2018 Festival Boats

This boat was self-built, by brothers Peter and Eric Hazell in Sisters, OR in 2016-2017. The 12′ catboat is a replica of a 1932 Los Angeles Olympics, single-crewed racer (Snowbird), standardized in design by Naval Architect, Edson B. Schock.Our boat’s traditional construction is Western Red Cedar planked on sawn and steam-bent White Oak frames with mahogany stem, keel and transom. The boat is a canvas-decked, hard-chined, centerboard, racing catboat, entirely bronze and copper fastened. The hardware is silicon-bronze and brass, with many components created by hand. This design was raced in the 1950s-1960s in the Flight of the Snowbirds in Newport Beach, CA, often with nearly 200 entries. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first Snowbird traditionally built since the early 1950s.

1956 Willets Brothers canoe purchased brand new by my father. All original, never restored, almost every original accessory with some never used still in Willets hand made bags.. Stunning boat that gathers crowds.

This boat has been in the family for decades. She sailed the waters of Lake Washington for decades, later ownership passing on and spending decades in dry storage. In 2014 she was hauled out of storage and given a new lease on life with a complete hull repaint, fiberglass restoration, and replacement hardware. Some strategic upgrades such as a British Seagull outboard and modern rigging touches enable comfortable saltwater sailing in Sequim and Discovery Bay.

She sails beautifully in local salt waters, high freeboard and shallow draft and stout construction gives confidence and comfort in light swells. She seems to sail best with 2-3 people aboard and is a pleasant cruiser in most any conditions. Easily rigged, launched, and retrieved on unimproved ramps.

She is towed well by a 1971 Holsclaw tilt-trailer, making easy work of launching into primitive Puget Sound launches. Debuted at Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival in 2016.

Sound Experience sails the historic schooner Adventuress to educate, inspire, and empower an inclusive community that works to improve our marine environment and celebrates our maritime heritage. Since her launch in E. Boothbay, Maine, in 1913, the B.B. Crowninshield-designed schooner has traveled the Strait of Magellan and the Bering Sea on an arctic expedition for naturalist Roy Chapman Andrews; served as a Bar Pilot vessel off of San Francisco; patrolled the west coast during World War II; and trained young sailors in seamanship skills in Seattle with Youth Adventure. Adventuress has sailed on the waters of Puget Sound for almost three decades under the stewardship of nonprofit Sound Experience, offering hands-on environmental education and leadership development to thousands of young people annually and partnering with youth-serving organizations to reach at-risk kids. Sound Experience offers programs for all ages and backgrounds and takes pride in providing many levels of training opportunities for volunteer and paid crew. Adventuress is a National Historic Landmark officially recognized as “Puget Sound’s Environmental Tall Ship.”

This boat is a 19’4″ stretched version of Iain Oughtred’s Arctic Tern. She features an enlarged gunter sloop rig with decks and bulkheads fore and aft. Originally designed at 18’2″” in length, the owner preferred the longer length of the Caledonia Yawl, and the narrower beam of the Arctic Tern. Thus this is a hybrid of the two.

Nathaniel Wilson of East Boothbay, Maine made the lovely mitre-cut sails. This boat is primarily used for day sailing on Lake Washington so auxiliary propulsion is handled by oars. With the generous sail plan they are rarely required. Built in 2014 by Tom Regan of Grapeview Point Boat Works.”

Ariel of Victoria’s keel was laid in Fred Peterson’s boatyard on Vancouver Island near Nanaimo in 1972. Carvel planked in Alaskan yellow cedar over oak frames with a western red cedar deck, she was launched in 1980 after “seven years of madness” by Ronald Hunt and Peterson. Doug & Jane Bond bought her in Victoria and raised two sons aboard, sailing her in the Salish Sea and participating in the local racing community. In 2009, Jane sold Ariel to Christy Granquist who, with Daniel Joram, brought the boat to Seattle and began a hull & systems restoration/renovation project (planking, frames, transom and aft cabin, electrical, water, sewage). In 2012, another renovation push involved a new galley, engine rebuild, fuel & exhaust systems. And in 2015, she was hauled out for 18 months to rebuild her decks and main cabin, re-cork, fair, install new steering & nav systems.

