for depth. Across the mouth it was turquoise.

I crossed this entry threshold and saw ahead another bright streak about where I should round up and drop anchor. And it moved.

This wasn't a shallow, it was a white shark - 25 feet long. It was emergency drill time.

Hardened the mizzen, slacked the main, dropped the leeboard, came about as fast as this boat ever has, and sailed out. The stuff I had read said they are only found south of

Pt. Conception, California. A few days later, in Prince Rupert, I told my story to Tim Wright, and he said others have seen them (or it) in the vicinity. My number wasn't up that day.

9 August. Skating down Grenville Channel. Going so fast the wake sounds like a waterfall. Grenville is a 45 mile long slot between the mountains - one-half to one mile wide. The tides meet in the middle.

Timed it perfect for a fair tide all day, just like Wrangell Narrows. The mizzen sprit snapped like a toothpick in a gust. Hove to, stowed the mizzen, put another reef in the main and carried on as fast as ever.

11 August. Light winds. Hot. Worked on my all over tan and licked my wounds.

Wrists sore from wrestling tiller in 30 knot

winds last two days. Hardly had strength to hoist mainsail. Made mizzen sprit from a busted oar i fished out of Prince Rupert Harbor.

Everything is up and down here. Trees cling to the rock, it seems. No beaches.

Like sailing through the Alps. A lonely land. The canneries, built with unbelievable effort, almost all abandoned and returning to mulch.

12 August. Cougar Bay, off Tolmie channel. Dropped anchor in six fathoms and could see it on the bottom!

13 August. Klemtu. Indian town.

Land at old cannery dock. Sign says, "Use at own risk." Homes ring the cove, connected by boardwalk built above high tide.

Store at one end, post office at other - about half mile apart. A Suzuki pickup runs back and forth as a jitney. Boardwalk just wide enough for truck. If you're walking when truck comes, you must perch on handrail of walk, 10 feet above beach. Driver gets folksy after he passes me two times, and stopped to say he was going to "do a rain dance as it has been too dry, and fishcrats are closing the salmon season till the rivers rise."

The Indians are out schmoozing in the sun. We say " h i " to each other. Hear an elder say to kid,"It's a nice day; go out and play."

Left under sail to audience of wide-

July-August 1989/SHAVINGS/13 eyed, open-mouthed kids fishing on the dock. Slipped down channel, across FinÂŹ laysen Inlet on reach and into Jackson Passage with fair wind and current. Almost noiseless water corridor.

Just enough breeze to keep the sheets from dragging.

Bright sun. Ravens criss-crossing their territories. Their wings make dry, creaky sound.

14 August. I'm sitting in cockpit in this too-too perfect cove in Dowager Island with rum and water after thrash from Jackson Passage. There's an eagle here, an otter, a stream. It's just around the corner from Milbanke Sound. I could stay here for a happy week and explore.

19 August. At anchor in Safety Cove, waiting out a southeast storm before I begin to cross Queen Charlotte Strait. Kingfishers are to Northern British Columbia as mosquitoes to New Jersey. I saw one falling like a rock, wings glued to body. It totally submerged, but popped up in a flash and flew off. I hope the death dive paid off.

20 August. Escape from Safety Cove!

Light winds from SE, S W , and finally west. Skirting the east edge of the strait.

Not yet to Cape Caution. Dropped anchor amid a cluster of nameless islets northeast of the cape. As I coasted amidst the islets in fading wind about 2000, a battleship-gray whale rose about 75 feet away. His back was seen in segments as he arched up and then down. It seemed a zillion feet long.

Smith and Rivers Inlet to the east look very inviting.

21 August. Still working down Queen Charlotte Strait. Anchored in Unnamed Cove on Bramhan Island. This tiny cove (deepest is 11 fathoms) has a whale doing heavy breathing. It's crowded enough with my little boat. The rock walls of the inlet echo the whale's noise.

22 August. Ends one month of sailing.

Off to Port Hardy in a fog. Sailing with 5 knot SW wind. One tack at 180 degrees should clear all rocks and islands till I reach Nigei Island. By that time the fog should burn off. The last few days I've seen it lay on Vancouver Island till 1130.

In the fog the water is so still it's like a different fluid-heavy, viscous. Waves are molded rumples. The bow wave is a soft murmur. I can hear sea lions. Must be passing the rocks. No horizon, no shadows.

I'm in a silver cocoon.

24 August. A long, lazy sail from Port Hardy to Malcom Island, finally cleared Queen Charlotte Strait! Rounded Pulteney Point and anchored in a quiet bight after dark. Sleeping deeply when a blast of noise

"... Haven't worn a stitch for three days.

