Draiodoir

She was built up in Ballard shipyard in 1935. Her original design was a sloop, but in 1970s she was re rigged by adding the bowsprit and boomkin that is still current today. Our history of her is essentially from 1977 to present. We are trying to find more history!
The boat was called “Argosy” when bought in 1977. It had mythological significance (Jason and the Argonauts), but there was also a mens’ magazine by that name. It did not suit well for the owner, so he changed it to “Platero”. The name “Platero” was of a little Spanish donkey, the main character in a little novel “Platero and I” (or Platero y Yo) by Juan Ramon Jimenez, for which he won the Nobel price for literature in 1956 (written in 1914). “Platero” is described as sturdy, gentle, and reliable. The boat was then sold in 1995 where her name was changed to the “Draiodoir”, meaning mischievous magician. The Keltic knots were a symbol of the owner’s ancestry of Keltic decent.
Between 1977-1995 there was some major re construction done to her. The bowsprit and boomkin were added, the combing in the cockpit were changed to a curve rather than raking straight back. The house leaked extremely, and so the house was redone to have the mast go through the house and pushed forward on the deck. The corners of the house leaked after the fact, so the bronze corners were a later addition. The companionway drop boards were made from iroko and cut the slots on the table saw. The deck has cedar planks with Irish felt soaked in Stockholm tar and canvas stretched over the entire topside. The boat originally didn’t have bulwarks and just had a little molding along the deck edge, so the bulwarks were made out of 3 layers of yellow cedar, with teak caps. The wishbone for the stacil was made out hard apple wood.
In 1995 she was sold to a Vietnam Veteran briefly and then sold to a gentleman in the Coast Guard. He changed the name to “Draiodoir”, which has remained her name to today. He removed the Renault 5hp with a Yanmar 1GM10. It was barely used except to get out of her slip. He mostly just used her sails and in emergencies would he turn over the engine. When we bought her, she only had 100 hours.
Half of the fasteners were replaced in 1995, after half was replaced they realized the fasteners they were pulling out weren’t bad enough to replace. Unfortunately the boat then sat for a few years in Tacoma, Wa.
My dad was going to Baits community college for the boat building program in 2004 when the previous owner of the “Draiodoir” came into the school and said the boat was being vandalized and had offers to sell her for her parts. So, he would rather donate the boat than have her stripped. My dad being a lover of wooden boats took heart to this and decided to buy this little boat. She was in pretty derelict shape and desperately needed a loving touch.
From 2004-2006 our dad had us two little girls help work on this boat with painting, oiling, replacing wood, and cleaning her up. In 2007 our dad sat my sister and I down (11 and 12 years old now) and offered to give us the boat if we were willing to accept the responsibility. Having no clue what we signed up for, full heartedly said Yes! That was our first year at the Olympia Wooden Boat Show where we won Favorite Sailboat award.
From then on, we have more maintained rather than change anything drastically. We replaced the canvas hatches and house with black sunbrella canvas. Stripped the painted bulworks and finished all the topside wood with Dalys seafin teak oil. For over the next several years we kept her local in Shelton, Wa, and attended the Olympia Wooden Boat Show every year. In Sept 2012, Mishawn went into the US Navy as a bowswein mate, and so Danielle was the caretaker moving forward.
In 2014, the “Draiodor” was a part of the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Show. This is where we met one of the previous owners who had her from 1977-1995, where he gave us so much knowledge of her previous history that we had no clue about. We thought a lot of her construction topside was original because of how exquisitely built she was. From 2014-2023 she was moored in Shelton, Wa, but then a boathouse was bought May 2024 and brought to the Olympia Yacht Club.
The most recent work completed was from September 2023-January 2024 she had the bottom stripped, the concrete keel was needle gunned, epoxied, primed, and 4 coats in bottom was added. The engine mounts were replaced and a tune up for the mechanical portion.
We have owned our “Pampered Grandma” for 19 years now and coming up to her 90th birthday! We are still trying to find the history from previous to 1977, unfortunately we have not had much luck other than an original drawing of her rig as a sloop in one of Ed Monk Sr’s books written about boat design.