In between all the projects Ariel of Victoria sails extensively, covering 5000 miles in the Salish Sea between 2010 & 2015, and racing in several local events. We are looking forward to taking her further in the coming seasons.

Designed by Ben Seaborn, Arroyo was launched as We’re Here with sister ship Tola in 1938. Arroyo raced under the Seattle Yacht Club who now sponsors the annual Mark Mayer Race on Lake Washington. Past owners include A.G. Woodley, Carl Jensen, David Skinner and Dr. Robert Smith. Raced in Northwest waters under the names of We’re Here, Oscar IV, Kate and Avolonte. Arroyo participated in many Swiftsure races and in 1949 won the Swiftsure Lightship Race as Avolonte under ownership of A.G. Woodley. As a testimony to it’s racing history a half hull model of Arroyo currently hangs in the Seattle Yacht Club. From 1995-1999 Arroyo underwent a four year complete restoration in Port Townsend under ownership of Roger and Nancy Newell. Currently moored on Lake Union not far from the original site of the Blanchard Boat Company, Arroyo continues to sail in Northwest waters and participate in local wooden boat shows.

Construction includes cedar planks on oak ribs with silica sand decks on epoxy over okume plywood. Original mast and boom are spruce. The yacht was recently repowered with a 40 hp diesel Yanmar auxiliary engine.

A Grand Banks 32 sedan, built in 1969, Bella la Vita has proven to be nearly perfect for the cruising couple. Dependable, economical, if not a little slow, she has carried her current owners throughout Puget Sound, the San Juans, and into Canada.

Built in Anacortes in 1977 (same year as the first Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival) by a 20 year old aspiring boat builder named Bo Garrison who took the lines from Chappelles American Small Craft. The boat’s design is an evolution from dugout canoes, and came into service for watermen in Long Island Sound for ease of construction, speed, ease of handling, and shoal draft- which made it ideal for tonging for oysters.

The rig is consists of two solid, unstayed spars, with sprit-booms that are tensioned with “snotter lines” against lashings on the mast. Oddly, the sails reef vertically; the snotter lines are eased and the luff of the sail is gathered at the mast. Honestly, it’s a pretty bad system since you have to strike the sail, tie every reef point as you re-raise it, and what you are left with is a bunched up sail as the leading edge of your sail. Eventually we’re going to get around to changing that.

A modern adaptation of that hull form, the Betsy D was originally named Transit and had a full cabin, and the builder cruised it extensively in the Salish Sea, making it as far north as Desolation Sound. In 1983 it was donated to Seattle’s Center for Wooden Boats where it was a long serving member of the fleet, primarily as the public sail vessel; every Sunday it would take people sailing in Lake Union free of charge. The current owners, Jake Beattie and Jean Scarboro, fell in love with the boat while employees there, and when they heard it was being surplussed jumped at the chance to be its caretakers. They traded a Port Madison pram for the boat and set in on a year long restoration. They both now live in Port Townsend and camp cruise it with their daughter in the summers.

Betty Mc is a 45′ “crayfish” boat, typical of many fishing craft from south eastern Australia built throughout the 1900s. Early boats were all sail and as engines improved, sail rigs shrunk. Betty Mc is one of the last era of boats to retain a sail rig. She was built in 1963 by Ken Lacco for his son Snow, who began fishing in 1964 in Victorian and Tasmanian waters. She was fishing commercially until 2001 when we purchased her. We refitted her for “spartan” long-distance cruising in 2006 with the removal of deck machinery, a new engine, transmission and genset, and a larger wheelhouse. All holds were retained, including the 6m3 “wet-well”. In 2007 she left Australia, visiting New Zealand, many central pacific islands, Micronesia, Japan and the Aleutian Islands arriving in the Pacific Northwest in 2011. Following several seasons between Vancouver and Kodiak she travelled south down the west coast to Mexico and through Central America as far as Costa Rica. She is carvel planked in Celery Top Pine on laminated frames of Yellow Stringybark with a keel and keelson of ironbark, all common Australian timbers for commercial craft.

