Shavings Volume 19 Number 3 (June-July 1998)

Lake Union Wooden Boat Festival

July 3, 4 & 5, 1998

In This Issue Historic Preservation in Latteland Puget Sound - What's in a Name?

Those Who Go Down to the Sea in Ships Behold the Wonders of [Sailor] Nature Of Fish and Ships: Reflections of a Danish Shipwright and Boatbuilder Here There Be Pirates?

Night Run and Dawn Gun on Old Caribbee Toy Boats and Chili It Can Only Happen in Anacortes John Gardner Award We Are the Kids from CWB! What Do Volunteers Do at CWB?

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The Center for Wooden Boats 1010 Valley St., Seattle, WA 98109-4332 (206) 382-2628; e-mail: cwboats@tripl.org http://www.eskimo.com/~cwboats President Founding Director Executive Director Boatshop Manager Volunteer Coordinator Livery Manager Assistant Livery Manager Public Service Manager Youth Education Coordinator Bookkeeper

Bill Van Vlack Dick Wagner Bob Perkins Dierk Yochim Sue Schaeffer Meg Trzaskoma Dan Potenza Tim Porter Tom Powers Chris Sanders

Board of Trustees: Caren Crandell, Peter DeLaunay, Dave Erskine,

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Steve Excell, Ken Greff, Samuel Johnson, Sean Eamon Kennedy, Marty Loken, Len Marklund, Dave Mullens, Ron Snyder, Bill Van Vlack.

Shavings is a bi-monthly publication of The Center for Wooden Boats.

This special 22nd Annual Lake Union Wooden Boat Festival issue was produced by Judie Romeo under the direction of Dick Wagner. The Center for Wooden Boats is a 501(c)(3) educational non-profit organization.

On the Cover: The 1998 Wooden Boat Festival poster is yet another fabulous pastel created by Seattle artist Luke J. Tornatzky and reproduced in colors as brilliant as the original by K/P Corporation. This is the third time Luke and K/P have teamed up to produce an outstanding poster for the Festival and the fifth that K/P has provided printing of our poster. The Center for Wooden Boats wishes to express its deep gratitude and appreciation to both for their outstanding results and their continuing support of our maritime heritage education and preservation mission.

The Spirit of Coffee

Heritage Preservation in Latteland

by Dick Wagner T h e C e n t e r f o r W o o d e n B o a t s is on two acres, two-thirds s u b m e r g e d . O n this site is the m o s t active, c r e a t i v e historical m u s e u m in the A m e r i c a s , with the largest f l o a t i n g and a c c e s s i b l e collection of historically significant small craft on the West C o a s t . T h e b o a t s and f l o a t s and a f e w small f l o a t i n g buildings are the platf o r m f o r a w h i r l w i n d of e d u c a t i o n a l prog r a m s attracting y o u t h s , adults, f a m i l i e s and p e o p l e with physical and m e n t a l disabilities.

A n d all this is located a f e w steps f r o m an u p s c a l e c o m p l e x of restaurants, fern bars and b o u t i q u e s . A c o r r i d o r in which 7 0 , 0 0 0 vehicles roar past each day on the south s i d e w h i l e a fleet of c o m mercial s e a p l a n e s lands a n d takes o f f to the north.

the c e n t e r of a gritty, blue-collar f a r m e r s ' m a r k e t a n d stole the heart of the t o w n . Seattle is still a f r o n t i e r w h e r e p e o p l e c o m e f r o m other places in search of n e w horizons. They climb glacier-clad p e a k s , r o w to Alaska, start n e w enterprises like M i c r o s o f t or S t a r b u c k s - or even a maritime m u s e u m w h e r e you play with the exhibits.

It's only a h u n d r e d years since the rush f r o m Seattle to the K l o n d i k e gold fields. I t ' s not too f a r a stretch of c o n c e p t f r o m an o p e n - a i r , o n - t h e - b e a c h boatyard t o a s i d e w a l k e s p r e s s o stand.

Seattle is both a city and a culture, w h e r e direct e x p e r i e n c e and e x p e d i t i o n s to the e d g e s are alive and thrive, w h e t h e r you are sitting at a c o m p u t e r or in a dory.

O n e m i g h t find it d i f f i c u l t to i m a g i n e a site d e v o t e d t o t h e q u i e t b e a t a n d r h y t h m s of m a r i t i m e h e r i t a g e p r e s e r v a tion set in the m i d s t of c o n t e m p o r a r y urban c h a o s and c a c o p h o n y . D o e s a S t o n e A g e A l e u t k a y a k relate t o hurtling vehicles racing to a S o n i c s g a m e ? D o e s a spritsail-rigged sailing gillnetter relate to tight T-shirts o n p e r k y w a i t r e s s e s ?

B e c a u s e they w e r e used in so m a n y w a y s , historic boats are w o n d e r f u l subj e c t s to interpret a n y w h e r e , w h e t h e r a stuffy, uptight e n v i r o n m e n t or a Seattle e n v i r o n m e n t . W h a t colorful tales have been w o v e n a b o u t boats used for exploration, trading, hunting, recreation, smuggling, and status symbols. T h e Center for W o o d e n B o a t s c h o o s e s to interpret t h e m b y actually using t h e m .

Yes, in Seattle they do relate - and the c o m m o n f a c t o r is the c o f f e e . O r the spirit of the c o f f e e . S t a r b u c k s a r o s e in

O u r m i s s i o n is education. Direct experience is the m o s t challenging and longest-lasting m e a n s of learning. T h e C e n -

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ter f o r W o o d e n Boats preserves our small craft heritage by p r e s e r v i n g the heritage s k i l l s . You c a n p a d d l e a G r e e n l a n d N a r w a l hunting kayak, sail a Bristol B a y s a l m o n g i l l n e t t e r , sail o n e of N a t Herreshoff's favorites, a Herreshoff 12 1/2. You can b e an u p s c a l e early 1900s s p o r t s m a n in an A d i r o n d a c k G u i d e B o a t or a turn-of-the-century Maine lobsterman in a F r i e n d s h i p sloop.

H a n d s - o n learning is not a n e w p h e n o m e n o n in the N o r t h w e s t . A 10,000year-old S t o n e A g e culture e n d e d here less than 100 years a g o . T h e r e still are p e o p l e here with horny h a n d s w h o h e w big timbers, caulk, smith, splice and m a k e nets the w a y their f a t h e r s and g r a n d f a thers t a u g h t t h e m . T h e r e are t u g b o a t skippers w h o can navigate our twisting f j o r d s by soundings, b o t t o m samples and t i m i n g the e c h o of a f o g h o r n .

T h e N o r t h w e s t is a late entrant in the S t e a m A g e . H e r i t a g e is m o r e t h a n a m e m o r y in the N o r t h w e s t . Traditional m a r i t i m e skills are still alive here - and they spit s n o o s e and h a v e tattoos f r o m wrist to shoulder.

It's the natural thing h e r e to h a v e a m a r i t i m e m u s e u m w h e r e o n e learns by doing. T h e process of direct e x p e r i e n c e education takes time. T h r o u g h the pro-

cess, m a n y things happen that are not explained in a written curriculum.

T h o s e w h o build a b o a t t o g e t h e r or sail a boat together b o n d with their mates and with the p l a c e w h e r e it happens. The s e n s e of t i m e b e c o m e s regulated by nature: the wind and tide, Both the analytic and the s e n s o r y sides of t h e brain are simultaneously called into action. T h e exp e r i e n c e of l e a r n i n g this w a y provides u s e f u l skills, increased s e l f - c o n f i d e n c e and a d d s n e w d i m e n s i o n s to the abstract c o n c e p t s of m a t h and science.

O u r boats c o n n e c t to o u r site as naturally as rivers c o n n e c t to the ocean - or a M i c r o s o f t p r o g r a m m e r c o n n e c t s to a d o u b l e tall m o c h a .

For 22 years, the hard-working Staff and Volunteers of The Center for Wooden Boats and hundreds of boat owners, skills demonstrators, craftspeople and boat artisans have treated the Northwest to a Fourth of July pleasure as good as, if not better than fireworks: The Annual Lake Union Wooden Boat Festival. In just a bit more than two decades, the Festival has gone from a trial run hatched up by a group of wooden boat nuts sitting around Dick and Colleen Wagner's kitchen table to a well-produced, award-winning cornucopia of maritime heritage delights. It is an endeavor worth saluting - and we are glad to do so!

The Friends and Patrons of the 22nd Annual Lake Union Wooden Boat Festival All The King's Flags Seattle, WA Ross Anderson and Mary Rothschild Seattle, WA Armchair Sailor Seattle, WA Band Aid Music Lynnwood, WA Pierce and Ann Brawner Mill Creek, WA

Ken Greff Mukilteo, WA CWB Board of Trustees Hale's Ales Seattle, WA Havorn Marine Survey & Shipwright School Seattle, WA Rich Haynie Insurance Inc. Seattle, WA Griffin and Chip Hoins Issaquah, WA

Caren Crandell Seattle, WA CWB Board of Trustees

Hvalsoe Boats Seattle, WA

Crosscut Hardwoods Seattle, WA

Jubilee Boatworks Seattle, WA

Crow's Nest Seattle, WA

Teri, Kelsey and Steve Kovach Federal Way, WA

Peter DeLaunay DeLaunay Communications Seattle, WA CWB Board of Trustees

Kristjanson Boat Works Seattle, WA

Edensaw Woods Port Townsend, WA David Erskine and Karen Braitmayer Seattle, WA CWB Board of Trustees Steve and Patsy Excell Seattle, WA CWB Board of Trustees Flounder Bay Boat Lumber Anacortes, WA Doc Freeman's Seattle, WA The Gang at 48째 North Chuck, Rich, Michael, Karen, Jane, Nancy, Lynne Seattle, WA

Samuel Johnson Portland, OR CWB Board of Trustees Lake Union Mail Seattle, WA Mark Lentini Seattle, WA Marty Loken Seattle, WA CWB Board of Trustees The Don McCune Library Woodinville, WA Dave Mullens Seattle, WA CWB Board of Trustees Jim and Sue Muri Kirkland, WA

Nautilus Gallery Seattle, WA

Homer Smith Insurance Port Townsend, WA

Northwest Outdoor Center Seattle, WA

Ron Snyder, Cathy Taggett and Nathan Ryweck Seattle, WA CWB Board of Trustees

Northwest Yacht Brokers Association Seattle, WA Dennis, Nola, Skyler and Sara Palmer Seattle, WA Keegan N. W. Perkins and parents Seattle, WA Tom Powers Seattle, WA Ron and Lynn Render San Diego, CA P.B. and Andy Rhines Seattle, WA Scott Rohrer Mariner's General Insurance Seattle, WA Judie Romeo Seattle, WA Schattauer Sail Seattle, WA

Sound Experience Port Townsend, WA Sound Sails Port Townsend, WA Teal Research Inc. Seattle, WA The Terjeson Group and Iffrit Seattle, WA Phil Thiel Seattle, WA Port Townsend Sails Port Townsend, WA Brion Toss Rigging Port Townsend, WA Bill Van Vlack and Stephanie Kavanaugh Seattle, WA CWB Board of Trustees Dick, Colleen, David and Mike Wagner Seattle, WA

Schooner Martha Foundation Robert d'Arcy and Jo Ann O'Connor Des Moines, WA

Watch The Sky! Celtic Music With Spirit Edmonds, WA

Schwartz Brothers Restaurants Seattle, WA

Eunice Wardwell Seattle, WA

Seattle Central Community College Seattle, WA

Rebecca Wittman Seattle, WA

Seattle Women's Sailing Association Sea Stars Program Seattle, WA

Wooden Boat Festival Port Townsend, WA The Wooden Boat Shop Seattle, WA SHAVINGS

Puget Sound What's in a Name?

by Colleen Wagner Boaters, ferry riders, observers of Puget Sound: Did you ever wonder where that name "Puget" came f r o m ?

Puget - Peter Puget, that is - was a real person. He sailed into our inland Waters in a 96' British Royal Navy ship named Discovery - 10 guns, 130 men on board. The year was 1792, in the month of May, two centuries ago, and they were on a voyage of exploration.

That voyage put the Northwest on the maps of the world, where it had been a mere blob before. It produced a meticulous survey and excellent charts of the area from Monterey [California] to Cook Inlet [Alaska] - some of which were still in use as recently as the 1920s. And it left us with some of the best-known and most used local place names: Puget Sound, Mt. Rainier, Hood Canal, Whidbey and Vashon Islands, Port Townsend, Bellingham. In fact, on Vancouver's voyage, names were given to 75 geographic locations or topographic features in our immediate area.

So who was the Puget of Puget Sound?

Peter Puget's career in the Royal Navy began at age 12 when he entered officers' training as a midshipman. It was rigorous training learning every aspect of a sailing vessel: navigation, rigging, seafaring terminology, latitude and longitude, gun and firing practice, diligence to duty and risk taking. H e served on many ships and, in 1786, was assigned to the 70-gun Europa, under the c o m m a n d of Captain Vashon. It was aboard Europa that he met two good shipmates who would influence his future: Lt. George Vancouver, who had sailed with Capt. Cook on his last two voyages, and another midshipman, Joseph Baker.

Not long after, Lt. Vancouver, age 33, was chosen to be c o m m a n d e r of a new Whitby Collier, the Discovery. Carefully selecting provisions, ship's boats and crew, he quickly requested Baker, Puget and a sailing master, Joseph Whidbey, join him on Discovery for a voyage of exploration to the P a c i f i c N o r t h w e s t to look for a Northwest Passage and to settle a land dispute with Spain.

In May, 1792, a year into the voyage, Discovery and the 4 5 ' escort ship, Chatham, reached our inland waters. The voyagers were greatly impressed with the natural beauty they f o u n d . S e e i n g trees to the w a t e r ' s edge, M e n z i e s , the botanist on board, named the Douglas fir (and many other trees, plants and wildflowers he came upon during the voyage). Baker was the first to see a great s n o w - c o v e r e d m o u n t a i n , which Vancouver then named after him.

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They anchored near the southern tip of what we know as Bainbridge Island and went right to work. At three in the morning, the creaking of tackle could be heard as Discovery's launch and cutter were lowered into the water. Peter Puget was to lead a crew of 16 men on a survey of the lower sound with Whidbey in the cutter and Puget in the launch. T r a d e goods, water, navigation equipment, arms, ammunition and f o o d were stowed under the thwarts. The "victuals" for the men were the ship's usual bill of fare, including dried peas, salt beef, ship biscuits, beans, portable soup and, when the sun was over the yardarm, a little grog (one-third rum, two-thirds water) or maybe some spruce beer to ward off the evening chill.

At eight bells (4 a.m.), the two boats shoved off to survey and chart the lower sound and report any "Proceedings, Productions and Inhabitants not seen before."

