Sea Witch is a well-known classic wooden boat in the Pacific Northwest.
Stories of Sea Witch have been in print for decades in the PNW; a Port Townsend original she has been featured in newspaper articles, magazine covers, Jo Bailey’s gunkholing guides, and previous festivals by her former owners.
The current owners were bewitched by her in the summer of 2017 when we saw her on the government docks in the gulf islands. Ignorant of her pedigree or history she captured our imagination with her classic look and wooden charms despite being in disrepair and all but abandoned. We made the fortuitous mistake as all novice owners of biting off more than we could chew…
This is our first boat and we had to start from scratch with terminology, tools, and time. She has been given a new life with a combination of old salt wisdom and forward-thinking technology. She was out of the water for 2 years as we discovered more and more rot realized. She wasn’t a simple touch-up, rather a full refurbish and rebuild of many of her structures.
To date we have removed, deconstructed and epoxied the original mast back together, removed and rebuilt the transom, the starboard decks, cabin side bulwark, carling, and cabin tops, rebedded the entire decking in canvas, removed and replaced the toerails, replaced the keel bolts, recaulked the entire boat seams, refastened several planks, sistered in several HDPE ribs, refurbished the original stove, replaced the head, removed the palmer gas engine and repowered with a prototype electric engine… All without ever having held a caulking iron and block plane beforehand!