Tide makes suds in salt water so I've risked washing clothes. It's hot enough to get them dry. Sun dried wash is a fragrance of childhood. It's so simple and so pleasing." like the horn of an 18-wheel truck made me jump to the cockpit. Fog had enveloped me and the lighthouse, a quarter mile away, had begun its two-tone blasting every minute.

Couldn't sleep any more, so I cooked the halibut that Curt Gruye of the Lotus tossed me yesterday. Delicious. Fog left and fresh northwest wind arrived at noon., Up anchor and an easy run to Robson Bight, the summer camp for Orca whales. They began their parade into the bight five minutes after I dropped the hook, at dusk. For an hour their whooshing exhales announced their arrival.

9 September. Trying to sail down the Vancouver Island coast. I'm off the long stretch of beach between Campbell River and Comox. No wind. A twilight zone of tidal currents. I just go as far as I can with what little I have, and anchor off the kelp line. Haven't worn a stitch for three days.

Tide makes suds in salt water, so I've risked washing clothes. It's hot enough to gel them dry. Sun dried wash is a fragrance of childhood. It's so simple and so pleasing.

Since I'm hugging the east coast of Vancouver Island, I get the benefit of sunrise and moonrise over the Strait of Georgia.

This is loon country. They make lusty splashes when they dive in the kelp.

11 September. Sighted my first aurora of the trip. Gauze bands of white light narrowing and converging at Polaris.

Spotted same effect in same latitude (Copeland Islands) in mid-July of 1981.

12 September. Tacking all day between Denman and Vancouver Island. A sea lion followed me. Took a pee off the stem before bed and watched my glasses skating down to the bottom leaving a pretty track of sparkles. No problem, I have a spare pair, which I sat on the first day of this cruise. Just a quick repair with sail twine and good as new - if I could only see what

I'm doing.

13 September. Landed at the beat-up government wharf at Denman and walked to the store. The folks are the cast of "The Waltons" home spun and granola crowd. I like it and hope to come back.

15 September. Deep Bay to False Bay, a glorious reach across the Straight of Georgia under an El Greco sky. What the hell, I'm almost home so I feel free to skip around rather than taking rhumb-line courses. I know a nice sandy beach in False Bay, Lasqueti Island, where I could clean off the bottom before the last leg to Seattle.

Arrived at beach at high tide in late afternoon., Sailed up till the stem grounded and tied to a tree.

16 September. Laid out anchor at 0715 - low tide. Spent morning repairing skeg which had gotten bashed off Port Hardy when the anchor dragged and I hit a rock. Scrubbing and scraping I found a plastic windshield ice scraper aboard, which became the barnacle scraper. I had this secret harbor all to myself. Finished work before noon. Beat the tide and had time for a picnic. Thermos of coffee, sandwich and book. Nestled into a rock amphitheatre facing southwest, so it was nice and warm, overlooking lichen, moss, thousand year old juniper and arbutus and my little boat.

Hauled off the beach at high tide and sailed around False Bay just like a tourist.

Anchored off my favorite beach in the evening. Otters splashing around me.

20 September. Made Port Townsend from Victoria just before tide changed at Point Wilson. Moored in Point Hudson Marina. Treated myself to a bacon cheeseburger, couple of beers, and Sunday Seattle Times.

21 September. Northwest wind and beginning of flood tide both arrive at 1000.

Slipped out of Port Hudson and squared off for the last 35-mile stretch.

A bright, warm, day with a 10-knot fair wind. The same as the start of this trip. Each familiar point and bay clicked off and by 1700 I reached the Shilshole channel buoy, and home.

The trip was a re-introduction to the magic of the Northwest. Thirty years ago, when I arrrived from the East Coast, I thought I was witnessing the last outpost of wilderness.

In thirty years our urban centers have spread into pristine valleys, meadows, and coves. New cities have begun where there were none before.

More roads have brought more visitors and their accompanying trash to spots only a few knew existed. More boats with more power and electronic shipmates have made former quiet harbors into cesspools.

I sailed past and through all that in the last three days of a two-month trip. For the rest, humans and human paraphernalia were hardly noticeable intrusions on the shorelines.

And it will remain that way. The straight up and down geography and the infinite tidal indentations dictate who can comfortably live here, and it isn't us, I'm happy to report. •

14/SHAVINGS/July-August 1989

A n E r a : The original gasoline and diesel engines.

- by John Davis This little article is about the original Gasoline and Diesel engines that were built under the trade names of: Enterprise, Fairbanks Morse, Frisco Standard, Eastern Standard, Lathrop, HallScott, Winton, Atlas, Atlas Imperial, Clay, Union, Corliss, Kathlenberg, Washington Estep, Washington Cummins.

It is quite a list, an impressive one, perhaps the largest list of marine engine manufacturers during any single industrial period in the United States. Being the third and last generation of a boatbuilding/shipbuilding family, I grew up from childhood around these steel and cast iron engines.