They rowed and sailed, stopping at 9 a.m. to build a campfire and cook their oatmeal mush. It was stop-go-row, measuring and recording and, when possible, taking a noon sight for latitude. The charts they m a d e were rolled in oilskin for protection.

Their big meal of the day, dinner, was at 3 p.m. They beached the boats, built a driftwood fire and added to their staples w h a t e v e r f r e s h f o o d they c o u l d f i n d , sharpshooters taking to the woods, gleaners to the vegetation and fishermen to the water. The resulting menu might include oysters, clams, crow or raven stew, a fish caught in their seine net and nettle greens.

After dinner, they continued rowing and surveying 'til dusk. They landed again, set up tents for the night, topped off a long day with grog and ship biscuits and retired about 9 or 10.

As they ate dinner one day, there was a tense meeting with a hostile group of natives bearing b o w s and drawn arrows.

Peter Puget had been ordered to keep the peace so he had his crew "ignore" the natives and continue their dinner. But, when m o r e canoes arrived, he drew a line on the beach and fired a swivel gun (mounted on one of the boats) into the water. Suddenly, the natives dropped their weapons and indicated they wanted to trade everything they had, including bows, furs and a hide garment, for a small piece of copper.

Puget named the locale where this occurred Alarm Cove. Today it's Joe's Bay or Van Chart reprinted from Peter Puget by Robert C. Wing with Gordon Newell, by permission of the author

Geldern's Cove The "alarm" over, Puget and his crew moved on through the southern sound Pitt Passage, McNeil Island, Anderson Island, the N i s q u a l l y River, C a s e Inlet, Pickering Passage, Totten Inlet, Squaxin Passage - and into Eld Inlet. They encountered typical M a y weather, e v e r y t h i n g from drenching rain, gusty winds, fog and cold days to scorching sun.

At Eld Inlet, which Puget named Friendly Cove, they were welcomed into a native village, an occasion enjoyed by all. In his report, Puget a m u s i n g l y c o m p a r e d the native ladies with the ladies at home. While one group powered their hair, the other used dogfish oil and white down feathers for decoration and both groups wore face paint, he reported.

The next day, they explored and recorded Budd Inlet. Puget then concluded they had examined all m a j o r arms and found no N o r t h w e s t Passage in the area as m o s t

e n d e d in mud bays. They were already three days overdue so they set sail at 1 p.m. with an outgoing tide; in 13 hours they were back at Discovery, still anchored off Bainbridge Island.

Greatly impressed with Lt. Puget's report, Vancouver expressed his pleasure by noting in his journal, ". . . to c o m m e m o rate Mr. Puget's exertions in the south extremity of this water, I have n a m e d it Puget's Sound." (In c o m m o n usage, Puget has even greater distinction than Vancouver intended as most refer to the entire sound, rather than just the southern portion, as Puget Sound.) Puget was always chosen

by V a n c o u v e r as his r e p r e s e n t a t i v e to "meet and greet" and proved a valued companion in many situations. In a short time, he was C o m m a n d e r Puget, promoted by Vancouver to lead the escort ship Chatham.

Discovery and Chatham moved slowly north. Surveying in the small ship's boats, charting and naming as they went, row-

ing hundreds of miles before they were Chile, to control the gold and silver mines through. Winters w e r e spent in H a w a i i of Santiago. Although very interested, the with friendly natives and a welcome diet Admiralty never acted on either of these of fresh fruit and vegetables. plans.

The exploration voyage lasted four-andAnxious to return to sea, Puget wrote a-half years, a long time for people to be letter a f t e r letter. Finally, orders c a m e packed into small vessels, working long through to take command of Goliath and hours. But there were f e w problems be- join Admiral Cambier's great fleet in the second battle to capture Copenhagen, Dencause Puget's crew always appreciated his mark. Because of his tactical skills and sense of humor and his strong sense of daring nature, he was assigned to the first duty. The Chatham, with 53 on board at assault. He was 42 and still had youthful the start, came h o m e without the loss of a enthusiasm for close action. The battle was single man; Discovery lost only six (two s uccessful! drowned, two j u m p e d ship, one died of In 1809, Puget assisted with a very inillness and one from poisoned clams), far volved plan of Army General Sir Richard below the norm for those days.

Strochan to capture Walcheron and FlushW h e n they returned h o m e in 1795, Ening in the Netherlands. With a successful gland was at war with France. Puget and outcome, Puget was made Commissioner other crew members soon were transferred of the N a v y at Flushing. W h e n the j o b to ships of war. Little attention was given ended in 1811, he was given an important to Discovery and Chatham's v o y a g e of n e w a s s i g n m e n t : C o m m i s s i o n e r of the exploration to the Pacific Northwest, both Navy at Madras, India. b e c a u s e of t h e w a r a n d b e c a u s e of T h e responsibilities were e n o r m o u s .

Vancouver's political put-down by a midThey included setting up a complete new shipman of high social standing ( w h o m base in Ceylon, contracting materials, supVancouver had punished and sent h o m e plies and labor. Then, he also was given early). Even so, the journey brought about authority over Calcutta and Bombay, which outstanding scientific and geographical meant much travel to all these places. achievements, making it one of the most Puget rose to the challenge and, as he notable voyages in maritime history.

Peter Puget and Joseph Baker helped Vancouver's brother, John, finish the last 100 pages of Vancouver's six-volume journal of the voyage as Vancouver died (at age 40) before he could finish it himself.

Puget's first c o m m a n d during the war, Delphi, led a fleet of 13 munitions ships to Gibraltar. His next was Esther, a transport in a convoy of five ships bringing w o m e n , c h i l d r e n and w o u n d e d f r o m Gibraltar back to England. A French frigate captured Esther when Puget offered it as a decoy so the other convoy ships could scatter.

After removing all armaments and supplies, the French captain made a private deal with Puget: for 100 Pounds he could keep his ship. Puget and his crew managed to scrape up 96 pounds, which the enemy captain accepted. Puget then regrouped the scattered boats, the convoy reached England safely and he won the great respect of the Admiralty. (The French captain was later found out and faced the firing squad.)

At 32, P u g e t m a r r i e d 2 0 - y e a r - o l d Hannah, daughter of an A r m y captain.

They were married 23 years and had 11 children. Rising in the ranks, Puget became a Post Captain in charge of the troopship Van Tramp. Then, with a little family influence, a Flag Captain on Temeraire, a 98gun line battleship with 800 on board, followed by Barfleur, also 98 guns. N o w life was very different: spacious quarters and excellent meals, guarded at night by armed M a r i n e s . N o w P u g e t g a v e the o r d e r s , granted promotions and extra rations of grog and ordered floggings. Puget was well-respected by his men. He was always fair with them and always ready to fight for their justice and well-being.

was a man of high honor and strong sense of duty for his country, he worked long hours against red tape, excessive paperwork, petty politics and greedy colleagues.

It was a seven-year battle of frustration against fraud and corruption that previous officials had allowed. His wife and their three youngest children joined him for four years; in 1816, they returned to England.

At age 50, Puget requested a one-year leave as his health had started to deteriorate, probably due to the tropical climate. Instead of granting leave, the Admiralty replaced him and he returned to England. In 1821, at 56, Puget's seniority brought him to the top of the Admiralty list and he was commissioned Rear Admiral of the Blue.

Companion of the Bath was an additional honor.

Puget never did fully recover his health.

He died in 1822, just a few days short of 57 years. Had his tactical plans been carried out, many believe he would have gone d o w n in history as an e q u a l of L o r d Nelson. Nonetheless, he will always b e remembered here on "Puget's" Sound, both f o r his n a m e and for his s u r v e y s and charts. An honest, well-respected m a n with a strong sense of duty to his country, his king and his family.

Puget Sound, a n a m e to honor.

A 10' model of the Discovery will be on exhibit in the Armory Building during the Lake Union Wooden Boat Festival (you might even see Peter Puget there). The model will be part of the 5 th Annual Ship Models Exhibit, sponsored by the Puget Sound Maritime Museum, whose goal is to create a permanent Puget Sound Maritime Museum in the Naval Reserve Building. You also can visit the other P S M M exhibit at Chandler's Cove daily, year-round.

Colleen Wagner has provided vision, leadership and programs in maritime heritage for 30 years. She is the co-founder of The Old Boathouse and The Center for Wooden Boats. She was manager of the Museum of Sea and Ships and events and education manager for Northwest Seaport. Colleen has designed exhibits for the Columbia River Maritime Museum and CWB. She served as a Board Member of Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society and raised funds for museum planning through annual model exhibits, book sales and monthly raffles. Colleen and Dick Wagner received Mystic Seaport's 1995 W. P. Stevens Award for those "who have made a significant, lasting contribution to American boating."

Puget's next two large ships were the Monarch and then the F o u d r o y a n t (Nelson's old ship), which proved to be u n l u c k y for h i m . W h e n he t o o k o v e r Foudroyant half the crew was ill with fever. Puget had to take them to a hospital ashore. Many died. W h e n Foudroyant returned to sea, during a full Atlantic gale Puget was caught off balance and tossed over a rail to the gun deck. Badly injured, he was eventually brought home to recover under the care of his wife. It took more than a year, while he drew only half-pay.

While laid up, he presented to the Admiralty a tactical plan to capture Ushant, a tiny French island, so the British could use it as a signal station. Another tactical plan Puget offered was to capture Valparaiso, SHAVINGS

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Those Who Go Down to the Sea in Ships Behold the Wonders of [Sailor] Nature A Study of Character-building and the Sea

by Chas. Dowd

. . . enjoying the golden glow of a magnificent sunset and watching a mixed youth group and their counselors setting up a beach camp. Several aluminum canoes of a type much favored by such youth groups for their complete indestructibility were pulled up on the sand nearby. One of the campers, a teenage boy, walked over to one of the canoes and prepared to launch it. Archer sat forward with growing interest.

"Ah ha," he said, " w e ' r e about to see some character-building."

The camper slipped his canoe easily into the water. Erect in the stern, looking every inch a m o d e r n L e a t h e r s t o c k i n g , he began to paddle through the auriferous twilight. His fourth stroke banged on the gunwale. So did his eighth, his tenth, eleventh and thirteenth. T h e sound of each tiny inept touch was m a g n i f i e d by the resonance of 16 feet of tuned aluminum.

"Imagine his mental state at this minute," explained Archer. "Everybody - including the girl with the braces whom he is trying to impress - is watching. Cursed with the overlarge feet and acne of adolescence, our modern day Natty B u m p o is now learning that even props are no help. Only time cures being a teenager."

Indeed, the Noble Savage had reverted to a 13-year-old boy floundering across a small bay with all the charm of a garbage truck in the compact-and-crush cycle. Had he been trying to sneak up on any wildlife, he would have made a better j o b of it crawling across a loose stack of iron skillets.

"I often consider tin canoes to be the p e r f e c t C a t c h - 2 2 , " said A r c h e r . " T h e minute you can paddle one across a bay without banging the gunwale, you graduate to a non-metallic model where such errors are so unobtrusive as to be undetectable. Learning to accept that additional irony puts the final polish on character."

"There's nothing like boats for giving one chances to develop character," he conSHAVINGS 6

tinued, pouring from the thermos. "I rem e m b e r when I was one of four aspiring sailors cruising with Mr. McCartney. Mr. McCartney was an important name in marit i m e circles and his r e c o m m e n d a t i o n s translated into summer work on seiners, e x c u r s i o n b o a t s and s o m e t i m e s e v e n Washington State ferries. My dad knew n o t h i n g a b o u t the sea, but he was an apostle of work in any season. Hence my cruise.

"Under Mr. McCartney's watchful eye, we had sailed his big ketch as far north as Princess Louisa Inlet, a place of such vast natural beauty that even four teenage boys noticed. As we turned the last corner, we came upon the Flying Scot at anchor. She was the family yacht of a f a m o u s tug, barge and drydock owner, known around P u g e t S o u n d as J a k e S e n i o r . M r .

McCartney was delighted. " ' T h i s is a wonderful opportunity if any of you are serious about following the sea,' he told us. ' " J a k e Senior has been my m e n t o r since the ' 4 0 s . I work on port business with Jake Junior every week. I am godfather to Jake III and have been almost a second father to him since his birth. After chow, I will introduce all of you to Jake Senior. If you make a good impression, he can do you a lot of good.'

"Dressed in our seagoing best, we all piled into the small cutter and rowed Mr. McCartney over. We were met at the gangway by a quietly deferential but uneasy steward who told Mr. M c C a r t n e y sotto voce that 'Mr. Jake was in the saloon.'

"Mr. McCartney walked promptly down the passageway with the four of us in tow and flung the door open heartily. There, seated at the head of the table was not Jake Senior, or even Jake Junior, but Jake III, Mr. McCartney's godson. Seated with him were three women.

"Jake III was holding the hand of a very dramatic-looking woman in a white ma-

rabou-trimmed peignoir worn over an outfit my G r a n d m a Lottie would have said ' w o u l d n ' t make a wrasslin' jacket for a pissant.' The other two ladies were equally dramatic-looking and similarly clad and, in any other circumstance, I would have stared at them unabashed.

"But I was far more interested in Jake I l l ' s face. It was like w a t c h i n g a m a n hanged, except that it d i d n ' t stop. T h e blood didn't just drain out of his face, it drained into the bilges and out through s o m e p a t e n t e d o n e - w a y v a l v e in t h e garboard of the Flying Scot and d o w n some 80 feet to the bottom of the inlet. If it could have drained to China, it would have gone there. " ' I came aboard to use your ship-toshore,' said Mr. McCartney coldly. 'I need to ring up Jake Senior.' He turned to us.

'You fellows row back to the boat. I think young Jake can provide a launch for me later.'

"Young Jake could only nod. H e was the color of the dramatic-looking lady's marabou feathers and mute as a flounder.

I calculated that, between Mr. McCartney's presence and the soon-to-beinvoked voice of Jake Senior, a fair bit of character-building was going to be done -aboard the Flying Scot that night." ....

"Character-building is one thing," said O ' R o u r k e , "but I enjoy the sea's capability to reveal, rather than shape character.

Take Wembly, for example."

We sat quietly for a moment and meditated upon Wembly. Wembly ached for the sea. His dream was the dream of early morning sailings from deserted anchorages, of sunsets like spilled blood in the west or of a kicking helm in a wilderness of gray seas.

But this dream needs a boat, and boats are quite another dream completely.

W e m b l y ' s first boat was a b a c k y a r d builder's project. Looking through the distorting glasses of his desire, Wembly saw the potential for bright varnish, gleaming brass and white sculptured sails, where others saw nothing more than a plywood sloop of a certain age.

H e took his first sail on a brisk autumn weekend. While reaching happily across the Sound, as he recounted later, "the tiller

went all loose." T h e blade of the rudder had twisted off.

