Abishag was built by Edmund Lincoln Devreaux in Vallejo California and launched in 1970.
Lincoln was a retired shipwright from Bear Island, US Navy Yard.
She is a modeled from a Monterey boat, but has no clipper bow, which the usual form. Her straight stem is better for punching through the short chop in the north SF bay, and some Montereys have historically been built in a similar manner.
Abishag has bent oak frames, yellow cedar planking, and a fir and teak deck. She is fastened with galvanized nails and bronze screws.
Lincoln also moved the deck houses together. This made more deck space and better placement for the single cylinder Hicks make-and-break engine, which has alway been her engine. The Yuba Hicks engines, from Sausalito, Ca. were among the most popular and dependable engines on the West Coast, when they were built in the 1920’s. Abishag’s was an early Hicks, from 1912: 8-11 HP, 6.5 “ bore. 7.5” stroke, 244 c.i. cylinder bore, 360 rpm @ hull speed, 6 knots. Gasoline fuel consumption at hull speed: 3 quarts/ hour.
Abishag was fit out to fish and did, for a season, before she was trucked to Anacortes.
In the late 80’s, with the builder’s passing, she was sold to John Anderson in Bellingham.
She cruised and fished the Salish Sea until John’s passing, when she was laid up, for sale at Colony Wharf, Bellingham.
Elton H., who was the boat’s original engineer and installed the Hicks, suggested that Emerald Marine partner with him and save the vessel. Free boats not with standing, work begun in fall of 2022. Together we have: moved the vessel back to Anacortes, replaced the the after stem and a significant amount of the after planking and the garboard strakes, rebuilt the steering fittings, removed and rebuilt the Hicks, installed new tanks and wiring, and more.
We look forward to fishing, cruising and teaching about old engines and shipwrighting as we go along…