While other boys my age played with bicycles, Tinker Toys, erector sets or on the ball field, I was being trained in the installation, testing and operation of these iron horses in the new boats built of wood in the family boatbuilding yard.

This was a magnificent era to have lived through. To witness these fine manufacturers competing with one another, each at-

tempting to build a better and more reliable engine. Today, almost all of these marine engine manufacturing firms have vanished with the passing of their original inventive owners. It was era when the crankshaft bearings, camshaft bearings, timing gears and cylinder walls were lubricated with individual drip oilers. A l l other bearings and working surfaces had to be lubricated by hand with a twist of the grease cups and an oil squirt can every hour while the engine was running. Generally, each cylinder was fitted with its own carburetor which required occasional checking to ensure proper fuel and air mixture.

As the state-of-the-art developed, we

welcomed the arrival of the brass cased force-feed oiler that was actuated by the cam shaft. It continually fed each moving part and bearing surface through copper tubing, Though this labor saving device was an appreciated improvement, the engineer still had to make his hourly inspections to ensure trouble free operations.

This was the period when the internal combustion engine, using gasoline, naphtha, distillate, stove oil and/or diesel oil fuels was being adapted for marine use as main propulsion and auxiliary engines in boats built of wood of every class and description. Ignition of fuel in the combustion chamber was at first accomplished by

use of a mechanical igniter, then known as the "Make-and-break ignition system", which was later replaced by the " AtwaterKent ignition system" using the distributor and spark plug. Manually heated glow plugs were used to start cold diesel engines.

Each of the gasoline engines had in common: Hand priming and hand cranking an oversized heavy steel and cast iron flywheel. Electric or air starting of engines was unheard of, they would be introduced many years later.

Although 6 volt direct current was needed for the first gasoline engine ignition systems, the engine manufacturers did not provide battery charging generators on their engines, nor were provisions provided to drive them. The generators had to be added later by the yard personnel who mounted the generator and drove it from the flywheel with a genuine rawhide flat leather belt.

A full time qualified engineer was needed to start, operate and maintain these early engines. The main engine room was fitted with a small spring loaded J I N G L E

July-August 1989/SHAVINGS/15

"Any further developments to the internal combustion engine of today is like reinventing the wheel. It was an era that will never be duplicated nor repeated." captain in the pilot house to the engineer in the engine room:

B E L L (Similar to a servants call bell) and a large bronze engine room gong, both operated mechanically from the pilot house through use of flexible bronze/wire pulls.

These pull handles in the pilot house were of heavy polished bronze and were a constant source of pride for the owner/captain.

The following signals were used by the

(1) Long J I N G L E - S T A R T M A I N ENGINE AND STAND BY (1) B E L L (On gong) - AHEAD SLOW (1) J I N G L E followed by (1) B E L L D E A D SLOW A H E A D (1) B E L L followed by fast J I N G L E A H E A D F U L L SPEED (3) B E L L S - R E V E R S E A N D B A C K DOWN (2) B E L L S followed by (3) B E L L S followed by fast J I N G L E - C R A S H STOP (2) B E L L S - A L L STOP (1) Long J I N G L E - FINISHED W I T H ENGINES The full time attending engineer and main engine room bell signals were ultimately replaced with full remote controls

direct from the pilot house and operated by the captain. However, an engineer was still needed to periodically check and provide maintenance to the engine.

Wet exhaust discharge was generally on the port side through the hull, below the main guard rail. The wet exhaust fumes were deadly in a following wind and sea.

Doors, hatches and windows had to be closed for safety during those periods or until the vessels course was changed.

To stand alongside one of these large heavy duty engines operating at full speed was likened to the thrill of watching a well oiled piece of machinery running, such as a large wheeled steam locomotive pulling a long suing of cars up a steep grade.

The nostalgia of that long passed era can only be appreciated by those who were a part of that period, or those who can visualize those old fashioned engines that were the marvels of their day.

When they became balky and difficult

to start (Which was quite often), the engineers temperament and language became sour. Those were not the times for ladies to inspect the engine room.

Any further developments to the internal combustion engine of today is like reinventing the wheel. It was an era that will never be duplicated nor repealed. •

16/SHAVINGS/July-August 1989

Rowing

Why A Sliding Seat - by Frank Cunningham The scene is my living room, a small- prepare him for what was ahead. Even so, ish, cluttered haven whose decor is defined they would hardly be enough to precipitate by forty years accumulation of memora- him into the ranks of world class scullers, so bilia. Conspicuous over the picture win- I suggested that we meet at mutually condow is my Great Uncle Charles Lemuel's venient times over the next several months. chatted a bitform more; then, by apparently oar from the Harvard Class Race of 1890. I have aWe visitor, his bulky outlined a wall of books. He is sitting in a low, satisfied, he thanked me sincerely and, uncomfortable wooden chair that creaks as fixing his inner gaze on future Olympic he shifts his weight in it. He comes quickly laurels, stepped past my threshold into the to the point. He says he is a karate champion night. and he wants to learn how to scull so that he can win a gold medal at the Olympia Games.