Wembly floundered around in the saloon and managed to bring up the dinette table top for a jury rudder. Then, two tacks later, the starboard sheet winch pulled free of its mountings and dove overboard into 400 feet of water. As night fell, Wembly made it into a little harbor and dropped anchor, only to find that his foredeck planking had opened up like a fan and that his sleeping bag was soaked.

W h e n s o m e o n e asked him how he enj o y e d his maiden voyage, Wembly said it was "as much fun as standing in a cold shower in front of an electric fan tearing up $20 bills."

Deciding that maybe an old wooden boat was not the way to start, W e m b l y then acquired a brand new fiberglass sloop, right off the assembly line. He had several happy cruises in Wembly's Dream II before someone remarked to him that his "stays looked remarkably slack." He tightened them carefully, only to find them slack again in a couple of days. Subsequent readjustments b r o u g h t his t u r n b u c k l e s c h o c k - a - b l o c k and still the problem persisted.

Wembly was sailing back to the dealer to discuss the problem with him when the boat sank. The surveyor from the salvage company found that during manufacture, someone, bemused no doubt by the f u m e s of styrene, neglected to reinforce the mast step. Wembly had tightened his mast right through his keel.

Finally came a solid little inboard. No m a s t s , no w i n c h e s a n d a b r a n d n e w foredeck. Wembly and his boat arrived at the launch ramp just as a fisherman in the adjoining lane made a final effort to get his Zodiac waterborne. This hapless Nimrod must have been futilely shoving and tugging at his recalcitrant inflatable for quite a while before he got the idea of lowering his outboard and running it in full reverse while he put his shoulder under the bow.

T h e c o m b i n a t i o n worked beyond the fisherman's wildest dream. The inflatable suddenly shot into the water and he fell face-first off his trailer into the water, dropping the painter. The Zodiac spun around twice at high speed and hit the launch lane

finger pier. Bounding elastically into the air, it landed in the cockpit of W e m b l y ' s boat.

By the time the outboard's bearings seized, its p r o p e l l e r had g n a w e d t h r o u g h the topsides, keel and a great deal of the rest of Wembly's Dream III. The insurance adjuster said it was the first time he had processed a claim for a p o w e r e d collision between two boats on dry land.

"So W e m b l y left the sea," said O ' R o u r k e , " b u t the sea did not l e a v e Wembly. Like some sort of literary Flying Dutchman, he e m b a r k e d on an endless voyage through nautical literature. He studied the evolution of various fisheries, fishing boat types and fish cookery. He learned how to splice, tie complicated knots and make up a tangle-free coil.

"He would sit on the wharf next to the marina and mend canvas for those of his friends more successful with boats. Smoking N a v y - c u t shag in a large pipe, his

darned and mended watch cap tipped to one side, he looked somewhat saltier than Ahab, Tourists often asked if they could take his picture.

"At the last, the sea taught Wembly that, though he couldn't become even a moderately good sailor, he was destined from birth to be one of the world's truly great ex-sailors."

And if ever there was someone destined from birth to be master of the written word, it is Chas. Dowd. Rower and raconteur, editor and expeditioner, his eloquence, humor and style graced the pages of Shavings for some years. And nearly a decade ago, he used those talents to create the CWB "Hands-on History" brochure that we still distribute by the thousands each year. We're pleased to have him back.

SHAVINGS

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Of Fish and Ships Kerteminde harbor with many of Adolf Nielsen's boats. - photo by Bent

Thygesen

Recollections of a Danish Shipwright and Boatbuilder

by Bent Thygesen On the east coast of the island of Fyn in the country of D e n m a r k there is a small tourist, c o m m u t e r and r e t i r e m e n t town named Kerteminde which has a population of 5,000.

Kerteminde is my h o m e t o w n where I learned to build a variety o f small and large solid-wood boats by eye and from plans in one of two local boatyards. At the local technical school, which I attended as part of my apprenticeship, I also learned to design boats.

Adolf Nielsen was the master who trained me. In Denmark a master is a craftsman who has served an apprenticeship in his chosen trade, who has become a journeyman, who has worked in a number of different shops as a journeyman to gain additional work experience and who has then set up his own business and begun to hire journeymen and train apprentices.

From the middle of the 1920s, when he started his business, until 1951, Adolf built 98 fishing boats, including many oceangoing trawlers ranging in length from 32' to 4 0 ' . During the period of my four-year apprenticeship he built 12 of those with a crew of two apprentices and from two to four j o u r n e y m e n . They were all carvelbuilt, but he also built many lapstrake boats.

A few of those were small rowboats, such as dinghies, skiffs and prams, but most were larger double-ended power boats built for use in the trap fishery. The small boats were built from larch with steam-bent ash ribs. The larger lapstrake boats also were built from larch but they had sawn oak f r a m e s , which were fitted to the planks after the planking was completed. A socalled "'snake" (a flexible tool that consists of a number of short pieces of thin strap iron or wood riveted together at the ends) was bent against the inside of the planking to get the shape of the frames and it was used as a pattern for marking the frames before they were cut out on the bandsaw.

The carvel-built trawlers also had sawn oak frames, which were assembled on the lofting floor, but the planking was different. Beech was used below the waterline because it is rot-resistant but oak was used above the waterline.

Adolf trained eight apprentices. A fouryear apprenticeship was typical in those days. I was an apprentice from 1939 to 1943 when Kerteminde had 3,000 inhabitants and commercial fishing was an important local industry. It no longer is. With the decline in fish populations, there are few f i s h e r m e n and no boatyards left in town.

SHAVINGS

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As former fishermen have left town to find other jobs, their houses have been bought by c o m m u t e r s who work in the large city of Odense 12 miles inland or by retired people who are attracted by the small-town character and its pleasant location by the fjord and the beaches. Some commercial developments have also taken place. W h e r e as a boy I used to swim from one of the beaches, there is now a marina with space for about 2 0 0 boats, which come from several European countries and occasionally,from the United States. And where freighters used to dock and smallscale fishermen pulled up their boats and worked on their nets and hooks, there is now a saltwater aquarium which is a great tourist attraction.

The father of one of A d o l f ' s apprentices was a teacher. But that was exceptional.

Most apprentices came from fishing or w o r k i n g - c l a s s f a m i l i e s , n o t j u s t in Kerteminde but in the country as a whole.

It was not unusual for boys to follow in their fathers' footsteps but in Kerteminde only one of the apprentices had a father who had been a shipwright - and he had become a fisherman even before his son was born. But he did all the repair that needed to be done on his own boat which, by the way, was the second boat Adolf built.

I am also the son of a fisherman and, like most Danish boys in those days, I left school at the age of 14 after completing the required seven years of basic education, which included no mathematics and only a very superficial level of science. It was not until I entered the technical school

that I learned enough algebra and geometry to be able to do the work projects required of apprentices at different levels of their training.

I said earlier that I learned to design boats at the technical school. I did, but not from any of my teachers. My drafting teacher was a carpentry master who knew a lot a b o u t h o u s e design but n o t h i n g a b o u t boats. I taught myself boat design f r o m books that Adolf offered m e the use of and which I read in my drafting classes.

Adolf was good at passing on his knowledge of the practical sides of boatbuilding and he designed most of the boats he built.

He instructed his apprentices in lofting but not in the designing of boats. But he allowed me to copy one of his designs at the school. T h e c o m b i n a t i o n of taking measurements from his design and following the design instructions in his books gave me the fundamentals of boat design, which laid the foundation for my own later designs. I consider myself lucky to have had Adolf for my master.

The minimum school requirement is now 10 years of attendance rather than seven and apprentices no longer attend technical school after hours as I did. Their apprenticeships alternate between periods of onthe-job training and attendance at a central technical boarding school for the duration of their apprenticeships. In Denmark, a country of five million people, there is only one school for boatbuilding apprentices, but the school has good teachers and t h e g r a d u a t e s a r e w e l l - g r o u n d e d in boatbuilding and related subjects.

An apprenticeship begins with the ne-

gotiation and signing of a contract by the master and a parent or guardian of the boy if he is a minor. It is rare for an individual to become an apprentice at the age of 18 or older; in such a case the apprentice himself negotiates and signs the contract.

The contract specifies the duration of the apprenticeship and the pay and work hours of the apprentice. It also contains clauses that m a k e it mandatory for the master to pay for the apprentice's education and supplies at the technical school and it sets up conditions for the termination of the contract. In my day, the first three months of the apprenticeship were considered a trial period during which either the master or the representative of the apprentice could terminate the contract without penalty. Thereafter, both the master and the apprentice were obligated to h o n o r the terms of the contract. If the master did not release the apprentice within the trial period and the apprentice later failed the j o u r n e y m a n ' s test, the master could be required to retrain the apprentice at the j o u r n e y m a n ' s wage until he could pass the test. I know of one such case in which the master had to pay the apprentice the j o u r n e y m a n ' s wage for six months. At the end of that period, the apprentice passed the test. If an apprentice broke the contract, he could be made to reimburse the master for his e x p e n s e s for wages and schooling, but I am not aware that that has ever happened. The master seems to have been happy just to be rid of the boy.

To avoid conflicts, some masters hired boys as "working b o y s " without a contract to check the boys out for a certain period before they negotiated the apprenticeship contract. That meant, of course, that the start of the apprenticeship would be delayed, but the practice gave the masters some extra time and protection in dubious cases.

According to my contract, which Adolf and my father negotiated and signed, I was to be paid 5, 7, 10 and 12 kroner a week respectively for the four years of my app r e n t i c e s h i p . T h o s e a m o u n t s are the equivalent of. $1, $1.38, $2 and $2.40. I was to w o r k 48 hours a week or eight hours a day for six days, which was customary then. Adolf paid my school expenses and I was required to attend the technical school for two hours, five eve-

Boats under construction in Nielsen's yard, ca. 1925, Note the lofting floor in the foreground. - photographer unknown

nings a week during the winter m o n t h s (November through M a r c h ) each year.

The project that a boatbuilding apprentice is required to complete to become a journeyman depends on the stage of a boat under construction at the time he has completed his training. It consists of two parts: drawing a plan for the project and making it.

The finished product and the plan are judged for consistency, accuracy and professional execution by three judges: the apprentice's master, another master, and a representative from the b o a t b u i l d e r s ' union.

My project was a companionway on a 40' trawler.

Since 1942, Danish boatbuilding apprentices have been supported and represented by the boatbuilders' union-through m e m bership in the apprentice association. O n e significant benefit of this membership is the right to unemployment compensation through the union in the transitional period between apprenticeship and first e m p l o y m e n t as a j o u r n e y m a n . O n c e e m ployed, the j o u r n e y m a n must leave the apprentice association and he is then expected to join the union. H e is not required to do so, there are n o n - u n i o n shops in Denmark. But if he doesn't join, he would find it difficult to find a j o b ; if he loses it, he would not have any union support to find another.

The union regulates the j o b market in most workplaces. A m e m b e r can inquire about j o b openings in a shop, but he cannot start work there in the absence of approval f r o m the union. Unless the union has a conflict with the shop, he should have no difficulty getting clearance to start work. But if he starts work without clearance, whether there is a conflict or not, he will be fined for having broken the union rules. In my day, the fine was the equivalent of half a week's wages.

Apprentice lb Hillerup Jorgensen posed for the unknown photographer who recorded this 38' fishing boat under construction in Nielsen's yard in the late '30s. The massive fishing boat is a marked contrast to the graceful cradle boats that author Bent Thygesen builds nowadays.

In one case, I nearly got fined for failure to notify the union of a three-week delay in arriving to begin work at a new place. But, because I had initially obtained u n i o n a p p r o v a l to w o r k t h e r e , I w a s merely given a stern lecture with an admonition not to repeat my mistake.

Among his journeymen, a master may have a master journeyman who can fill in for him when he is away and who can operate the shop to allow him to concentrate on public relations. In those situations, the master j o u r n e y m a n is also in charge of training the apprentices. His position, while not exalted, is prestigious.

He is paid more than the regular hourly wage in recognition of his responsibilities, but, in relation to his fellow j o u r n e y m e n , he is essentially the first a m o n g equals.

In my experience, the apprentices addressed the journeymen and the master by the formal De, the journeymen by their last name and the master by his title. They in turn were addressed by the master and the journeymen by the familiar du and their first name.

The rules of address that I knew probably do not exist today, for the D a n i s h society has become much m o r e informal during the past 30 years. In 1968, the m e m bers of the D a n i s h Parliament issued a statement inviting the citizens to address them by du.

B o a t b u i l d e r s h a v e rituals. S o m e are unique to boatbuilders, others are shared by the fishermen who buy the boats the boatbuilders build.

Junior apprentices were the objects of ribald jokes and they might be sent to a different shop to pick up impossible tools such as "plank stretchers." And when they returned with a closed box filled with junk, continued on page 15 SHAVINGS

9

Here There Be Pirates?

The Last Voyage of the Lizzie K.) (excerpted from

By Steve Osborn (When we sent out the call for contributors to the 1998 Festival issue of Shavings, Steve Osborn reached into his seabag of maritime experiences and came up with this piece. About 10 years ago, Steve sailed from San Francisco to Singapore as mate on a 54' gaff-rigged schooner. The skipper was the former owner, who had sold the boat on the condition that it be delivered to Singapore. The new owner changed the name; thus, the title of the larger work from which this is excerpted: The Last Voyage of the Lizzie K. The owner also re rigged the schooner in traditional clipper manner, including a yard on the foremast.

Osborn returned to Singapore to head up the re-rigging p r o j e c t . The vessel, now the Borja, today sails in the fabled waters of the East Indies.)

16 January Eleven days out of Palau, we raised the Philippines. T h e Skipper had sent all his o w n charts h o m e , b e f o r e w e left, after having parts Xeroxed on standard paper.

Unfortunately, the clerk that copied the charts was a landsman w h o only tried to get as much as he could on each sheet of paper, so we had no latitude or longitude; reef passes and landmarks were left out.

We navigated Palau f r o m a tourist brochure. D u r i n g a gale Off San Francisco, we shipped one sea straight into the chart locker and the Xeroxed sheets turned to mush. We had one small-scale chart of the Eastern Pacific and one of the Western Pacific. T h e entire Philippine archipelago was about the size of one's thumb.

The passage through Surigao Strait was picturesque. Small villages, just clusters of p a l m huts, sat on the s h o r e closely b a c k e d by j u n g l e . E a c h h a d a f e w trimarans pulled up on the beach and nets drying in the sun. In the middle of many villages stood a large, impressive, Catholic church, an incongruity in the midst of the surrounding poverty.

One slightly comical problem lay before us. We were now in Philippine waters. That required a courtesy flag. W e had one, but no one on board could remember which way was up. T h e flag is symmetrical, but the fly is divided into red and blue. Which went up? Flying it upside down could result in a diplomatic insult, arrest and confiscation of t h e schooner, especially considering the opinion Americans were held in down in that part of the world. We finally settled on blue up, for the sky is blue.