Bibi is a hard-chined, plywood centerboard sloop built in 1964 by hobbyist Ludvik Zbigniewicz, apparently to his own design. She has a long, fine entry, considerable rocker, and a tiny, distinctively squared-off cuddy with a small porthole on either side. BIBI is bronze fastened and heavily framed for her size—a reflection of both the conservative approach taken by builders experimenting with plywood in its relatively early days, and also of the fierce prairie winds and steep chop on Lake Winnipeg, for which the builder designed her.

Her prior owner, Jack Mathias of Nanaimo BC, owned her from 1997 until 2017, and relayed this history. “She was built…for sailing solo on Lake Winnipeg … If you don’t know that lake, it’s roughly 400 km long, north to south, 100 km wide, and averages only 12 m deep. With that length of wind fetch, flat surrounding countryside and shallow depth, the lake can get extremely rough. That’s why the vessel is built so strongly, comes with a canvas storm jib and a drogue, has extra fore and aft flotation, and has the roller boom for reefing the mainsail. I suspect the small thermometer and barometer mounted in the forward bulkhead of the cabin is to watch for squalls and thunderstorms, for which the prairies are famous.”

The builder’s daughter confirmed that Mr. Zbigniewicz built BIBI. “As a matter of fact”, she wrote, “he built several and this one was the largest, built when the new baby was born, to accommodate his growing family. I’m that baby.”

Zbigniewicz was born in 1918 in Warsaw, Poland. He enrolled in the Sea Cadets and sailed tall ships in the Baltic. He enlisted in 1939 and served in the Polish army before being captured by the Germans and imprisoned for the duration of World War II. After being liberated, he rejoined Polish troops in Italy and eventually emigrated to Manitoba, where he worked variously as a farm hand, lumberjack, for a gas company, and as a business owner. In addition to woodworking, Zbigniewicz also enjoyed working in metals, and he cast or machined all of the metal fittings on BIBI. He passed away in 1997.
With only three owners from new, BIBI remains remarkably original and is a proper little yacht.

Black Opal is a Classic Grand Banks 36 Trawler. This boat was purchased and totally redone by it’s previous owners Jim and Barbara Thiele. They enjoyed her for many years and kept her under cover at Pleasant Harbor. She has cruised to Alaska. Currently she is kept under cover at La Conner Marina and we enjoy cruising her in the San Juan Island.

Blossom was built in 1938 in Tacoma, WA by the Anderson yard. Several similar sloops of Ed. Monk’s designs were being constructed in the late 30’s and early 40’s including S/V Sea Witch. She is heavily constructed of yellow cedar planks on white oak frames with a Douglas fir backbone and iron ballast.

Much of her history before 2000 is unknown to the current owner, but she was very well kept for a long time – much of her structure appears original. In the mid 2010’s she was in Sam Devlin’s yard and received a new ply deck, was refastened below the waterline, had most of her butt blocks below the waterline scarfed out, an aluminum deck stepped rig, and 2003 Yanmar 2GM20. In 2016-17 her mast step and surrounding floors were replaced, as were many of the surrounding frames.

Blossom has explored extensively in the San Juan’s but not much further. With a long way to go in her restoration, Blossom’s owner hopes to soon explore the Gulf Islands, and further north. Come see Blossom and help us celebrate her 80th birthday!

This 38 square meter sloop designed by Marius Sofus Joannes Hansen in November, 1935, was built by Thomsen Boatyard in Kalundborg, Denmark and launched in 1939.

Bout has undergone a complete, loving, restoration beginning in September 2017 by Robert D’Arcy and Douglas Jones, and their professional crew, Jason, Riley, Jen, and Zolly. All work was done inside the Port Townsend Maritime Building. Her construction is plank on frame using white oak framing, larch planks, and teak decks over angelique framing. The center line is purple heart.Her cabin is original with a new interior. Doug Jones reshaped the mast, and Port Townsend Foundry created all the bronze works. Sails were made by Carol Hasse, and rigging by Port Townsend Rigging. Brian Toss contributed as well. Walt Tisdale handled the new engine installation. Bout was able to hold onto her lead keel during WWII when Nazi Germany occupied Denmark. In 1966, she was solo sailed from San Diego to Hawaii and back by then owner Robert Sisler. Bout was purchased by Ollie and Janice Pedersen in 2006. Photo by Neil Rabinowitz

Bright Star is from a design by Renn Tolman of Homer, Alaska. The Alaskan Skiffs began as 18′ open skiffs, built to do well in Alaskan waters, for fishing. They have more recently been customized to be just what the builders want in a boat. Renn Tolman’s basic design evolved, and a few have been built at 26′. Most of the cabin boats are 22′-24′ long, and home-built by the people who plan to use them.