Wrenching the smile from my face before it can betray me, I ask him how old he is.

"Thirty-nine."

"Done much rowing?"

"None."

"Canoeing, kayaking?"

"None to speak of."

I had begun to be aware of something in his manner, something terribly earnest. I decided to be as businesslike and straightforward as possible. Very simply, he just wanted to know how he should go about learning how to scull, and how long I thought it would take him to be competitive. What should I say? Should I be encouraging, or should I tell him to forget about it? It was becoming increasingly clear that he had absolutely no sense of humor.

I thought he should acquire a wherry and start right away getting used to it. I gave him a handful of instructional articles I had written - rather good, actually - to

I never saw or heard from him again.

Then there were the two bike racers: Young, athletic, brimming with bonhomie.

They were fascinated by the idea of sculling. It was so much like bike racing: Dependent on good legs, endurance, etc.

When can we start?

I pushed through their application for membership in the Lake Washington Rowing Club, gave them their safety check in the wherry, sent them off with a few shouted instructions and stood on the dock watching two future champions paddle out the waterway.

Three weeks later I had seen one of them twice - not in rowing togs, incidentally - the other, not at all. Then, without a good-bye, they were gone. Could it have been something I had said? Hardly. They gave it up because they were embarrassed!

They had made fools of themselves with their airy assumption that sculling was enough like riding a bike to master easily.

The kayak racer was different. He stuck to it long enough to be pretty good.

But when the opportunity to make the U.S. national team as a kayak racer arose, he departed from the rowing club and, as far as

I know, from rowing.

The rugby player never felt quite comfortable in a sport that carried no risk of grievous bodily harm. He soldiered along for about four months and then went back to mayhem on rain-soaked turf.

I hardly think that the reader will identify him or herself with any of these. Each one represents a special case. Not surprisingly, they were all very strong men. I admit to a little disappointment, then, because I allowed myself to think that at least some of them would do well in the sport.

And if, in the fullness of time, they had actually made names for themselves, well, would it be impossible that a little bit of their success might touch me? But there it is. I have frequently found myself trying to help someone to obtain the sort of satisfaction that I have enjoyed in my fifty-five years in the sport, only to discover that they really had no interest in it - were, after all, interested in something quite different.

The thousands of people around the world who make their living moving all sorts of vessels, large and small, by working an oar certainly don't do it for the exercise, or for fun. But I think I can understand the way they feel about the skill they have acquired through years of toil. It is a means to an end, to be sure, but I would be very surprised to learn that they don't take pride in their skill.

And these are the fellows to watch. Talk about grace, efficient movement and the mastery of a tool! Next time you have a chance to see primitive people working oars on the waterways of the world, say on National Geographic TV programs, pay close attention to the way they slip their blade in and out of the water, and the way they use their body weight to the fullest.

Only in this way can they carry on hour after hour. The idea that we regard rowing as a sport would strike them as ludicrous.

But to watch them is to realize that they possess artistry.

Many people regard rowing as primarily exercise. The sliding seat for them is just a device that makes it convenient to condition the legs at the same time the back and arms are being toned and strengthened.

L i k e the fellow, fortyish, who, after struggling for three or four weeks to get the hang of a wherry, asked me how long it would take before he was going to be able to work up a sweat. My answer, I'll admit, was shaped by the fact that he really wasn't enjoying his experience at all. I said, "Three months, maybe four." A n d I never saw H I M again.

So, why row in a boat with a sliding seat? To learn artistry, of course. What better reason? Toil if you must - and I grant you that rowing can be strenuous fun - but row to achieve mastery of the oar. Sliding seat craft are extremely sensitive and responsive to their crew. They demand good performance. Embrace the opportunity they provide to achieve a skill you can be proud of, a skill that compares with - what?

I leave it to you. The appropriate analogy w i l l spring to mind one day when you are out in a boat enjoying the water, the air, and the artistry of your blade work, •

Rowing is plying oars to move a boat.

July-August 1989/SHAVINGS/17

Rowing ROW: Rowers of Olympia by Laura Arnow Most weekday afternoons, if you wander along the boardwalk of Olympia's Percival Landing Park, you'll see a long, sleek, four-oared pilot gig gliding around the harbor. The boat is probably Cina Belle, a 21 foot Hauser Boat Works creation, and the crew is made up of members of the Rowers of Olympia, Washington (ROW), a loosely organized group of people who live near Budd Inlet and love to pull on oars.