By chance, we were right. Saved again!

We s w u n g north, skirting L e y t e and numerous net fishermen. We passed many of them close aboard and w e smiled and w a v e d . All w e received in return were stony stares. This seemed odd b e c a u s e even the Red Chinese fishing boats in Palau responded with smiles and waves. W h e n we cleared Bahul Island, we turned west again, motorsailing into the setting sun. As night fell, the Skipper ordered the engine shut down.

We drifted all night, sails furled, watching out for the occasional coastal steamer and hoping not to drift into the nets strung on poles amongst the coral reefs. In the SHAVINGS 10

darkness, we could see the loom of Cebu, but not the unlighted channel marks.

Finally, dawn broke with its usual tropic suddenness. The Skipper came on deck, looked about and said, "Start the engine."

We found our way into the channel between Maktan Island and Cebu, fascinated by our first close-up view of life in the Philippines, In those islands, life is still lived, to a large part, under sail and paddle.

We finally passed under a large bridge and anchored off Cebu City. The new owner was standing on the quay watching as we dropped the hook - our fourth stop since leaving San Francisco three months before.

T h e new o w n e r came aboard, greeted the Skipper and his lady and they all headed for town.

"Keep someone on deck at all times," said the new owner, "These guys can strip a boat in minutes and the crew sleeping below w o n ' t even know it until they come on deck in the morning."

We drew lots and the bosun got the first harbor watch. O n e aboard on deck and the rest of the c r e w a s h o r e . T h e n e w o w n e r had rented a couple of rooms in a hotel, so the crew could have a shower and down a f e w San Miguels. ("Remember the n a m e . Y o u ' l l n e v e r f o r g e t the taste.") The Filipino jitneys are just as colorful and wild as the pictures. They rely mainly on the horn and the gas pedal. It is a loss of machismo to hit the brakes, except to pick up a passenger.

Back on board, the watchstander paced the deck in the darkness. A look over the stern revealed a man fishing in a small dugout. Walk forward and stop to sit on the bitts. Three men fishing in a small boat, right under the bowsprit. After a short staring contest, they moved off into the channel. A f e w more turns around the deck and another boatload under the bowsprit.

This went on until daylight, when all the boats moved off.

The next day was make and mend and provisioning. The night was a repeat of the night before.

On the 18th, our departure day, we were treated to a colorful festival celebrating Magellan's discovery of the islands. Overloaded boats of all descriptions paraded the channel, each with its own band aboard, playing the same song. Ashore, a huge crane had been hoisted into position with a basket about six feet across lashed to the top. At the height of the boat parade, the b a s k e t s u d d e n l y e r u p t e d into fireworks! Hundreds of rockets streaking just past our masthead. That was the signal for a replay of the invasion of Leyte. We were surprised that this was all done in daylight. At night, it really would have been spectacular.

The new owner, the Skipper and his family came aboard and we weighed anchor at 1500. There was enough wind to sail away from the anchorage so we began our final leg under sail.

M u c h of the o n - d e c k d i s c u s s i o n revolved around the pirates of the Palawan area. When we transited the Balabac Strait, we would pass just south of the island.

The South-East Asian Times had an article by some French journalists who had accompanied a pirate raid. The stories we heard in Cebu were that the pirates would overhaul a fishing boat, strip the boat of everything of value, torture and drown the crew (a favorite ploy being to chop off their hands, then shove them in to sink or swim) and then sink the boat.

The French journalists had taken pictures of the raids. T h e pirates all were wearing ski masks. The looks on the faces of the fishermen were abject terror and resignation as they cowered in the bottom of their boats with their hands raised in

supplication. They were stripped of everything of value, even their clothes, The boats were stripped of every fitting, then the hulks were set adrift in the Sulu Sea with their human cargo, to perish of sun and thirst unless another boat passed. " N o one was killed while we were on board," wrote the journalists.

"Of course not," said our crew, "Those people a r e n ' t d u m m i e s , but guess what h a p p e n s w h e n there are no journalists.

There are no witnesses left."

The wind dropped and the sea turned to glass. We powered on. About 1730, we were surrounded by a pod of false killer w h a l e s that p a c e d us for a time, then veered off.

T h e new o w n e r brought charts of our destination, but it never dawned on him that we were navigating the Philippines on a thumbnail. Our navigation was mainly

by GPS, with the radar to keep us from hitting anything sizeable. In the evening, we passed the mouth of Tanon Strait, leaving Cebu behind and Negros Island to starboard. There were strong currents setting us off our rhumb line to the next waypoint, but the radar image put us in the navigable channel so we carried on.

A light showed on the horizon. At first it looked like a masthead light or a star but, as it rose higher, it was obviously a lighthouse perched on the top of a small island. The small island (Apo Island) was n o t on o u r c h a r t . T h e r a d a r s h o w e d Negros to starboard, Sikijor off the port bow and a small island dead ahead. A set of running lights between Negros and the island showed a deep water channel. Per standing orders, called the skipper.

He got up and sat at the chart table, reading the pilot. H e w o u l d n ' t come up and look. I sketched the island and drew the radar picture, indicating the channel, and took it down to him. He still wouldn't look.

Finally, he said to turn 180째, steam back to the last waypoint and then, correcting for current, proceed to the next waypoint.

Then he went back to bed, still without looking. That cost us about eight hours.

In the morning, we were in the Sulu Sea, far from sight of land. Occasionally, we would see a golden sea snake sunning itself on the surface. A s we passed, they dived and disappeared. There was little wind, so mostly we stretched the iron topsail. Occasionally, we would get a breeze and sometimes could talk the Skipper into shutting down the e n g i n e for a bit, but mainly we motorsailed.

Nighttime in the Sulu Sea, southeast of Palawan. A radar target appears off the starboard beam. It slowly closes with us, dropping astern until it hovers off our starboard quarter. Usually, a boat will show

up, pass astern or ahead of us and on over the horizon. This one stays, one mile off the starboard quarter, one hour, two hours.

C h a n g e of watch and the bosun elects to stay on deck until something happens with the invisible stranger, hovering, j u s t an anonymous blip on the radar screen, one mile off the starboard quarter. Just before dawn, the blip moves off. By daylight, only an old schooner with a sleepy crew inhabits that part of the Sulu Sea. Pirate? Honest fisherman? Coincidence?

We decided we looked either too big - or too poor - to be worth hitting.

F r o m then on, only routine traffic s h o w e d up, day or night. A couple of nights later, we passed through Balabac Pass and into the South China Sea with only a thousand miles to go ... . but that's another story.

This is the Six Metre, Hecate, newest addition to CWB's collection and already a crowd-pleaser.: Among those who got a chance to sail this graceful beauty in her first week at CWB were (left to right) Dick Wagner, Bob Perkins, Vern Velez and Bill Drohan. Hecate came to CWB through the generous donation of Anne Lichtenwalner and Rik Langendoen. - photo by Judie Romeo

SHAVINGS 11

Night Run and Dawn Gun

on Old Caribbee

by George Galpin

It's late Friday afternoon, and I ' m dragging myself down the full length of B Dock about an hour and twenty minutes before the first gun. Somebody had this great idea about making Point Lip Lip a night race, and here I am dead beat from a long week, facing an all-night sail. Crazy.

I ' m first on board and plop down on the deck just forward of the mast for a short snooze in the warm sun. U p aloft the windex shows a southerly and the anemometer we d o n ' t have would be turning lazily around showing all of a knot or two. Roy Dunbar, my tactician and sail trimmer - and, truthfully, the one guy on the boat w h o really knows what he's doing - shows up about five minutes later looking about how I feel.

It's not long before we are laughing we are both already tuckered out and, on top of that, we are supposed to "sail" a heavy 60-year-old woodie all night in no wind. Wonderful! Can hardly wait! Well, maybe I can. G i m m e another five minutes with my hat pulled down over my eyes.

Fixin' to get ready can be hard work.

fills and collapses. Now and then we break out of the drift mode and show a single knot of speed, but mostly we are just riding with the ebb. After three hours of this, we are abeam of Kingston, at the tail end of the fleet and out of jokes.

It's not quite as bad as it sounds. The plastic boats with fancy sails don't drift any faster than we do and are less than a half-mile ahead. And, as the sun drops over the Olympics, our interest in racing revives as we watch the spinnakers coming down on boats ahead and then see them heeling over nicely in a fresh new northerly breeze.

The drifter goes up and Caribbee finally begins to move.

Twenty minutes later we change to the #1, but not without tearing the drifter on the upper spreader while trying to take it down. We are used to torn sails - all our head sails are old and they give up from time to time; we don't help the cause with our occasional mistakes. We buy the best oldies we can find, use them up and then go stuff a dumpster.

Back on the race course, the running lights are coming on and we are all putting on our woollies. Caribbee is doing a solid six and the wind is rising as we start working our way through the back of the fleet.

Darkness finally closes in about a mile south of Point No Point and most of the fleet disappears. Rather strange and unexpected. With all the boats out with us, you would think you would see them all around but I can find only a handful.

There's probably 5 knots of wind out at the starting line and the Protection Island boats get away well under spinnakers, taking practically the last zephyr up the course with them. It takes us about three minutes after the gun for our start to cover the spitting distance between us and the line.

Over and over again, the chute goes up,

Point N o Point comes abeam and then falls rapidly astern. Caribbee is really moving now - 58,000 pounds, rail down, close to the upper limit of the # 1. We hardly feel the light chop. Perfect! I trade the helm off to Roy and retrieve my brown bag supper from below. Back on deck it's black out, really black, except for the faint glow

Mention sailboat racing to anyone and you'll probably either be greeted with enthusiasm or you'll get a sneer or a shrug and a comment about racing being just for those guys with the high-tech plastic boats. Not so, says CWB Life Member George Galpin, whose wooden classic, Caribbee, is well known on the Northwest sailboat racing circuit.

from Caribbee's ancient 7" Kelvin White and the foaming water just under the running lights. A much smaller boat is not far ahead and I watch with interest her pitching progress. We go by like an express train passing the local freight. The fleet has spread out and we might as well be all alone.

Now I ' m thinking: What a great idea to race at night! I've always liked the night watches on an ocean passage best and I'm reminded of my last night sail, heading south along the New Zealand coast. They have lighthouses! Awesome big ones that reach well out to sea, real sailors' friends.

The Southern Cross hangs half-way up the headstay and the whole bow of the boat lights up w h e n you p l u n g e into a w a v e . J e l l y f i s h the size of c l a s s r o o m globes glow in your wake; the little ones c o m e back at you like tracer bullets in the spray. Porpoises come and go, long cylinders of light.

We have nothing so exciting here. Hardly a star to be seen, just our own very modest navigation aids and water that's almost as dark as the night. Still, it's exhilarating - the air smells great and the sounds of wind and water rushing by as Caribbee plows her way to weather become an intoxicating symphony.

Down below a mini-comedy is taking place. A handful of the crew is clustered around the centerboard trunk, jabbering at each other and madly pressing buttons on a couple of handheld GPS. Lots of frowns and head scratching. I have some interest since it would be nice if those little things really worked. I suspect the problem is in all the head scratching; then again, the one I had on the Kiwi coast was two hours getting a signal, which is why I remember the lighthouses so well.

In any event, I ' m relying on a handful

of carefully-measured bearings, done the evening before the race. Just as well, since the crew gives up. We are going to find the mark the old way.

On port tack we are approaching the bearing angle from the mid-channel buoy and have been steadily closing on a boat about a hundred yards ahead. I ' m expecting him to tack for the mark - hoping, of c o u r s e , he k n o w s w h e r e it is. B u t he doesn't tack. Where the hell is he going?

What is he doing? All of us are puzzled and growing concerned. As we close the bearing it suddenly hits me: the boat ahead is long c o u r s e ! W o w ! T h e y were way ahead! We tack.

But, now it's show time - we are headed for the beach. It's a black void ahead, a very close reach and a full 9 knots! 120, 110, 100; the depth sounder is counting down and my pulse rate is counting up.

The mark is supposed to be in 60 feet of water.

Three or four of the crew are in the bow with a light but are not using it in the excitement. I c a n ' t believe it. No time for yelling. 90 and still nine knots. I can just make out the outline of trees. 85. Suddenly, there's a light ahead shining on the sails of a boat I hadn't even seen. And in the water next to the boat is the mark. The yacht club has been checking the roundings from a boat anchored nearby. Immediate relief, but still high tension. W e ' v e got a chute to set; w e ' v e never done it at night and only rarely in the day in a breeze like this. We are around the mark in a short couple of minutes. It's midnight and the tide is just turning to flood. Amazing.

Roy supervises a very cautious set, and a small cheer goes up from the foredeck.

I feel a surge of power through the helm as the chute begins to pull. Almost immediately we are on the edge of hull speed

A typical fore and aft view from the decks of the Caribbee during a race. Few boats up ahead and lots behind. (To prove it, the photo on the left was taken during the first TriPoint Series race this year, while the one on the right is from the Blakely Rock Benefit Regatta.

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with a huge stern wave and Caribbee has turned into a squirrel. Just like the old timer who sailed with Carleton Mitchell had said.

The helm is a job-and-a-half, even after choking the chute down by running the cars forward. But at least we know where we are going! The tension on board has dissolved and there is a lot of chatter and laughter. Then, intense interest in the dislant s i l h o u e t t e s of f o u r or f i v e c h u t e s ahead. The chase in on!

A half-hour later the breeze is starting to taper off and Caribbee is back to an easy ride at something over 7 knots. We catch two boats and overtake a third near Point No Point. By Apple Point we have drawn close to another, but the wind is steadily dropping. We have six knots and fading and the boat ahead is starting to slip away. From well astern something light (I think an Olson 30) closes with us rapidly and slides by at a much higher angle of attack. He challenges the boat ahead and they're in their own personal race; they leave us, heading way over to the east shore, south of Point Wells. Roy watches them a moment and I hear him wondering out loud what they are doing. W e ' v e sailed enough races for me to know that means they are probably making a mistake.

The last mile or so seems very slow at 3.5 - 4 knots. W e ' v e c o m e all the way right down the middle, with the wind shifting right along with us. N o need for even a single jibe. Somebody way ahead has already finished but behind us is a small army of little red and green eyes, gradually getting closer. We are alone as we near the line. The Olsons, or whatever they were, are toast on the other side of M e a d o w Point. Dawn and a near calm c o m e within the hour, but I ' m stretched out on a pile of sail bags with a hat back over my eyes.

If you own an old classic why not c o m e out and j o i n us? We race the Corinthian Yacht Club's Center Sound Series, Seattle Yacht Club's Trio-Point Series and some of the Sloop Tavern Yacht Club's events.

