I purchased the down on her luck 1927 fishboat from the Port of Bellingham in 2006. I knew she was a wreck, but even in her decrepit condition her classic sea-kindly lines could not be missed. As an experienced user of West System Epoxy cold molding techniques I saw right past her rotting pilothouse and leaking decks to the fact that the derelict hull with those classic lines provided a ready-to-use male mold that could be used to create a new hull.
Bending three layers of epoxy saturated okoume plywood over that original hull took some time. The result was a monocot “Lloyds of London” plywood hull with no seams to caulk, no fasteners to rust and no planks to rot. Removing the old rotting hull timbers from the interior left me with a clean slate to create a traditional-style comfortable interior with the features of a modern trawler tucked into a classic outer shell. Since our “new-old” boat was launched my wife and I have enjoyed many years of Northwest cruising in the Salish Sea and beyond.
Though we acquired the boat with virtually no records of her origins, over the years we have pieced together much of her history and even met a fellow whose family fished her in Southern California many years ago. We discovered that after immigrating from Norway, this was one of the first fish boats that young Andrew Berg designed and built in his yard on Seattle´s Duwamish Waterway. He went on to found the Berg Shipyard in Blaine in 1942. There they churned out fishing vessels, mine sweepers and other military vessels during WWII. Records found aboard verified that the boat had been licensed in fisheries from San Diego to Anchorage. At various times she had outrigger poles, a cockpit, longliner gear, a crabbing derrick and even a bow picker roller. What a stories she could tell of life fishing the Pacific Coast!
With her fishing days long past, we anchor out in the San Juan Islands and receive the compliments of knowledgeable boaters who know a set of great lines when they see them! We have found that the name “Olive Oyl” is just right for a boat that makes everyone smile.