Bright Star is a Jumbo 24. As are all the Tolman boats, she’s a plywood “”stitch-and-glue”” wooden boat. Ray built her on our backporch. It took 2.5 years, from delivery of plywood to launching, and we customized ours as a cabin cruiser, for cruising and fishing. The boat is powered by a Cummins diesel MerCruiser 1.7L, 120hp, inboard/outboard. Cruising speed is 18 knots and cruising weight is 3800 pounds. The boat is light for its size, and is easy to tow. We get great fuel economy. With two 36-gallon tanks, we have a range of 300 miles, at speed. So far, we have 6000 statute miles under our keel.

Local area cruising has been in the Willamette and Columbia Rivers. Having a trailerable boat allows us freedom easily to go farther, and to enjoy salt water cruising in Washington and BC. We’ve explored the South Sound area between Olympia and Seattle, and spent time in the San Juans, Gulf Islands and beyond. Pre-Festival, we like being in Deer Harbor for the Wooden Boat Rendezvous. Post-Festival cruises with more excitement have been to the Broughton Archipelago, off the far NE end of Vancouver Island (Bright Star crossed to Victoria on board the ferry Coho), and going out the Strait of Juan de Fuca, hanging a right, and cruising northwest along the outside of Vancouver Island up to Brooke Peninsula. Note that we’ve so far managed to avoid going around Cape Scott, and transiting the Johnstone Strait. Next time, a circumnavigation?

Topsides re-planked, hull totally re-calked and refastened in 2018. Hull, topsides and cabin repainted in 2018.

Built in Maine in 2007, she has plied Maine’s coastal waters and primarily Penobscot Bay, until she was brought here last June, where she resides in Port Hadlock. She was a mainstay vessel at the annual TSCA Small Reach Regatta in the Eggemoggin Reach area of Maine. With a small canvas area for her ketch rig, an 18 ft. length and a 4 ft. 6 in. beam, drafting 5 in. with her centerboard up, she is a slow but steady, sound, and balanced vessel that could best be described as a cross between a lifeboat and a dory. She is glued-lap of Meranti plywood and weighs 450 lb. empty. She is also a safe vessel with two water-tight turtlebacks fore and aft. In light winds, she sail/rows comfortably but really enjoys a stiff breeze, when other small boats are reefing and heading to harbor.

Ceridwen was lofted in the fall of 1982 at Magner and Sons Boatworks by John and Kevin Magner and Matt McCleary. Matt continued on with the building project along with his wife Stephanie. Ceridwen has a lead keel and steam bent oak frames. Ceridwen was launched in 1994 in Port Angeles, Washington and made her maiden voyage in 1996 to her home in Port Hadlock. Ceridwen was recently featured in Wooden Boat Magazine in January 2017.

Using only the lines drawing from the Dori book we measured and created a sheet of offsets to loft her. Thanks to the Newport Marine science center loft and bandsaw, I was able to fully loft her and then create her sawn frames in 1983. Thanks to Dick Tucker in Langlois Oregon I was able to order perfect Port Orford cedar for plankIng. Jamestown distributors was the only mail order supply company back then for Marine supplies (and linguica sausage)!! Coincidentally Silva Bans was being built in a nearby barn at the same time so had to have her!! The schooner Rueben de Cloux was just launched and sailed in Yaquina Bay to our delight and inspiration! Launched as an open row boat I explored the eirie Pools slough where another recluse boatbuilder was creating a wooden sailing masterpiece deep in the woods.