Most of these are full day races and, if nothing else, get you out on the water for a great day of sailing.

If a half-dozen or more of us enter any of these races we could have our own division, create a classic class within a regular P H R F (Performance Handicap Racing Fleet) event. We would be racing primarily ourselves but would also be competing against the fleet overall and, now and then, we will have a good day.

If your sails are old and tired you d o n ' t have to get new ones made to greatly improve your boat's performance. Keep the old ones as spares and try used sail lofts like Bacon & Associates in Annapolis or the Sail Exchange in Newport Beach. They carry large inventories of sails, some of which are nearly new in quality. And they are mostly dacron, just what we, want. You will find the prices reasonable and the quality descriptions, at least in my experience, quite accurate. Have the sail shipped directly to a local Soft for inspection and any needed modifications.

I have bought six used sails so far and have found them a great way to broaden Caribbee's inventory. Spinnakers, in particular, are plentiful and cheap, even if the cut is old. If you sail over your chute and destroy it with your keel (we did that once) or blow it out in a breeze, you can replace it quickly with a phone call and suffer only a small hole in the pocket. You can afford to learn and make mistakes. Our early sail b u y s are n o w o u r b a c k u p s ( " c r u i s i n g sails") and, before too long, will no doubt be part of a landfill. But, at least, they will be used up. Old sails are, well, old. So, d o n ' t expect miracles - just a good deal.

One thing racing will do, besides improve

your sailing skills, is find the weak points in your boat. Your running gear and rigging need to be in decent shape and any hardware securely fastened. Every time the wind blows hard we raise a f e w screws on the genoa track ( I ' m talking seveninchers!), so I know I have bulwarks and cap rails yet to replace. One race we even almost pulled a turning block off the deck - three of five bolts with washers almost completely out. N o w we have metal plates below.

For those who still d o n ' t want to try P H R F but do enjoy sailing in the company of other classic boats, why not try the Wooden Yacht Racing Association series?

The most popular of these events is a threerace series held in Port Townsend the first weekend in June - the annual Classic Mariners Regatta organized by the Wooden Boat Foundation. It's two days of sailing with a lot of other old woodies and there is plenty of time for talking, visiting and simply looking. Pretty hard to beat for the enjoyment. If that's too far, don't forget the local races, including the one at the Center during the Lake Union Wooden Boat Festival.

For me, the highlight of last season w a s n ' t in the winning of a particular race.

It was coming to the finish line on a summer evening in a rail-down breeze right a l o n g s i d e , but half a b o w s p r i t b e h i n d Barlovento.

It was a great m o m e n t that set off a wild scramble for cameras on both boats. The saddest time was the end of the last race of that series, when the realization set in summer racing was over and the evenings were already growing noticeably shorter.

Still d o n ' t believe me? I'll make you an offer. If you own an old woodie and want to see for yourself how much fun a P H R F race can be, give me a call and I'll invite you out. Be part of the crew or a rail potato - your choice. We'll even have a beer for you at the end of the race. The C W B knows where to find me.

George Galpin is a Life Member who's been around CWB almost as long as Dick Wagner. If his name seems familiar, it may be because he was the donor of Sara, CWB's beloved Herreshoff 12 1/2 Caribbee was designed by Phil Rhodes in 1936 and built the following spring by Henry Nevins in City Island, NY. Under the ownership of Carleton Mitchell, she was raced extensively in the early '50s, winning top honors in the Southern Ocean Racing Conference in 1952 and '53 and three of four starts at Cowes Week in the first of those seasons. In later years, she was sailed around the world by the Mellon family. George purchased C a r i b b e e in Martha's Vineyard in 1991 and had her trucked to Seattle for re-building.

WANTED! A N e w - C e n t u r y Fleet for C W B

6-12 identical boats with gaff mainsail and jib for sail training and racing on Lake Union with skipper and crew of 1-2 under programs directed by CWB. N o w looking for a design.

If you want to help with research and design selection or just want to be involved in any capacity in the creation of this fleet, please contact Dick Wagner, (206) 382-2628.

First meeting to be scheduled this fall.

Watch Shavings/Sawdust for the date.

More Boat Shows If C W B ' s W o o d e n B o a t F e s t i v a l d o e s n ' t s a t i a t e y o u r c r a v i n g to c o m m u n e with the w o o d i e s , h e r e are s o m e more wooden boat shows where you can revel in the w a r m t h and b e a u t y of w o o d e n hulls and all that go with t h e m :

July 21-23:

Toy Boats and Chili Seems like every year when the first story comes out in Shavings reminding CWB folks that the Festival is coming, we hear from an old hand who's no longer in the Seattle area but who has some Festival memories to share.

This year our correspondent was former Washington State chili champ Ray Fair the guy who invented the legendary CWB Chili Cook-off. In a phone call he mentioned his most cherished Festival souvenirs, so we asked him to put it down in a letter - and while he was at it, to send us his famous chili recipe, which fueled dozens of CWB parties. Here's what Ray had to say:

19th A n n u a l P o r t l a n d W o o d e n B o a t S h o w , S o u t h G r o v e area, O a k s P a r k ( b e i n g held in c o n j u n c t i o n with the M u l t n o m a h C o u n t y F a i r ) . I n f o : Dick, RiversWest,c / o C o m m o n S e n sI e' m Denclosing esome pictures of the two signs, 6 1 4 0 S E 111 th Ave., P o r t l a n d , O R 97266.

August 27-30: Vancouver (B.C.) W o o d e n B o a t S o c i e t y ' s 11th A n n u a l V a n c o u v e r W o o d e n B o a t F e s t i v a l at Granville Island, 10 am - 5 p m each day.

W o o d e n Yacht R a c i n g A s s o c i a t i o n and S p r u c e C u p s a i l i n g r a c e s on S u n d a y , August 30. Info: Vancouver Wooden Boat Society, 1905 O g d e n Ave., Vancouver, B . C . V 6 J I A 3 C a n a d a ; (604) 688-9622; fax, (604) 688-9682; e-mail, jan@pragmaLtd.com

September 4-6:

Victoria Real Estate Board & Times Colonist Classic Boat F e s t i v a l , I n n e r H a r b o u r , Victoria, B . C .

Info: Classic Boat Festival, 3035 N a n a i m o St., V i c t o r i a , B . C . , C a n a d a ; (250) 385-7766; fax, (250) 385-8773.

September 11-13: 2 2 n d A n n u a l P o r t T o w n s e n d W o o d e n B o a t Festival, s p o n sored by the W o o d e n B o a t F o u n d a t i o n .

Info: Wooden Boat Foundation, 380 J e f f e r s o n St., Port T o w n s e n d , WA 98368; (360) 385-4742; e-mail, wbf@olympus.net.

boats my daughters, A m y and Andrea, made quite a few years ago (1982 or '83) at the [Festival], The one on the right is the Sparky II, a rendition of our 18' 1946 Hampton One Design, which we showed and raced (we even won a bronze C W B plate in 1983) a few Julys. Andrea (12 at the time) made it with a white main and red j i b to match the original.

The other boat was dubbed Blue Jeans by my older daughter, Amy (who was 14), who added the tender and a blue jib. They remain a m o n g my most prized possessions and have been on display in my home office ever since. Sad to say, I sold the Hampton some years ago.

N o w Andrea lives in San D i e g o and works for the Leukemia Society. A m y has

married and has two beautiful kids, Peter and Jane, and still lives in Seattle. She and her h u s b a n d , John Gunnar, operate the Portage Bay Cafe over in the U District at 4 1 3 0 Roosevelt Way, near the bridge.

W h e n it comes to chili, I still make one of the best in the U.S., but I d o n ' t comp e t e any m o r e . H o w e v e r , m y original Washington State C h a m p i o n s h i p recipe was just published in Sheila Lukins' U S A C o o k b o o k . She is one of the Silver Palate authors, as you may know. She modified it some, but it is great! Here's a copy (see below) - enjoy.

Claire and I will be out in Seattle in August. I hope we can stop by C W B .

My very best regards, Ray Fair

Here's my original Washington State Chili Championship recipe as published in Sheila Lukins USA Cookbook, Workman Publishing, New York, 1997. I even quote her intro since she says such nice things about it, even though she has the date wrong - it was actually the early 1980's. I highly recommend the cookbook.

Ray (Kid Cuisinart) Fair

Hog Neck

Chili

"This robust beef and pork chili is based on Raymond Fair's blue ribbon winner of the early 1990's Washington State Chili Championship. Three kinds of chilis impart both heat and distinctive flavor and the whole concoction, complete with a shot of bourbon, cooks into a mysterious savory complexity. It's easy to see why this "bowl of red" walked home with the prize."

1 pound boneless beef chuck 1 pound boneless pork shoulder 1 pound boneless beef bottom round 2 tablespoons vegetable oil 8 cloves garlic, finely minced 2 onions, coarsely chopped 1/4 cup bourbon 4 dried ancho chili peppers, stems and seeds discarded 1 bottle (12 ounces) ale* 2 cans (28 ounces each) Italian plum tomatoes, drained and coarsely chopped 1 cup dry red wine 1 red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded and finely chopped 4 white mushrooms, cleaned, trimmed and finely chopped.

1/3 cup pitted ripe olives, finely chopped 1 tablespoon ground cumin ** 1 tablespoon dried oregano** Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste 1 serrano chili pepper, stem and seeds discarded 1 can (4 ounces) chopped jaiapeno chili peppers Hot cooked white rice, for serving***

rendered, remove the solids from the pot with a slotted spoon and discard them.

2. Place the oil in the pot and heat over medium heat. Add the garlic and onions, and cook, stirring often, until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add all of the reserved meat and the bourbon. Simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 1 hour.

3. While the meat is simmering, prepare the ancho chiles: Place the chile peppers and the ale in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat.

Reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes.

4. Strain the ale into the meat.

Place the ancho chile peppers in a blender or food processor and process until completely smooth. Stir the puree, the chopped tomatoes, and the red wine into the meat mixture. All the remaining ingredients (except for the rice) and stir well.

5. Simmer the chili uncovered, over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the flavors are well blended, 2 hours.**** Serve hot, over rice.

Serves 6 to 8

1. Trim and reserve the fat from all the meat. Cut the meat into 1/2-inch cubes and set aside. Cut the reserved fat into 1-inch pieces and place in a large heavy pot. Cook over low heat to render the fat, 15 to 20 minutes. Once the fat is

* I always used Rainier Ale, "The Green Death", but any robust ale will do. Rainier is not widely available. * * Here I think she's being a bit cautious. Personally I use quite a bit more, but suit yourself. ***l prefer to serve it over well drained pinto beans, or you can just have it plain. Add cornbread and cole slaw and pass around oyster crackers and shredded cheddar to sprinkle on top. **** And now comes the secret. During the last couple of hours you should tweak it • adjust the spices (add more, that is) to fine tune it. Remember, you're making chili, not beef stew. It's supposed to be intense but well balanced. As I was quoted when I won the Oregon State ICS Championships, chili is an art, not a science. You don't have to follow this recipe at all if you don't want to. Remember, competition chili does not contain beans, rice or pasta, those are accompaniments.

But if like them IN the chili, go ahead.

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These are the two boats about which Ray is so sentimental: Sparky II. - photo by Ray Fair

Of Fish and Ships (continued from page 9) they w e r e laughed at and m a d e f u n of when the box was opened. Adolf tried to pull that trick on m e - and I nearly fell for it. I took two steps outside the building before I realized that it was a joke. I turned around, looked Adolf straight in the eye and said, ' N o ! ' . He smiled.

I do not think that Adolf was superstitious but he did take precautions against unknown forces. I was supposed to start my apprenticeship on May 1, but that was a Monday and Adolf, to avoid problems, never started anything on a Monday. That was why I started my apprenticeship the previous Saturday, April 29.

Adolf also closely observed the ritual of putting coins under the sternpost on the boats he built, to ward off disaster. T h e fishermen who had ordered the boats generally went along with the custom, but one of them would not allow it. When his boat was run down by a small freighter and needed extensive repair, Adolf and the other fishermen knew the reason for the collision. N o coins!

Blue Jeans (left) and

M y father was not superstitious either but, because of the threat of unexpected danger when he was out fishing, he also took precautions. He was the person who taught m e to whistle tunes when I was a boy, but he would not allow m e to do it on his boat when I went fishing with him, for whistling would bring bad weather. And he could not risk that.

As I am coming to the end of this story, I once again think of A d o l f ' s personality, and of the effectiveness of his teaching. I had only been an apprentice a few months when he asked me to do a j o b all by myself. I did it and then I asked him if it was good enough.

His response was: "Good enough is half bad." He was a true professional and his response has been my performance guide ever since.

Bent Thygesen puts together a story the way he was trained to build a boat - with integrity and craftsmanship.

He gives us a charming insight into the technical training and cultural milieu of his young adulthood in Denmark, more than 50 years ago.

In his retirement, Bent is building cradle boats. Lucky is the baby who has one.

SHAVINGS

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It Can Only Happen in Anacortes I have heard so many people say that something could happen only in Anacortes that I am beginning to believe it. Of course, you know that if you believe something strong enough, long enough, it becomes f a c t . T h i s h a p p e n e d t o m e h e r e in Anacortes. You could say it could have happened to me in N e w York, but it didn't.

In fact, I have never heard of anyone in N e w York having the same experience and I doubt you have either.

O u r annual W a t e r f r o n t Festival was about to happen and everybody was working to make it another success. We would have a kids' toy boat building area, just as C W B does at its Wooden Boat Festival every year. Toy boat building had proven to be wildly popular here in previous years.

Three and a half weeks before our Festival, I was cruising through a catalog that had just been delivered and formed this wild idea that would m a k e the toy boat builders even happier (if possible): I would order 576 compasses to give to the first 576 kids to build a toy boat. I didn't want to foot the w h o l e bill myself so I persuaded Vic Childs, the m a j o r organizer of the toy boat project, to go halves with me.

more or less like the one I had as a kid and for another 20 years or so until a bulldozer ran over it while we were clearing a road in the woods on Whidbey Island.

T h e s e new c o m p a s s e s were m a d e in China, where the compass was invented, and would naturally be exquisite. These c o m p a s s e s had black plastic cases with clear plastic viewing windows on the top, l o o k i n g e x a c t l y like m i n i a t u r e s of the gimbaled mariner's compasses that I have stared at t h o u s a n d s upon t h o u s a n d s of hours while guiding a boat through the dark or fog.

You wouldn't think the compass could be improved, but the ways of the East are inscrutable. The only improvement would be to cut down on the shipping weight.

Which they did. To cut down on the shipping weight, the iron needle was replaced with an aluminum needle and the compass became considerably lighter.

I was the proud new owner of 576 considerably lighter compasses, right here in Anacortes.