ROW got its start when Scott Hauser built Cina Belle in 11 days in 1984, to win a bet that he couldn't have a boat ready for a race. Cina Belle was not only ready for the race, but she won it, too, and has won may races since then. She is the flagship of R O W ' s small fleet of pulling boats. She's constructed of ply wood and epoxy,so she is lightweight, stable, and fast. She lakes her name from Cina Belle Munson (pronounce it "Sign a bell"), one of the few women who worked as pilots in Puget Sound in the early 20th century.

Last year, R O W expanded its fleet by adopting Cirrus, a traditional lapstrake pilot gig built by students from the Evergreen State College. We raced her several times last year, but she was in serious need of repairs after several years of neglect.

Club members are restoring Cirrus, and the club is buying new oars for her. Now we can compete in the "traditional" gig class as well as the "developmental" class of high-tech boats like Cina Belle. R O W is also considering buying a smaller boat from Hauser Boat Works, so that one, two, or

three rowers could get out for a row even if a full 5-person crew isn't available.

R O W members join the club for S30 per year, which entitles them to use Cina Belle and Cirrus throughout the season.

The club fees cover the costs of maintaining the boats and also contribute to a capital fund for purchasing new equipment. Most members row once or twice a week on a regular crew, or substitute for less regular crews. We "pick u p " crews for afternoon excursions, special events like welcoming the Lady Washington, or overnight trips.

Seasoned rowers are available to help new members organize crews and learn the ropes of safety and style.

Club members can also sign up to compete in races on a first-come, firstserved basis. That way the crew that plans the farthest ahead can have the longest training time, and has a better shot at winning the race! Our strongest racing rivals are the Shelton rowers, who have one traditional gig and one developmental boat (a cold-molded cedar gig called Emily).

Emily beat Cina Belle in every gig race of the 1989 Olympia Wooden Boat Festival.

The Festival boasted other rowing events, all sponsored by R O W : kids' dinghy races, an obstacle course, a race between the two long-boats owned by the Pure Sound Society, and the Third Annual

Ladies' Invitational Costumed Brunch and Row, the highlight of the rowers' social season. We're not too worried that Shelton won the gig races; we'll have another chance to beat them on Labor Day weekend during the grueling 14-mile Hartstene Island Row during Olympia's Harbor Days festival.

R O W ' s boats travel to races away from South Sound as well. Cina Belle has raced on Lake Union, at Deception Pass, and around Shaw Island, to name a few places.

Last year, Cirrus travelled to the lower Columbia for a regatta at Astoria's Maritime Museum. Our Columbia trip was especially adventurous - we spent the day before the race exploring the island of the Lewis and Clark National Wildlife Refuge.

By the time the race started the next day ,our arms were too tired to pull very well, and we lost the race. The trip was well worth while, though; it was a reunion for three of the four pilot gigs built at Evergreen, and a wonderful chance to row someplace other than Puget Sound.

The Rowers of Olympia, Washington intend to go on as long as possible having fun rowing boats. Rowers or would-be rowers interested in joining us, or just interested in knowing where and when the rowing events are happening this season, can contact Scott Hauser at 943-3076. •

18/SHAVINGS/July-August 1989

The Great Capital To Capital Race This summer, scores of Northwest powerboats, of all sizes and shapes, will be participating in a multi-stage predicted log race from Olympia, Washington to Juneau, Alaska. Leaving Olympia on June 15, the boats will travel north to Bellingham, then Bellingham to Nanaimo, British Columbia on the "International Race, and finally, from Nanaimo to Juneau, Alaska (the "Alaska 1000"). This series of races is being held in conjunction with the Washington State Centennial celebration, and is an re-enactment of the famous 1928 Capital to Capital race. Here's the story of the '28 Capital to Capital race, by Northwest Yachting magazine Contributing Editor, Steve Bunnell: When you boat out of Olympia, you have to travel north, at least until you clear the edges of Budd Inlet, the southern-most Puget Sound channel scooped out by the great Columbia Ice Field. It may be that constantly boating Norm contributes to a certain north-tending mindset. Maybe.

Maybe not. But it appears that a northerly attitude influenced the two Olympia yachtsmen who in 1928 dreamed up the first Capital to Capital powerboat race.

Hey, if you're already heading north, why not push it, why not Nanaimo, why not Prince Rupert... why not Juneau . . . why not a race from the capital of Washington to the capital of Alaska?

And why not? Such a race had the right romantic mix. One thousand miles, capital to capital, passage through international waters, media exposure for Alaskan cruising (still an ice-bound wasteland to most Americans in 1927) and most important, an adventuresome test for both men and machines in a decade still linked to 19th century romanticism. That was what men did then . . . went off to discover the North Pole, went off to hunt in Africa, went off to fight the "war to end all wars," and sometimes, gentlemen went off to explore a little bit in small yachts.