Cito is a Fractionally rigged 1935 Danish 38 M2 Class Spidsgatter sloop designed by MSJ Hansen, built in Copenhagen Denmark in 1936 by Jorgen Wass. Brought to Vancouver Canada in 1955 with some of her sister 38 m2 Spidsgatters. She came to Port Townsend in the fall of 2002, and we bought her in the fall of 2005. A full 8 year restoration was completed in fall of 2013. Restored hull, decks, cockpit, interior. All new spars, standing and running rigging, along with sails, and all marine canvas by Northwest Sails and Canvas.

Cito is our cabin on the water, and she takes us cruising up into the vast realms of the Salish Sea annually. She is a pleasure to sail and voyage in, comfortable and compact.

Advances in electric propulsion, solar panels, and batteries has made it possible to build a boat for long distance cruising in Puget Sound. Daddy’s Third is a St. Pierre Dory with accommodations for two + and a cruising range of 150 nautical miles at 3 knots (50 nautical miles at 5.2 knots) on a single charge. The solar panels can provide 2.8 knots directly, or i hr of cruising at hull speed for every 4 hrs of sunshine. This is my third electric dory built from Glen-L’s plans, and finally I think I have a configuration that really works for us.

The Core Sound 17 mk3 represents the evolution of a design that has proven its seaworthiness and performance time and again in the Everglades Challenge and other race events around the country. We built Deluge because it’s readily trailerable with a small family car, reasonably quick to launch, fun to sail, and a very capable, seaworthy craft on the water. The design includes water ballast tanks which, when the seas get rough, add over 300 pounds of ballast. The cozy cabin sleeps 2 with tons of storage space for extended trips.

Descant is a custom built glass over ply pilot house. She has a classic look, with the benefits of modern construction techniques and a high performance outboard. Her hull offers a fast and fuel efficient ride. She can travel from Kingston to Friday Harbor in a few hours, using less than 14 gallons of fuel. Likely, she is one of the few boats that has explored the rivers of eastern Washington. She is young, elegant, and fast. Perfect for the couple who has to be to work on Monday morning.

Launched in 1950, Duffy was built by the Adams Boat Company, underneath Seattle’s University Bridge, according to a design by Edwin Monk Sr. penned in 1947. She was originally commissioned by a Seattle Doctor for the use of his family who cruised Duffy the length of the Salish Sea and Inside Passage for 42 years. She was purchased from the estate of the original owner in 1992 by another family who preformed a minor restoration and enjoyed another 25 years and a family generation’s cruising the Puget Sound. We purchased her last year and have started another round of restoration work above and below the waterline and are looking forward to raising yet another family on this classic Monk Cruiser that has remained remarkably original over all these years.

Duke was built in 1947 in Tacoma, WA by Cummings Boat Company. She is Douglass Fir on steam bent oak frames. Like many trollers of her era, she is powered by a Detroit Diesel 6-71 engine. After she was built, she fished out of Sitka, AK and soon after moved to Eureka, CA. On opening day, 1955, her first season as a crabber, she set the record that year: 7,000 lbs! SHe went through 2 owners in Eureka before moving to Port Townsend in the late 1990s, owned by Prentiss and Heidi Bloedel, who converted her to a cruiser. Duke was then owned by Curtis Schloe, who lovingly maintained her. Ryan Downs bought Duke in 2015, and is continuing to care for the ship. The vessel will head back to Alaska next summer to take passengers on weeklong trips out of Petersburg.

Simmons Sea Skiff, 22 footer. Powered by 90 hp Suzuki outboard. Built to plans, but, with my tweaking, Eager Beaver is at 23 feet. I included a cuddy cabin with horizontal 6 feet 6 inch interior, but low ceiling. Added three-sided ‘hardtop’ to protect occupants in helm area. Curved handrail on top is unique – a ‘one of a kind’, but patterned after one seen on a commercial build by Life Proof Boats (with their permission). Lapstrake hull. All wood above the chine is MDO plywood. Double thick (3/4″) bottom. Non-skid areas use crushed walnut shells. All fasteners, cleats, chocks, Samson post, are silicon bronze. Tall transom adorned aft with four foot wide ‘coastal native style carving’ of a beaver. Boat is painted bright orange/black trim, as it reflects both the ‘beaver’ name, and my university roots at Oregon State. Name EAGER BEAVER comes from my dad always encouraging me as a young boy to be an ‘eager beaver’. Build began fall 2013, and is completed by summer of 2018.