Please advise me if you have heard of this happening to some in, say, Chicago or San Francisco. - Del Kahn

When I placed the order, I stressed the importance of time. We had three weeks before the Festival. Not to worry. The man on the phone told me to expect the c o m passes in seven to ten working days. H e was true to his word; five working days later, the compasses arrived.

They were beautiful little compasses,

The irrepressible Del Kahn now calls Anacortes - and, more specifically, Flounder Bay Boat Lumber - home port. But we suspect the above could have happened anywhere - just so long as Del got a good story out of it.

John Gardner Award John Gardner is C W B ' s patron saint.

Gardner kept the flame of traditional small craft alight through the 1950s and '60s by his writing in Maine Coast Fisherman (later National Fisherman).

In the 1970s and '80s Gardner turned up the flame through his b u l l y p u l p i t a c t i v i t i e s as M y s t i c Seaport's Curator of Small Craft.

Gardner began the annual small craft workshops and traditional boatbuilding instruction at Mystic, f o u n d e d the Traditional Small Craft Association and wrote many inspirational books. His books on building wooden boats are the most popular in C W B ' s library.

Through a generous donation from Land Washburn, CWB has received a plane made

by John Gardner. The stock is Cocobollo, the chip is O s a g e O r a n g e and the tote

(handle) is cherry. We will display and interpret the plane as a representation not only of traditional boatbuilding but also as the representation of the spirit of John Gardner, who gave traditional boats a legitimate place in history.

We are instituting a John Gardner Award, which annually will honor the person(s) who best promote and pass on the values of traditional small craft. The award recipients' names will be placed on the plaque to which the Gardner plane is mounted.

Nominees for the award will be selected by a committee and presented to the C W B Board of Trustees, who will make the final choice. The first award will be presented at the C W B Annual Membership M e e t i n g F r i d a y , N o v e m b e r 6. - Dick

Wagner

A Generous Gift

Safety AND Comfort The Northwest Yacht Brokers Association has always been a solid supporter of The Center for Wooden Boats. T h e y ' v e underwritten a portion of the costs of several Wooden Boat Festivals and were a major sponsor of this year's highly successful Auction - not to mention the fact that they've held their monthly meetings at C W B for most of this decade.

So there seemed to be a fair chance of s u c c e s s when E x e c u t i v e D i r e c t o r B o b Perkins wrote to N Y B A : "For years C W B has suffered through trying to get our visitors to use Type II life-jackets [the orange over-your-head-beltaround-your-waist kind], with only minimal success . . . so we have decided to replace the Type lIs with more comfortable Type III jackets. Stearns has generously agreed to sell us the jackets at a substantially reduced rate. We are looking for supporters to help defray the cost and we hope N Y B A will sign on."

- Sign on they did - for the whole package! Their news release tells it all: "A trip across water - whether sailing or rowing, whether skiing or motoring should be a moment to savor. It should be a time for simplistic pleasures in the working of wind and sails, of oar and water.

Yet the moment between the pleasures of boating and impending disaster is often just a heartbeat. O n e m o m e n t y o u ' r e on the boat. An unseen wake or a wind shift later, y o u ' r e in the water.

Megan Balza of Renton reacts like most kids who are told they must wear one of the "old style" orange life jackets. Megan's definitely happier with one of the style of Stearns jackets that will be purchased through a generous donation from the Northwest Yacht Brokers Association. - photos by Judie Romeo W o o d e n Boats to provide p r o g r a m s in maritime heritage, education and commu:nity service. It is now pleased to continue that support with the donation of Type III

Stearns life j a c k e t s . T h e e m p h a s i s on safety will allow boaters to continue to savor the moments on the water - and it may just save lives."

T h a n k s Northwest Yacht Brokers Association and Stearns for your support and for making hands-on history just a little more comfortable.

"In the cold waters found in the Pacific Northwest, even a short trip on the water is far more than you can swim home from.

The difference between survival and tragedy is often the decision you made when stepping aboard: Did you put on a life jacket?

"The key to life jackets, of course, is wearing them. That's why the Northwest Yacht Brokers Association is pleased to support The Center for W o o d e n B o a t s ' efforts to emphasize on-the-water safety with a donation of 100 new Type III Sterns life jackets for use at the Center's South Lake Union waterfront location. " 'More than 90 percent of all drowning victims were not wearing a life jacket,' said Robert Scott, president of N Y B A . " ' A floatation device that's bulky, uncomfortable and a hassle to put on or adjust is one that's not often worn. We want to e n c o u r a g e m o r e p e o p l e to w e a r life jackets and we believe that making a donation of the Type Ills to The Center for Wooden Boats will help encourage on-thewater safety. " T h e switch f r o m s e l d o m - w o r n Type II life j a c k e t s to the m o r e c o m f o r t a b l e Type III jackets will improve the chances that new sailors and young boaters will wear them while using the many historic craft at The Center for Wooden Boats. " 'And these new life jackets may just save a life," Scott added. 'It will certainly help teach them about the need for safety.

You don't have to spend lots of money to have fun. You don't have to go to great lengths to be safe. But you do need to wear a life jacket.'

"As an organization that is a vital part of pleasure boating in the region, The Northwest Yacht Brokers Association has long supported the efforts of T h e Center for SHAVINGS

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The Pacific

Challenge

We Are the Kids from CWB! The Pacific Challenge is held annually in the Pacific Northwest. It is a chance for kids to get together and compete in maritime skills: navigation, seamanship, knots, maneuvering, rowing, sailing and racing. This year's competition was held in Bellingham Bay, hosted by Mike Baker and the H o m e Port Learning Center.

This year's entry f r o m C W B was the C h a t h a m ' s Launch, Anna, crewed by a half-dozen "All Aboard" students: Donald McKnight, Wilson Pettiford, Patrick Gillum, John Arne, Brandon Green and A s h l e y W a g n e r . S u p e r v i s i n g the c r e w w e r e M i c h e l l e F o n t e n a u l t and J o a n n e Gilligan of Seattle Mental Health and M e g Trzaskoma, C W B Livery Manager. (Next year T h e Center for Wooden Boats will host the Pacific Challenge.)

On the bridge, 15 feet above the waters of Bellingham Bay, the j u d g e s of the Pacific Challenge Pass and Review discuss their appreciation for the military style salute. Anna nears, a comparatively small boat amongst the larger longboats and gigs in the competition. A s she approaches for the j u d g e s ' review, the calls of coxswain Brandon Green ring out strong and clear.

Once on station the orders come: "Hold water! Slide your oars across!"

We stop the boat and bring in our oars to free our hands to salute. The only voice we hear is Brandon. H e calls, we obey.

"We are the kids from C W B , all y'all gotta listen to me! . "Salute! (hands up, military style) "Let go! (hands out, military style) "Get down! (boogie right, boogie left, boogie right) "Slide your oars across! At the catch!

STROKE! STROKe! STROke! STRoke! STroke. Stroke, stroke The applause from the j u d g e s signals

their approval of our style.

R o w i n g north to prepare for the next part of the day's competition, Brandon c o m m e n t s that he f e e l s s a f e r on Bellingham Bay than he does on L a k e

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Union. "It cured my fear of deep water," he says. Perhaps seeing all of the other boats filled with kids doing the same thing puts his mind at ease. Competition can do that to you. O r m a y b e c o m f o r t c o m e s from realizing that we are not alone on the water.

M e a n w h i l e the wind builds f r o m the west, a stiff chop developing in the open waters. It is getting harder to row, as we have to counteract the waves pushing us toward the beach.

Close to the pier, the crew does an excellent j o b of holding the boat off the pilings, despite the oncoming waves. Donald throws a line to the judge on a bridge 10 feet above us to receive the mailbag with directions for the navigation section of the competition. His toss is dead on, easily received by the judge on the bridge. The directions are ferried to us via mailbag, we collect our line and return to the dock.

Back at the dock, we show the j u d g e s our knots; Patrick ties a perfect bowline. Next, Ashley figures out the navigation problem.

Considering the depth of the bay, the contours of the shore, the changing tides and currents, she deduces a safe anchorage for an imagined ship seeking safe harbor from an imminent blow from the south.

Impressive, no?

By this time, the seas are really up.

Three- to five-foot seas, easily. The only parts remaining in the competition are the rowing and sailing races. Both are cancelled. We spend the afternoon on shore, exploring the beach, finding crabs and barnacles, talking to folks about our boat's history and C W B ' s program.

Later that day, at the awards ceremony, Team C W B receives recognition for excellence in the Pass and Review. Asked What he thinks of winning, Donald replies, " I thought it was cool to win the salute, I had a feeling we were going to."

Sailing back to the haul-out at the end of the day, the wind and seas lay down and we have an opportunity to relax and reflect on the day's competition. Asked what she likes about participating in the Pacific Challenge, Ashley recalls, "I got a chance to meet others and see what it's like being in a competition and how important it is to work together." Brandon liked what he did too: "I really enjoyed being cox because I got to tell people what to do. I have to be responsible because the boat depends on

me, I ' m carrying everyone on my back.

What I ' m really trying to say is I enjoyed being captain of the All Aboard Crew. I'll be back next year."

At the launch ramp, we m o v e the boat back onto its trailer and settle in for the drive back to Seattle. It has been a long but satisfying weekend. Back in Seattle, Michelle comments: "I was surprised how well the kids pulled together and how much they have learned being around boats."

"Yeah," I said, " these kids never cease to a m a z e m e . " I k n o w that I am already looking forward to next year.

A f t e r w o r k i n g with these kids f o r six months, I have to say I am sad to part with this group. Personally, I gained a lot from being a part of the spirit they brought to The Center for Wooden Boats and the camaraderie they developed among themselves. Considering that this was the first time that many of them have been in a boat or participated in a maritime competition, their achievements are immeasurable. (I should mention that John was a last minute addition to our crew, turning to when Wilson was unable to make the trip. He did an excellent j o b filling in for Wilson, another strong m e m b e r of our team.) - Meg Trzaskoma

Adventure Bound In cities from N e w Hampshire to Washington State, there are nearly 20 teenagers getting ready to spend a week with an 85year-old lady - and they're excited about it. The "lady" is the 101' schooner, Adventuress, and the teens will be participating in C W B ' s first large vessel program for youth, "Adventure Bound."

The young sailors are coming from Colorado, Montana, New Hampshire and Washington State to spend a week living aboard and learning to sail and navigate Adventuress. S o m e have sailed on her before.

Some have never sailed but have always been drawn to the sea. All of them are enthusiastic about the opportunities "Adventure B o u n d " offers.

There are still limited openings for the program. The dates are July 18-24 and the cost (including a c c o m m o d a t i o n s , food, i n s t r u c t i o n and s u p e r v i s i o n ) is $ 5 5 0 .

C W B ' s Youth Education Coordinator Tom Powers will be happy to send you a brochure. Contact him at (206) 382-2628; email: cwboats@tripl.org.

Full Array of Musical Styles at the Festival Music has always been an integral part of the Lake Union Wooden Boat Festival and this year is no exception. Volunteer Jim Nason, himself an accomplished musician, has put together a stellar line-up of musical entertainment, with performances scheduled every day f r o m 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the Pub Tent (where family seating will be available in a special section).

We' re fortunate this year to have a stateof-the-art sound system, generously loaned by Ken Morledge and the good folks at Band Aid Music in Lynnwood. We thank them heartily.

There's a new show every hour on the hour. Here's what's on our musical menu:

Friday, July 3

and pop with a West Africa and Middle Eastern rhythmic twist. They also write quirky songs about janitors, aliens and graffiti, among other things.

4 pm: Emergency Folksinger Jim 5 pm: Sarah Teasdale. Sarah is a singersongwriter making her debut right here on our Music Stage. Her own particular rockstyle tunes are sure to entertain and delight.

Saturday, July 4 11 am: Valerie D'Allessio. Val performs her wonderful songs in relaxed and engagingly direct style that compares favorably with that of Bonnie Raite, Valerie's lyrics are an infusion of warmth and humor, guaranteed to please.

11 am: Dan Bender. This Portland-based singer/songwriter honed his considerable talents in relative seclusion until about five years ago, when he began "playing out."

Since then, he's been treating appreciative audiences to finely-crafted lyrics, hinting at past relationships, but "with a hopeful spin."

Noon: Phil Hansen. Phil is an engaging and professional all-style guitarist/banjo picker who is equally at h o m e with folks, blues, swing, rag and bluegrass genres.

He is also an excellent teacher with instruction books to his credit.

1 pm: Margurite Conti. In a voice noted for its expressiveness, warmth and clarity, Marguerite sings about the ever-changing, quirky nature of human behavior. Her performance venue list reads like an atlas, with performances from coast to coast.

2 pm: Matt Price. Here's a warm and insightful singer/songwriter who adds a flavor of his native M i d w e s t to his wellcrafted lyrics. His songs, sometimes humorous, sometimes poignant, are delivered with expertly tailored guitar accompaniment.

wonderful songs offer a peek at life through her eyes, which is unmistakably and unforgettably Seymour!

Noon: Mary Williams. M a r y ' s soft and gentle voice brings warmth to folk and Irish ballads and her repertoire includes folk ballads ranging from her own songs to those of Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon and John Denver.

1 pm: Alex & Joe Perlman. These two guys perform in that easy bob-and-weave that seems unique a m o n g siblings. Together, they draw upon a vast repertoire to create a set that is never boring!

Nason. You just never know what Jim will do under the heady influence of performance. Legend has it that he once stood on his head while singing (but this could be apocryphal). In any case, expect the unexpected from Jim - and you'll not b e disappointed.

acoustic-pop trio is known for their catchy songs and rich three-part vocal harmonies, interwoven with p o w e r f u l , well-crafted guitar arrangements. Chris Wylde, Karen H o v d e and Jessica Papkoff will be performing their original songs.

1 p m : Sparks. This five-member jug/pop/ swing band dedicates itself to carrying on the music hall tradition - and they do it well with swing and j a z z riffs and a whimsical, Roaring '20s blend of styles.

5 pm: Trick Purpose - Dave Andrade and Eric Harris. These two folks blend

2 pm: Living Dangerously - Tom Macpherson & Bill C. These two guys

their considerable talents to deliver wonderfully original tunes in the key of soul.

Against the rich background of D a v e ' s sumptuous clean guitar work, Eric, with his singularly fantastic voice, puts it down so it stays there!

are devoted to the blues and t h e y ' v e paid their dues, as can readily be ascertained from their heartfelt renditions of the standards, in addition to an ever-growing list of excellent original tunes.

Sunday, July 5 11 am: Scott Katz. To say that Scott is a truly unique writer of songs would be a sizable understatement; as an unabashed dealer in the beauty of untarnished truth, he sings his "Scott-style" songs in a stoic kind of Cohen-esque bass voice that never fails to please.