The Capital to Capital race really had its beginning in 1923 when two members of the Olympia Yacht Club completed a cruise through Alaska's Inside Passage. Adolph Schmidt had taken his friend John Pierce up into Alaska aboard Schmidt's 37' cruiser, the Winifred S. They had such a grand experience that they couldn't stop thinking about Alaskan cruising. Both were in the hotel business, Pierce in Seattle, Schmidt in Olympia (where his family also owned the small brewery that was to become Olympia Beer), so they knew something about advertising and promoting. They wanted to

promote tourism, and particularly, they wanted to promote powerboat cruising in the Northwest. They believed that the region offered the finest boating waters in the United States. Schmidt, a life-long member of the Olympia Yacht Club, also hoped to boost his club, boost his beloved capital city, and possibly fill up his hotel with well-heeled visiting yachtsmen. What was needed, the two agreed, was a B I G event, one capable of capturing national and international attention.

By the Fall of 1927 they realized that the time had come to stop dreaming and begin acting. They had concluded that a race would generate considerably more publicity than any sort of cruise. Yet a 1000 mile flat-out race was more than any Northwest yacht (or sailor!) could take. So they decided to promote a type of power yacht racing that had been taking shape out on the East coast, so-called Predicted Log Racing.

Little did they know that they were doing the ground work for a whole new yachting sport, one that would spread from Olympia throughout the Northwest.

Having decided that the race would really happen in 1928, Schmidt and Pierce began making contacts during 1927.

Schmidt wrote the Juneau chamber of

commerce. They sent back a very enthusiastic response, pledging monetary support and race-end organization. They suggested that the race conclude just prior to Juneau's big July 4th celebration so that everybody could stay drunk and silly for a few days before winter returned to Alaska. (No, just kidding about the last part folks.) The two partners established a planning group and put together a set of rules and regulations.

For example, no yacht longer than 65' would be allowed to compete, for they wanted " . . . to stimulate interest in yachting by men who in the main handle their own boats." And although it was a time before F A X machines, before computers, before jets and interstates and all the other bits and pieces we believe contribute to the quality of our lives; word of the race had reached the New York Yacht Club by late summer 1927. That connection between Olympia and New York led to all sorts of things. First, the American Power Boat Association (A.P.B.A.) got involved.

Second, C.F. Chapman, editor of Motor Boating and author of Chapman's Piloting, Seamanship & Small Boat Handling got all fired up about the race, and after contacting Schmidt, secured a position on his yacht as a member of the

race crew! Third, A . L . Bobrick, head of the A . P . B . A . , volunteered to act as race consultant and head judge. There is evidence that what Bobrick and Chapman really wanted was a chance to cruise through Northwest waters, being from L . A . and New York respectively.

The Grand Prize for the overall winner was a large silver loving cup and $500 worth of gasoline. Now let's see, at about 13 cents a gallon in 1929 dollars that would be . . . you know, we just can't count that low. One of the many other prizes awarded that year was a bag of Alaskan gold nuggets worth $100! Another was a year's supply of Olympia oysters to be delivered when and where appropriate. Pathe and International News were to film the race (actually, just the start) for showing in movie theatres all over the country. Some of you may remember Pathe movie newsreels. They were a kind of warm-up band for the double feature that followed. Anyway, Schmidt and Pierce had succeeded in promoting the event, perhaps to a level beyond their dreams.

The race began at 12:30 on June 26th, 1928 when an airplane dropped an "aerjal bomb" to mark the start. (Maybe this year they could have an F-14 shoot a heat-

July-August 1989/SHAVINGS/19

Schmidt came into Juneau only 6 minutes and 12 seconds off of his predicted time, and that Pierce was off by only 1 minute and 48 seconds... this over a course of 1000 land miles! Of course their errors were computed in relation to a handicap formula and did not represent actual error time.

Still, their accuracy remains impressive.

Interesting, isn't it, that the two division winners just happened to be the race founders? Did that raise any eyebrows? Welllll . . . we don't know.

seeking missile or something!) Leaving from the Olympia Yacht Club, the 10 boats churned north up Budd Inlet at speeds ranging from 7 to 9 knots. The shoreline around the club was ringed by hundreds of people who joined into the general frenzy of giving the boats a sendoff. Fire boats shotstreams of water into the sky, tugs blew their whistles, sawmills rang bells and blew their whistles, spectators cheered, and planes dropped "bombs."