Every now and again, we build a boat for ourselves. We wanted a good rowboat, which meant it had to meet several criteria:
• It had to row very well.
• It had to be lightweight for its type.
• It had to have a traditional appearance.
• It had to be a relatively quick build so I could get back to projects that made money.
• It had to be fairly inexpensive.
• It had to trim well rowing single or double, with or without passengers.

We have long admired the Lake George Boats, and decided to base our design on the WINONA from Mystic Seaport’s collection of small boats. The Gig Harbor BoatShop built a replica of WINONA a couple years ago, and I had a chance to row it briefly. I found that the hull had more than adequate stability, and carried between strokes very well. She was slow to turn, like any long pulling boat with no rocker. We began by making a 1:8 scale half-hull model of WINONA, then modified the model to reflect the new design, which was named EBB. We trimmed the beam to get the beam to length ratio to be less than 1:4. This reduced the stability, while also slightly reducing the weight and wetted surface for less drag. We kept the nearly circular midship cross-section. The beam at the transom was greatly reduced to be less than 45% of the maximum beam. This, combined with the low beam/length ratio, categorizes our design as a “”canoe, kayak, or similar watercraft”” in the eyes of the USCG, simplifying certification of the new design.

The stem profile was straightened a bit to suit our taste. That lengthened the waterlines slightly. The dead-straight keel was modified to have 1″” of rocker at both ends. This will help maneuvering in tight spaces, and make exiting onto a beach a little easier. With the revised model completed, templates and measurements from the model were used to create a scale lines drawing, from which offsets could be taken in order to loft the boat full-size. Construction details were drawn on the lofting, and the molds and stem and transom patterns were made.

All the scantlings were reduced, and much lighter species of wood were used. Where the original boat had oak, we substituted yellow cedar. Fir was replaced with spruce. Pine was replaced with red cedar. Quarter inch cedar planking became 4mm Okoume plywood. The resulting build will not be as durable as a boat built more heavily, but this boat will be used by us, and will be handled carefully. EBB will be a test bed for new ideas in construction and interior arrangement. The thwart arrangement is a bit of an experiment (something I can’t do with boats built for others). The center thwart is located just aft of amidships, which is optimal for trim. The forward thwart is farther forward than usual, and the aft thwart is farther aft than usual. This should maintain trim with two rowers, without the need for adding ballast. No heel stretchers are required, since feet can be braced against the thwarts and stern seat.

Having three thwarts does crowd the interior, especially at the bow seat, but there a plenty of options for seating, and the bow seat is really only intended to be used a step when boarding from a beach, or perhaps used as a seat by a child (or a dog).There is no varnish. We used a satin enamel for the interior, and gloss enamel for the exterior. A simple finish, stored out of the weather, should require very little maintenance.”

A number of such installations have been made on the West Coast and are being watched with keen interest by motor boat operators everywhere.

A particularly striking yacht installation was that made in the 44-foot power cruiser El Mistico owned by E. Michelson of the Seattle Yacht Club. The El Mistico was built by the Ballard Marine Railway of Seattle from designs by Thearle and Nordstrom and embodies a number of striking features in design, construction, and arrangement.

The power plant is one of the new four-cylinder Fairbanks-Morse marine Diesel engines developing 40 h.p. at 650 r.p.m. This engine is of the two-cycle type. The installation was made under the personal supervision of A. F. Whitehead, manager of the service department of the Seattle branch of Fairbanks-Morse & Company.

A feature of the job is the special unit control stand designed by Fairbanks-Morse engineers, and due to the success of the El Mistico will be made standard on this type of craft. By the use of this control, which is in a single bronze casting, the engine can be started, the clutch manipulated, the speed regulated and the reverse operated by the man at the wheel. Air and oil pressures are carried to the pilot house so that the owner can at all times follow the operating conditions of the engine. There is a thermostatic monometer for indicating engine temperature.

…The centralization of controls enables one man to operate the boat readily.