Solstice

I’ve gathered only little bread crumbs of her past along the way, most of what I know about Solstice is from the three years that I’ve owned her. I was quite obsessed with the design of a 17′ Swamspscott Dory from the moment I saw it in one of John Gardner’s books and had been scouring craigslist and marketplace for a listing. When one finally cropped up on the Sunshine Coast of BC I didn’t hesitate to arrange the rendezvous. There ended up being a great many unexpected hurdles to actually making it to Sechelt to pick her up. After five months of corresponding with the owner I finally had my truck fixed, passport renewed, trailer titled and a box of chewing tobacco stowed away to smuggle across as part of the trade. Though the contraband was confiscated at the border, I still made the trip and strapped her onto my trailer for the journey home. When I finally got her back to Port Townsend and put her in the water I was astonished at the quantity of water gushing in. If it weren’t for tub of Canadian Crisco I had lathered on the seems of her strakes she would have swiftly become seafloor habitat. After a good scraping and a new paint job I put her to use immediately as a crabber, pulling up pots of dungeness crab in Port Townsend Bay. After nearly capsizing and drowning my childhood friend in a stiff gust coming off Kai Tai Lagoon I decided to decrease the sail area from the cumbersome leg of mutton, to a sprit rig I could step or unstep while on the water or could strike in a hurry if need be. I used plank offcuts from a restoration project at the boatyard to make the mast and sprit and found a used sail from the marine thrift. It was with this rig and the original set of oars that I journeyed from Port Townsend up north to De Courcy Island and back. I returned bearded, caked with salt and grinning like a fool, a strong bond was formed during the voyage, and also a decent leak. Water was drizzling into the hull at about a gallon an hour, but I didn’t let that deter me! I had met a lovely woman who lived out West of Port Angeles and I moved the boat out there, into its new home in a woodshed. We’ve since repainted Solstice and I added some logs to the centerboard trunk in order to stymie the inflow of water. Currently she is our fishing boat, we launch from our local ramp and drift mooch and troll for Salmon. We hope to keep her going for many years to come, for fishing, sailing, camping and just enjoying the wild sea of our home.