BE HAPPY is a 21 foot Tolman Widebody Skiff built for fishing and overnight cruising. Built from marine plywood and encapsulated in epoxy and fiberglass she took a little more than 5 years to build. Covid slowed the build process and then there was being locked out of the shop space because the building was unsafe. BE HAPPY was finally …
Little Bean
The 400 plus pound box of wood arrived in November 2021 just in time for a long-term Covid project. My wife had just had rotator cuff surgery and our outdoor adventures were cut short, so she knew I needed a project. I had built five pygmy kayaks before but never a sailboat. From bending wood to melting lead at 600° …
Freyja
Originally built by Leiter Hokkett in 1938 in Ballard, WA, Freyja is one of two Viking Class sloops designed by Charles D. Mower. Originally designed for coastal New England, there were twelve of these built on the west coast. Initially, this boat first entered our family in 1969 and was sold in 1998. After a few years without her, our …
BISH
BISH is a Murray Peterson Susan schooner. Port Orford Cedar on steam-bent white oak frames. Teak decks on laminated doug fir deck beams. Hand crank SABB lifeboat engine. All standing rigging is galvey 7×7, parcel and served. Built by Karl Bischoff in Georgetown, Seattle. It’s taken 12 years so far. For each task, I had to do research and take …
Golden Rule
The Golden Rule was the very first of the environmental and peace vessels to go to sea. In 1958, a crew of anti-nuclear weapons activists set sail aboard her in an attempt to interpose themselves and the boat between the U.S. Government and its atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean. At that time …
Sunshine Special
Back in 1972, the boat was brought to Seattle from the Great Lakes and the Sunshine Special got her name and her first yellow stripe and she has had the yellow stripe ever since. She’s a recognizable fixture in the San Juan and Gulf Islands. 18 years ago on our maiden cruise with the boat, we ran into 2 different …
Black Dogs
A Northwest built version of a William Atkins “Rescue Minor” Article by James Thomas from Small Craft Advisor Magazine For some years I’d heard stories about a boat an acquaintance of mine, Mark Nelson, a skilled carpenter and machinist had built to allow his wife Lark and he to take day trips on the Rivers and Lakes in Oregon. Knowing …
Little Packet
Christopher Jenkes commissioned a smaller version of Lester Stone’s personal yacht, when he saw the drawings he said, “That’s a nice little packet, and the name stuck. In addition the the commissioned Little Packet, the Stone yard built a sistership launched in 1967. We are the third owners of the boat. Dick Wren bought her in 1971 and was very …
Argonaut II
For more than a century, Argonaut II sailed the waters of the Pacific Northwest and most famously served the remote native tribes and rural communities of British Columbia. Originally built as a corporate yacht for the Powell River Company in Vancouver, BC in 1922, the United Methodist Church purchased the boat in 1934 to serve as a Mission Boat until …
Luna
LUNA, a Bolger-designed Chebacco, was constructed by Jerome McIlvanie of Yakima, Washington between 1996 and 2001. The boat is 19’ 6” long and has a beam of 7’ 9”. After being sailed just once – from the launch ramp to the marina at the 2001 Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival – she was sold and stored under a tarp in …