3 pm: Mark Spittal. If legendary status were to be attributed to only one of the fine musicians in this year's show, it would be to Mark, hands down. A master of alternate guitar tunings, Mark plays and sings beautifully about love, spirituality and perseverance along the sometimes difficult pathway of life - with a liberal dash of warm humor thrown in for good measure. continued

on page 22

Noon: Just Like Her. This all-woman 2 pm: Mike Waters. Mike's background and expertise has,been in traditional and country-style blues and, if that were all he was about, it would more than fill the bill.

He delivers the goods in a strong, wellmodulated voice with expert accompaniment on guitar and mouth harp. Recently, he's also been writing his own great tunes about love, relationships and personal philosophy.

3 pm: Deb Seymour. T h i s s i n g e r / songwriter is a credit to her craft. Her

3 pm: Michael Rivers. A soulfully professional and p e r s o n a l l y w a r m singer / songwriter, Michael has an excellent C D , "Iron H o r s e . " C o m p l e t e with b a c k - u p musicians, Michael's set will be a tasty must-hear.

4 pm: Juxtapose. Jim Peppan & Brad & Phil Barton. These home-grown guys play an interesting blend of innovative rock

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What Do Volunteers Do at T h e answer to that question is anything and everything! Volunteers are the m a i n s t a y of T h e C e n t e r for W o o d e n Boats - or, as Volunteer Coordinator Sue Schaeffer is fond of saying: "Volunteers K e e p C W B Afloat!

In a typical year, volunteers will provide more than 15,000 hours of service to C W B . They fix the boats, m o w the lawns, rig the sails, teach everyone from kids to seniors the fine art of sailing, type letters, put out publications (such as the

one y o u ' r e reading right now, written and produced by volunteers under the guidance of Dick Wagner), greet the guests, answer the phones and any one of a hundred other tasks that are needed.

They do it all and they do it well. So w h a t do they get in return. Well, first there's the obvious carrot - or, in the case of C W B , the boat. Volunteers earn an hour of free boat use for every three hours of volunteer work they do.

But there are other rewards too, not the

least of which is the opportunity to learn new skills or polish up old ones. Under Sue Schaeffer's direction, the Volunteer Program has introduced several levels of skills training, beginning with a volunteer's introduction to C W B .

New volunteers attend an orientation that includes a historical tour of CWB conducted

by Founding Director Dick Wagner or longtime volunteer Tom Scott. Following that, Boatshop and Livery volunteers go through specialized orientations and Front Desk vol-

Tap left: Livery Volunteer Roger Willsie (left) gets a helping hand from Mike Fischer oiling the Smapoa. Top right: Founding Director new Volunteers. Orientations are held the first and third Saturday of each month. Bottom right:Built by an all-volunteer class, a new John Evans(left) Molly Morrissey (center) and Dick Wagner (right). At rear (left to right) are Livery Manager Meg Trzaskoma, class right: Some of the 1998 Auction All-Stars, left to right: Co-Chairs Karen Braitmayer, Sue Schaeffer and Debra Cibene and

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unteers get on-the-job training.

Then, periodically, sessions germane to a volunteer's area of work are offered for instance, a rigging workshop for Livery volunteers or a how-to on varnishing for the Shop crew.

Even if y o u ' r e an old C W B hand, it's never too late to become a part of the Volunteer Corps. Opportunities abound. Just give Sue Schaeffer at call - (206) 382-2628 - and she'll get you on the road to volunteer f u n .

Dick Wagner conducts an orientation tour for Hvalsoe 15 hits the water with some help from member Jim Miller and Scott Gienow. Bottom Registration Chair Kathleen Howat.

The Center for Wooden Boats?

CWB Volunteers excel at combining work and fun. Take, for instance, the crew of the gig Dan (photo at left), who labored (first in CWB's Pavilion and then in a storage area) all winter long completely rehabilitating a boat that had seen hard use. They weren't even discouraged when thieves, in the process of stealing the canoe that used to hang in the northeast section of the Pavilion, dropped it on the Dan, staving in a garboard plank. Come spring, the Dan crew got their reward: a great looking boat and the opportunity to row it as much as they want. That's why the thumbs up sign from the crew (left to right) Bruce Waddell, Brandon Fouts, David Lewis, Dale Riva, John Emswiler and Yvonne de Reynier. (Not present for the photo were Lora Riga and Steve Must.)

Another crew that had themselves a good time while doing good for CWB were our Opening Day Parade ambassadors. They scrubbed and spiffed up CWB's Poulsbo boat, Terry Pettus, and Harvey Nobe's Friendship sloop, Amie, and carried the CWB banners (literally, nice bright hew banners provided by Dean Forbes) in the parade.

On the Poulsbo boat (left photo) were Richard and Dolores Ranhofer, Kathleen Howat and Donald Markey. Aboard Amie (right photo) were Randy Magliozzi, Harvey, Kay Schardein, Debra Cibene, Keith Schardein and our silent but ever-helpful man-overboard dummy (who provided stern weight).

Volunteers can be fashion-plates too. The crew in the Opening Day Parade wore matching CWB T-shirts. The crew at the Spring Cruise opted for period costume, as shown by Commodore Fashion-plate, AKA Livery volunteer Chip Hoins. The Commodore, tastefully attired in clothes of the cruise period (1950) swept the costume honors at the Cruise. The prize for the best woman's costume went to Candace Jordon, who was too shy to be photographed.

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We're Looking for What a way to go!

Some New Trustees Schooners Set Race to C W B ' s B o a r d of T r u s t e e s is out for blood. As in new blood to swell the roster of Trustees.

There are currently two positions available on the Board for Trustees for those whose names were placed on the ballot by t h e g e n e r a l m e m b e r s h i p . In o t h e r w o r d s , t h e s e are m e m b e r n o m i n a t e d / elected positions.

Any C W B member in good standing can place his or her o w n name or the name of another member on the annual election ballot by securing signatures from at least 30 other members in good standing (dues paid up) on an official form, the C W B N o m i nating Petition. That form is available in the C W B office.

W h a t this means is that if you or a m e m ber you know have skills and knowledge appropriate to Board membership, we need

your help! A full list of criteria is available along with the nomination form but, generally, the Board seeks members who are passionate about CWB and who bring skills such as fundraising, non-profit management, education or public relations to oversight of C W B ' s activities.

Completed nominating petitions must be returned to C W B by 5 p.m. Friday, September 11. Ballots for the election of the member-nominated Trustee positions (and for current T r u s t e e s w h o s e terms have expired) will be mailed with Sawdust Sept e m b e r 15. Election results will be announced at the 1998 C W B Annual Meeting Friday, November 6.

For more information, contact Executive Director B o b Perkins, Founding Director, Dick Wagner or Board President

Bill Van Vlack. - Bob Perkins

Victoria Boat Festival

There are lots of ways to get to Victoria, B.C., for the annual Classic Boat Festival (September 4-6). Take a ferry, take a car on the ferry, take a plane, race a schooner, take a . . . What? Take a schooner?

No, I said race a schooner. That's what the schooner heads will be doing on the 2nd Annual Captain Raynaud International Schooner Race August 30 - September 3 from Bellingham to Victoria. OK, so it takes them four days to get there. So what? As that f a m o u s waterborne author William Sailspeake o n c e noted: " T h e race's the thing!"

The first leg of the race starts at 1200 hours August 30 in Bellingham Bay with a leg finish line between Shannon Point Shoal light and Reed Point light. The schooners will raft up in either D e c a t u r or L o p e z S o u n d . L e g T w o g e t s u n d e r w a y at 0 9 0 0 hours August 31 from Decatur with the finish line at R o s a r i o B u o y (short c o u r s e ) or F o s t e r Point (long course). Four Winds C a m p in West Sound will host the flotilla that night.

Just to change the odds a little, September 1 will be a day of dinghy racing at Roche Har-

The are lots of ways to spend a pleasant afternoon but few of them can match an afternoon of sailing on CWB's Sharpie as the lucky group aboard in this photo can attest. - photo

by Chip Hoins

bor with the schooners at dockside and most open to the public. Then to rest up from all that strenuous small boat racing, the flotilla will cruise to Lopez Island September 2. Skippers and crew will be up early September 3 because the gun goes off at 0700 (due to tides and currents) for the final leg of the race. The finish line is a half-mile west of the Brotchie Ledge light and then it's on to Victoria Harbour.

The race rules are not complicated: D o not hit another vessel. The first vessel over the finish line wins that leg. Protests will be ignored, especially if the cheating party was creative in how they won that particular leg.

By n o w y o u ' v e got the picture. This isn't so much a race as it is an opportunity for a bunch of great wooden boats to share some camaraderie and to make the public more aware of what marvelous vessels are here in the Northwest. If y o u ' d like to know more about the race and/or the boats in it, c o n t a c t Robert d ' A r c y , (253) 941-6324.

Sunday Music (cont) 4 pm: Not So's You'd Notice - Steve Akerman & Mimi Geibel. Steve and Mimi are purveyors of novelty and folk songs, with their p e r f o r m a n c e s marked by boundless energy and sensational performances on guitar, mandolin and violin.

5 pm: Lion Of Judah Band. It will be a rousing finish to our music performances with the original reggae music of Lion of Judah, headliners from the 1997 3rd International Reggae Fest.

CLASSIFIEDS 15' Garwood, built 1946. $12,500. (206) 634-2711.

16' Wood Trumbly Sailboat. Lightweight and fast.

Holds four people comfortably. Excellent sails. Comes with trailer and spinnaker. $16,000/OBO. (253) 7595922 before 4 pm or (253) 756-9183 evenings.

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Price reduced to $895. Richard McColley, (206) 8787745.

14'

Whitehall, r o w i n g model (the subject of Rich Kolin's next book), currently under construction. (360) 659-5591.

9' sailing tender, designed & built by Rich Kolin, 1977.

Design based on Herreshoff Columbia Lifeboat Model.

Round bottom, lapstrake, cedar on oak, 75 lbs. $2,500.

Rich Kolin, (360) 659-5591.

91/2'Lapstrake Pram, copy of a Norwegian boat, built at C W B . Red cedar on white oak fastened w/copper clench nails; bright finish, mint condition. Includes oars. $1,350. (425) 392-2810.

Excellent 12' Fishing Skiff, vee-bottom, cedar planked, completely restored 8/96. Includes rare 1957 Johnson Seahorse 51/2hpoutboard with motor cover & dolly.

Classified Ads are available, free of charge, only to C W B members. Please contact Judie at C W B if you

CWB CALENDAR OF EVENT E v e r y 3rd Friday

CWB THIRD FRIDAY SPEAKER SERIES 8 p.m. C W B B o a t h o u s e E a c h m o n t h C W B f i n d s a s p e a k e r of wit and e x p e r i e n c e to talk a b o u t his or her special k n o w l e d g e . It is also an opportunity for C W B m e m b e r s to m e e t o n e another and the staff. A d m i s s i o n is free.

R e f r e s h m e n t s served (donations to c o v e r costs are appreciated).

T h r e e identical f i v e - d a y sessions are available: July 13-17, July 27-31 or A u gust 10-14. T h e cost is $ 175 per student a n d there are only n i n e spaces available for each session. Register by phone ( 2 0 6 ) 3 8 2 - 2 6 2 8 - or in person at C W B ; b e c a u s e of the popularity of the p r o g r a m in past years, n o mail order registrations can be a c c e p t e d .

July 18-24 (Saturday - Friday)

ADVENTURE BOUND J u n e 19, 1998 ( F r i d a y )

THIRD FRIDAY SPEAKER SERIES 8 p.m. C W B B o a t h o u s e Scott Rohrer, a w o r l d - r e n o w n e d sailing race skipper, has had a long love a f fair with the fast and graceful Six Meters.

H e will give a slide talk on t h e history of these b e a u t i f u l boats, including a lot of a n e c d o t a l t a l e s a b o u t the o n e s h e h a s sailed and the colorful characters involved with t h e m .

C W B has just acquired the d o n a t i o n of the Six Meter, Hecate. B e f o r e S c o t t ' s talk, you can look o v e r this 1938 classic sloop, d e s i g n e d and built by C a m p e r & Nicholson (of E n g l a n d ) .

In our first large vessel p r o g r a m for teenagers, students ages 14-18 will h a v e the opportunity to sail and n a v i g a t e the 101' s c h o o n e r Adventuress throughout P u g e t S o u n d . T h e y ' l l sail the vessel, plot its course with charts and c o m p a s s , stand w a t c h and p r e p a r e meals. W h i l e the f o c u s is on learning sailing and navigation skills, the w e e k also will include rigging w o r k s h o p s , v i s i t s to salty N o r t h w e s t ports, history, folklore, creative writing and m a r i n e ecology. T h e f e e of $ 5 5 0 per student includes food, lodging, instruction and supervision for the week. Call C W B , (206) 3 8 2 - 2 6 2 8 f o r a b r o c h u r e and application f o r m . D o n ' t delay; w e ' v e only got space for 2 0 lucky teens!

July 3- 5 ( F r i d a y - S u n d a y )

A u g u s t 21, 1998 (Friday)

22nd ANNUAL LAKE UNION WOODEN BOAT FESTIVAL

THIRD FRIDAY SPEAKER SERIES

10 a.m. - 6 p.m. daily

8 p.m. C W B Boathouse

W o o d e n boats in the water, w o o d e n boats on the shore, big w o o d e n boats, t e e n y w o o d e n b o a t s , m o r e t h a n 100 w o o d e n boats of all sizes, t y p e s and vintages, demonstrations of h o w to d o things on and to w o o d e n boats, stuff for w o o d e n boats, building w o o d e n boats, w o o d e n boats in history, plus the Q u i c k & D a r i n g B o a t b u i l d i n g C o n t e s t , toy boat building, the Ed Clark W o o d e n Yacht R a c e , silent auctions S a t u r d a y and S u n d a y , m u s i c , f o o d and f u n .

T w o videos, written and narrated by the late Don M c C u n e , will be shown, with commentary by Linda McCune. "Puget S o u n d M a r i t i m e H i s t o r y " s h o w s lots of historic w o o d e n boats, with f o c u s on the

T h a t ' s what o u r annual h o m a g e to our reason for b e i n g is all about. E x h i b i t o r f o r m s are available f r o m F o u n d i n g Director Dick W a g n e r . Volunteer C o o r d i nator S u e S c h a e f f e r is the person to c o n tact if y o u ' d like to lend y o u r talents to preparing f o r a n d / o r w o r k i n g at the F e s tival. W h e t h e r y o u ' r e a participant, a volunteer or a visitor, w e h o p e w e ' l l see you there!

July 13-17, July 27-31 or A u g u s t 10-14 (Mondays-Fridays)

SUMMER IN THE CITY 9 a.m. - 3 p . m .