Moving smartly into position behind the departing yachts was the Coast Guard Cutter Snohomish, released from chasing rumrunners to shepherd the boats up the Inside Passage. The great Capital to Capital race had begun. Juneau was 916 nautical miles to the north. The yachtsmen expected to be there in about 4 days, a much shorter time than the 19 days that will be taken by the competitors in 1989. There were only 29 control points along the entire course in 1928. So while it was a predicted log race, it was also, in Schmidt's words, ". . .an endurance contest." The race had to be a tough test of participants and equipment;

almost non-stop travel through complex waters at a time when few of today's navigational aids were in operation. The nature of the race meant constant operation of engines not known for their reliability, although, by today's standards, those engines were quite fuel efficient, using 2 to 3 gallons per hour at race speeds (7-9 knots).

Some boats did require repairs along the way, but all 10 finished in good time. The cutter Snohomish did her job, towing various boats at times (Maidie for 372 miles!), radioing daily reports to Seattle's K O M O , and keeping tabs on all of the competitors.

The first boat to reach both Nanaimo (182 miles in 22 hours) and Juneau (4 days, 1 hour & 4 minutes) was the Dolphin II. Able to cruise at 10 knots, she was the fastest boat, but not a final winner.

Schmidt's boat, the Winifred II, was declared the winner in division I (45-60') and the Dell, skippered by race founder Pierce, was declared overall race winner, as well as winner in Division I (45-60'). Considering the equipment of the time, it is amazing that

Winifred II was a classic Lake Union Dreamboat, built in Seattle by the Grandy boatyard. The 45' M a i d i e was one of the first projects that Norman Blanchard Sr. turned out of his Lake Union facilities. She was an old open Naval launch that Blanchard lengthened and decked over. A n other Seattle boat, the Bolinder, is still around, currently moored in Des Moines.

The Bolinder was the only competitor powered by a diesel, and her performance was very important to her skipper, Richard Froboese, who just happened to be a U.S. representative for the German built Bolinder diesel engine. The M a r y - M a r - A n n was another competitor built in Seattle by Tony Jensen. The M a r y - M a r - A n n competed well in that first race and in many of the ensuing International races.

Amidst all of the post-race hoopla, the competitors met and formed the International Cruising Club, the fore-runner of today's North American Cruiser Association. The primary function of either group has been the organization of an annual race between ports in Washington State and British Columbia. Some years the race has been known as The Capital to Capital, or The Capital International, or more recently The International Cruiser Race. Having established much more tradition than they could have known, the 1928 racers left Juneau heading South, having proven that small cruising yachts could safely navigate Alaskan waters and that the Northwest was a hell of a place for motorboating!

Chapman returned to New York babbling tales of N . W . waters and A . L . Bobrick spread the news around L . A . Schmidt and Pierce returned as heroes to Olympia, for they had not only pulled off a big-time event, they had won the damn thing! Yachts from Olympia have won the "International" only three times since, the last time being in 1947. There are some hungry boaters milling around down in Budd Inlet these days, boaters who plan to W I N the International in 1989 and bring the glory back to Olympia. We wish them luck and smooth water. If you would like more information on the Capital to Capital races you should obtain Patrick J. Haskett's fine history of the 1928 race. He gives a complete account of the race, including details on each competitor's progress.

Contact the Olympia Yacht Club if you are interested in obtaining a copy of Haskett's history. • (Photos courtesy of "Slap" Schmidt.)

CALENDAR OF EVENTS June 16 (Friday) - CWB MONTHLY MEETING; 8 p.m., CWB Boat House. Dan Hinckley, CWB Board President, took a recent trip to Switzerland, and will give a slide talk on the wooden boats of Lake Leman.

The working fleet of Lake Leman is amazingly diverse, and includes steamships and an Arab dhow.

July 7,8, and 9 - THIRTEENTH ANNUAL LAKE UNION WOODEN BOAT FESTIVAL; 10 a.m. till 6 p.m. each day, CWB and adjoining sites. Our annual wooden boat extravaganza at South Lake Union - classic watercraft, boat races, skills demonstrations, videos, music, food - celebrates its thirteenth year! Fundraising Auction - Sunday, July 9th!

July 21 (Friday) - CWB MONTHLY MEETING; 8 p.m., CWB Boat House. John Guzzwell, renowned single-handed sailor and boatbuilder will discuss his plans for a sailing vessel he hopes to build to participate in the B.O.C. round the world race. John will show his model of the projected boat, which will be wood construction, of course.

October 8 (Sunday) - FALL REGATTA; 10 a.m. till 6 p.m. Plant your zucchini now so that it can attain its full growth for the Second Annual Giant Zucchini Boat Contest!

Also happening - boat races, potluck luncheon, lots of good talk, show-and-tell. We hope to see you there.

MARINE SKILLS WORKSHOPS June 10 - July 2 - PLANK-ON-FRAME FLATIRON SKIFF; 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. each day, Saturdays and Sundays, June 10,11,17, 18, 24, 25, July 1 and 2. Fee: $320/$360.