We are again offering our exciting summer m a r i t i m e p r o g r a m f o r kids a g e 12 and older. S u m m e r in the City includes a c o m b i n a t i o n of m a r i t i m e skills - sailing, r o w i n g and m a r l i n s p i k e w o r k - as well as m a r i t i m e history. T h e f o c u s is on sailing skills with the goal of h a v i n g students soloing by w e e k ' s e n d .

steamers Virginia V and W.T. Preston. " S a i l i n g " tells about a sailing race across the Strait of Georgia featuring Weatherly, t h e 1 2 - M e t e r s l o o p that d e f e n d e d the America's Cup. D o n M c C u n e , w h o w a s a Puget S o u n d television institution, won 26 E m m y A w a r d s f o r his h u n d r e d s of Exploration Northwest p r o g r a m s on K O M O - T V .

L i n d a M c C u n e has released about 35 of t h o s e p r o g r a m s as videos. C o p i e s m a y b e p u r c h a s e d at the talk.

S e p t e m b e r 18, 1998 (Friday)

THIRD FRIDAY SPEAKER SERIES 8 p.m. C W B Boathouse C W B T r u s t e e R o n S n y d e r will g i v e a slide talk on the trip h e and his wife, Cathy Taggett took on the barge canals of the U . K . It's a w a y of " c r u i s i n g " u n l i k e any other. Relatively narrow, shallow-draft barges, fitted out with m o s t of the c o m forts of h o m e , travel at a stately p a c e through the English countryside. T h e r e ' s n o current or wind to c o n t e n d with but t h e r e ' s a l w a y s the task of traversing the d o z e n s of locks that link o n e w a t e r p a t h w a y with another.

T h e i r travels w e r e mostly in Wales and E n g l a n d on the f a m o u s Llangollen Canal, w h e r e the c h a l l e n g e s included the 1,400' high Pontcyslite A q u e d u c t , t w o bridges and several locks - which they had to o p e r a t e t h e m s e l v e s .

A n d e r s o n will take us on a j o u r n e y through Puget Sound "In Vancouver's W a k e . " His talk will b e b a s e d on his series about P u g e t S o u n d a p p e a r i n g in the Seattle T i m e s this s u m m e r , recounting several m o n t h s of f o l l o w i n g C a p t .

G e o r g e V a n c o u v e r ' s path of e x p l o r a t i o n through Puget S o u n d - but with several differences.

W h i l e Vancouver explored the S o u n d in a three-masted 100' ship, R o s s ' s explorations w e r e a little c l o s e r to the w a ter - in a k a y a k . A n d his p u r p o s e s w e r e not to chart P u g e t S o u n d but rather to e x p l o r e t h e " s c i e n c e " of t h e S o u n d natural e v e n t s and p h e n o m e n a , w h y and h o w they occur and w h a t w e can learn from them.

Marine Skills Workshops All y e a r ' r o u n d (classes e v e r y day in the summer!)

LEARN TO "SAIL NOW!" Fee: $ 150 per person (includes a one-year C W B membership) 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. or 1:30 p.m. - 3 : 3 0 p . m .

Saturday & S u n d a y Instructors: Volunteers Students will learn to sail classic boats in o n e session of c l a s s r o o m w o r k and as m a n y sessions of hands-on instruction as necessary (within a f o u r - m o n t h p e r i o d ) in o u r small boats, n o m o r e than three students per instructor. Students will g r a d u a t e w h e n able to sail a variety of keel, c e n t e r b o a r d , s l o o p and c a t b o a t s by instinct, b y t h e m s e l v e s . You m a y begin any Saturday, s p a c e p e r m i t t i n g . P l e a s e call a h e a d f o r reservations.

F o r the s t u d e n t w h o is o n l y f r e e o n weekdays, or prefers o n e - o n - o n e instruction, w e continue to o f f e r individual lessons ($20/hour for m e m b e r s , $30/hour for n o n - m e m b e r s ) on w e e k d a y s by appointment.

July 18-19, 1998 (Saturday - S u n d a y )

SAIL AWAY CHALLENGE Fee: $ 3 0 / d a y 10 a . m . - 3 p.m. C W B d o c k s (registration 9 : 3 0 - 10 a.m. in the C W B B o a t house) A learn-to-sail clinic for people with disabilities. Volunteer instructors f r o m the

THIRD FRIDAY SPEAKER SERIES 8 p.m. C W B Boathouse

O c t o b e r 3-11 ( S a t u r d a y - S u n d a y )

IKYAK (Aleutian-Inuit WORKSHOP

kayak)

Fee: $850 (members)/$900 (non-members) 9 a . m . - 5 p . m . C W B Pavilion Instructor: C o r e y F r e e d m a n T h i s k a y a k , m o s t p o p u l a r l y k n o w n as a b a i d a r k a , is a d i f f e r e n t a n d m o r e c o m plicated construction than the G r e e n l a n d I n u i t t y p e . E a c h s t u d e n t will build his or her own boat.

Corey F r e e d m a n is t h e o w n e r / o p e r a t o r o f S p i r i t L i n e K a y a k s in A n a c o r t e s a n d is w e l l - r e c o g n i z e d f o r b o t h h i s e x p e r t i s e in n a t i v e k a y a k c o n s t r u c t i o n a n d his t e a c h i n g a b i l i t y . L i m i t e d t o 4.

O c t o b e r 19-23 ( M o n d a y - F r i d a y )

CANOE RESTORATION Fee: $ 4 5 0 ( m e m b e r s ) / $ 5 0 0 ( n o n - m e m bers) 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. C W B Boatshop Instructor: Jerry S t e l m o k W e plan to f i n d a c a n o e that n e e d s n e w c a n v a s , a f e w ribs and p l a n k s a n d m a y b e e v e n a n e w s t e m . T h e n w e ' l l f i x it. E v e r y o n e w h o has o r a p p r e c i a t e s true classic w o o d and c a n v a s c a n o e s should k n o w h o w to restore t h e m . If y o u h a v e a can o e that n e e d s f i x i n g , m a y b e y o u r s can b e the c l a s s p r o j e c t . L i m i t e d to 4.

O c t o b e r 2 6 - 3 1 , 1998 ( M o n d a y - Saturday)

MAINE GUIDE CANOE WORKSHOP Fee: $ 5 0 0 ( m e m b e r s ) / $ 5 5 0 ( n o n - m e m bers) 8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. C W B Boatshop Instructor: Jerry S t e l m o k Students will build a classic canvas-onw o o d c a n o e . Jerry S t e l m o k of M a i n e , the p r e m i e r b u i l d e r of this t y p e of c a n o e , has written the definitive b o o k o n c a n v a s and w o o d c a n o e b u i l d i n g and has taught several classes o n the subject. S t u d e n t s m u s t have woodworking experience. Limited to 6.

F o o t l o o s e Sailing A s s o c i a t i o n and T h e C e n t e r for W o o d e n B o a t s will teach t h e basics of sailing. T h e S u n d a y a f t e r n o o n sessions will b e a race in w h i c h participants will test their skills. B o a t s for the clinic will i n c l u d e s o m e with a d a p t e d seats, which allow individuals with limited mobility control of the boat. For m o r e information or a registration f o r m , c o n tact B o b E w i n g , (206) 2 3 6 - 2 4 9 8 .

S e p t e m b e r 19 & 20, 26 & 2 7 and O c t o ber 3 & 4 ( S a t u r d a y s & S u n d a y s )

12' HEIDI SKIFF WORKSHOP Fee: $ 4 5 0 ( m e m b e r s ) / $ 5 0 0 ( n o n - m e m bers) 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

O c t o b e r 16, 1998 (Friday)

tomed, lapstrake-topsides skiff, Heidi.

R i c h d e s i g n e d H e i d i a n d h a s written a b o o k o n h e r c o n s t r u c t i o n . A signed c o p y will b e g i v e n to e a c h student. T h i s class will build the boat; the rig will b e built in a w o r k s h o p to f o l l o w ( s e e b e l o w ) . Basic w o o d w o r k i n g skills are required. Limited to 6.

Instructor: Rich Kolin Rich Kolin, an experienced boatbuilder and instructor, will lead this t h r e e - w e e k end class to build the attractive, flat-bot-

N o v e m b e r 7 & 8 (Saturday & Sunday)

HEIDI RIG WORKSHOP Fee: $140 ( m e m b e r s ) / $ l 6 0 (non-members) 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Instructor: Rich Kolin Participants will build the spars, r u d der, tiller and c e n t e r b o a r d f o r the skiff Heidi.(built in the p r e v i o u s w o r k s h o p described above). Basic W o o d w o r k i n g skills are r e q u i r e d . L i m i t e d to 6.

NOTE: A $100 non-refundable deposit is required to register for all boatbuilding workshops; the balance is due no later than one week prior to the workshop. Pre-payment in full reserves your place in all other workshops. Classes with fewer than four students will be canceled or postponed.

P u l i t z e r Prize w i n n i n g reporter R o s s SHAVINGS

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22nd Annual

Lake Union Wooden Boat Festival Preview of Events Kids' Activities— The pros from our Auction decorations team will show the youngAdventuress

85th Birthday Party - Open to the public beginning at 7 p.m. Friday,

July 3. Ice Cream and cake aboard. M u s i c at C W B Pub. Adventuress, was built in Boothbay, Maine, in 1913.

sters how to fold origami boats while our marlinspike experts will help them learn the easy tricks of making Turk's head bracelets.

a 101' schooner,

Longboats - Several replicas of the American, British and Spanish 18th century boats

Aleut Kayak Demonstration - Corey Freedman will have several kayaks from dif-

that were instrumental in the exploration of the Northwest will be on hand - and they'll be giving free rides.

ferent Arctic regions and Aleut U m i a k s that people can have rides in.

Oarmaking with Rich Kolin - From a hunk of wood to a sleek oar, Rich shows you Artwork - Our Festival poster artist, Luke Tornatzky, and watercolorist Dutch Mostert will display their work.

how it's done; 1 and 4 pm Saturday and Sunday in the Boatshop.

People's Choice and Pros Pick Awards - Visitors are encouraged to find their favorAsk the Professionals - A wide variety of short sessions on all the secrets you wanted to know about maritime stuff, including: lining off and spiling planks, steaming, oarmaking, restoration, painting, knots, brightwork and tool sharpening. Sessions will last about 15 minutes and run from 1- 4 pm every day in the C W B Boatshop.

ite sail, power and "Quick & Daring" boats and vote for the North west Yachting People's Choice Award. Boat builders, repairers and other wooden boat professionals can vote for the Fisheries Supply/Crow's Nest Pros' Pick Award. Get your ballots and vote at the C W B information booth.

Australian Puzzle Boat Construction - at the Flounder Bay Boat Lumber booth on

Quick & Daring Boatbuilding Contest - Two-person teams race to see who can

the C W B lawn.

build a fast seaworthy boat in the shortest amount of time. Then they race them on (and sometimes under) the water. Building begins at high noon Friday and Saturday.

Racing begins Sunday at 3:30 pm.

Boat Books - Seattle Public Library's collection of boats files, plans, books and media. Saturday and Sunday in the Armory

Real Live Boatwrights - Just like every day at the Center, a professional boatwright Caulking with Lee Ehrheart - Master Shipwright Lee Ehrheart will show you how to do it right, including hands-on instruction. Each day.

will be at work on a small boat in our Boatshop. Boatwrights are famous talkers and will gladly stop working to chat with visitors.

Caulking for Kids - Master Shipwright Lee Ehrheart enlists the aid of young "ap-

Rowing Races - Cutthroat crews in ferocious competition in longboat and gigs, in-

prentices" to show that caulking can be done by anyone.

cluding C W B ' s own gig, Dan, and longboat, Anna. First call to oars at noon each day.

Watch the races off the North Quay. Losers will walk the plank.

^

Cedar Culture - The Maritime Skills of Puget Sound Native Americans. Steve and Dorothy Philipp describe how the native peoples of the region utilized their natural resources. Ongoing exhibit of canoe models, tools, artifacts - even a model longhouse.

Special presentation daily in the Armory.

Saturday Breakfast-Begin your day at the Festival with a hearty breakfast in the Pub Tent for just $5. Awards for the Ed Clark Memorial Yacht Race will be announced.

Silent Auction - O n e silent auction on Saturday afternoon and one on Sunday, featuring a plethora of goodies, including but not limited to boat supplies and nautical gear, artwork, fine and casual dining, books and getaways. In the Armory.

Classic Yacht Parade - The beautiful powerboats of the Classic Yacht Association will salute the Festival with a parade passing the North Quay and dock. The great unseen voice on the Festival PA system will describe the woodies as they pass in review. 2 p.m. Sunday.

Spar Making - A crew of shipwrights from the schooner Zodiac and C W B will be

Discovery and Other Great Ship Models - Puget Sound Maritime Museum (Puget

making a 30' boom for the Zodiac Northwest Seaport courtyard.

Sound Maritime Historical Society) presents a display of about 30 outstanding models of different types, including the 10' model in-progress of Capt. Vancouver's 1792 ship of exploration, Discovery. In the Armory every day (you might meet Lt. Peter Puget in the afternoons).

the old-fashioned way - with hand tools. In the

Strip Plank Kayak Construction - Paul Ford's display is a how-to on building strip plank kayaks.

Toy Boat Building - C o m e build a toy boat! Kids of all ages welcome. We supply the Ed Clark Classic Yacht Race - T h e Northwest's finest classic wooden boats race here on Lake Union Friday afternoon for everyone to see. This is an official Wooden Yacht Racing Association event.

wood, glue, nails, tools, masts, sails - all the materials you need. You supply the imagination. This is one of the favorite events of the Festival.

Water Taxis - Take a ride in a variety of traditional wooden rowboats, a selections of Folk Music - A lively offering of songs and merriment for land and sea, featuring a host of talents. Half-hour show every hour on the hour in the C W B Pub Tent (family seating section available).

Food Booths - A gastronomic extravaganza will be along Terry Avenue, the entrance

sailboats, a clutch of classic powerboats or our 2 0 ' 1906 steam launch, Puffin. at the C W B Boathouse or at the Naval Reserve Center North Pier.

Board

165' 1897 Schooner Wawona - W e l c o m e aboard the last lumber schooner in the Pacific Northwest. See how the restoration is progressing.

to the Naval Reserve Center.

Wooden Boats - T h e whole reason for the Festival! Expect to see more 100 wooden 120' 1889 Tug Arthur Foss - Built the year Washington become a state and registered as a National Historical M o n u m e n t .

Gas, Hot Air and Steam Engines - A working display of some unique early day engines.

SHAVINGS

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boats of all sizes in addition to our own fleet of nearly 100 small wooden boats. Vessels of all types and vintages will be in port including sail, power, rowing and paddling boats, tugs, workboats, one-of-a-kind designs - and two 23' Cape A n n e dories, Patience and Spirit, built in Olympia and rowed more than 60 miles from Olympia to Lake Union by kids in the Sound Opportunities youth program.