Instructor: Rich Kolin.

This class will design, loft, and build a classic Pete Culler-style 10-foot lapstrake flat bottom skiff in four weekends. Rich Kolin is an experienced boatbuilder. Basic woodworking skills are required. Maximum of seven students.

July 17 through July 21 (Monday • Friday) - LOFTING WORKSHOP; 6:30 p.m. - 10 p.m., Northwest Seaport Carpentry Shop.

Fee: $100/$120. Instructor: Eric Hvalsoe.

The class will each loft a 12-foot roundbottom dinghy. The instructor is experienced in designing, lofting and building small craft. All materials are included. Minimum of 4; maximum of 6.

July 24, 26, 27, 29. Launch, July 30 ADULT/CHILD PLYWOOD PRAM June 24 and July 8 (Saturdays) - SCULL- WORKSHOP; 6:30 p.m. - 9 p.m. on ING WORKSHOP; 9 am - 11 am, CWB weeknights; 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. on Saturday.

Boat House. $5 per hour donation. Instruc- Class will happen at Salmon Bay Woodtor Grant Dull. works. Fee: $75/$85 per person. Instructor: Will introduce students to the fine art of Wind Whitehill. sculling with in-boat training. There will be A John Gardner plywood pram will be three practice boats at CWB, but students are built by the students, with some attention to welcome to bring their own. lofting and layout, as well as construction.

Students can be adult/child teams or unreJuly 15 (Saturday) - LAMINATING SEMI- lated adults and children. Minimum of 7 NAR; 10 a.m. - Noon, Salmon Bay Wood- students; maximum of 10. Children should works. Fee: $10/$ 12. Instructor: Wind be 14 or older.

Whitehill.

This will be a lecture/demonstration August 16 (Wednesday), August 19 (Saturseminar on the various time-saving and ef- day) - COLD MOLDING WORKSHOP fective tricks me instructor as devised on SESSION I; 6:30 p.m. - 9 p.m. on Wedneslaminating curvy shapes. Students will re- day; 9 a.m. - 6 p.m. on Saturday. Class will ceive a handout on epoxy adhesives, and happen at Salmon Bay Woodworks. Fee: should bring a note book. Minimum 4 stu- $50/$60. Instructor: Wind Whitehill. dents; maximum 10 students.

Students will work on, but not complete, a cruising sailboat. This class will include all basic information and direct experience in cold molded construction. Minimum of 4 students; maximum of 7.

September 13 (Wednesday), September 16 (Saturday) COLD MOLDING WORKSHOP - SESSION II; 6:30 p.m. - 9 p.m. on Wednesday; 9 a.m. - 6 p.m. on Saturday. Class will happen at Salmon Bay Woodworks. Fees: $50/$60. Instructor: Wind Whitehill.

See description of Session I August 21 - August 25 (Monday through Friday); August 28 • September 1 (Monday through Friday); Launching, September 2 LAPSTRAKE CONSTRUCTION; 6:30 p.m. - 10 p.m., Northwest Seaport Carpentry Shop. Fee: $300/$350. Instructor: Eric Hvalsoe.

Students will build a classic 10-foot Norwegian pram with steam bent frames.

The instructor is experienced in lapstrake construction and workshop instruction.

Basic woodworking skills are required.

Minimum of 4 students; maximum of 6.

September 16 - September 21 (Saturday through Thursday) - MAINE GUIDE CANOE WORKSHOP; 8:30 a.m - 5 p.m. each day, Northwest Seaport Carpentry Shop.

Fee: $360/$400. Instructor: Jerry Stelmok.

Students will build a classic canvas-onwood canoe and paddles. Jerry Stelmok, of Maine, is the premier builder of this type of canoe and has written the definitive book on canvas and wood canoe building, and has taught several classes. Students must have wood-working experience. Class limit is 6 students.

October 13, 14, 15, 16 - THE SALISH PEOPLE AND THEIR SKILLS; Seminar/ Cruise aboard the schooner Crusader.

Steve and Dorothy Philipp will lead you into the lifestyle of Puget Sound's first residents. You will sail on the 1926 65-foot schooner Crusader, make nettle lines, tule mat, visit the Suquamish Museum, learn canoeing techniques. Meals and workshop materials included in fee. $300 per person with a maximum of six participants. Cosponsored by CWB and Resource Institute.

Contact CWB for information or to reserve your place.

October 21 - October 28; Launch, October 29 - LAPSTRAKE WORKSHOP; 8:30 a.m.

- 5 p.m. each day, Northwest Seaport Carpentry Shop. Fee: $360/$400. Instructor: Eric Hvalsoe.

Students will build a classic lapstrake rowing craft, led by an experienced builder and instructor. Basic woodworking skills are a pre-requisite. Minimum 5 students; maximum 6 students.