25th Annual Shipwrights’ Regatta
25th Annual Shipwrights' Regatta, February 27, 2016. 25th Annual Shipwrights’ Regatta to be held February 27th! The 2016 sailboat racing season opens with the Port Townsend Shipwrights’ Regatta on February 27th. A well-loved regional tradition is celebrating its 25th year. This year we look back and celebrate 25 years of winter sailing, in snow and sleet, gale force to flat calm, Port Townsend Bay has seen it all. This friendly regatta is sponsored by The Northwest Maritime Center (NWMC), Wooden Boat Foundation (WBF), Port Townsend Sailing Association (PTSA), and Edensaw Woods. Boats of all construction are welcome. As [...]
From Timber To Tide
From Timber To Tide from Pixillion on Vimeo. This film documents Ben Harris’ love of wood work and boat building, how he acquired his skills, and how incredible it is to be able to take something that you’ve built with your own hands out onto the water and sail it across the sea. Who is Ben Harris? Ben has always loved wood. His mother said that his first word was ‘log’. He has been working with wood throughout the UK since the age of 15. First as an assistant to a cabinet maker, where he started by sharpening the tools [...]
SPARKLE Shines at 45th Shaw Island Classic
PTSA member Guy Hupy and the SPARKLE crew won "First in Division" and "First Overall Monohull" at the 45th Annual Shaw Island Classic. Photo by Kim Carver The 45th Annual Shaw Island Classic Sailboat Race was held on Saturday, Aug. 1, 2015, sponsored by the San Juan Island Yacht Club. According to the Journal of the San Juan Islands "The race, with 35 boats participating, started at noon with a light breeze. All entrants made it past the half-way point, but the wind came to a stand-still back at the mouth of Friday Harbor." In the end, Guy [...]
MARTHA Gearing up for Monday Transpac Start
Ted Pike made the journey from Port Townsend to visit and sail on MARTHA, It’s good to see friends from Port Townsend. Edensaw Woods has been a strong supporter of our endeavors at the Schooner Martha Foundation and we thank them for their support. MARTHA is preparing for a San Francisco departure and the crew have all gathered for a Friday evening dinner at the Saint Francis Yacht Club. Special thanks to the Saint Francis for hosting MARTHA the week before our departure for Longbeach. We find it an interesting fact that as MARTHA and crew prepare, we [...]
SPARKLE, The Boat to Beat
A video from OffCenterHarbor.com
Local Girl Arrives in the South of France
News from SIROCCO’s new owner… SIROCCO rolls out of her shipping container in the South of France. Dear Steve, Sirocco just arrived today in Marseille, after one and half month of ocean crossing, and more than one half planet round circle ! She has arrived in perfect shape and seem to have been very well protected inside the container. We put her back in the water this afternoon with no worry. Some water licks (expected) but surprisingly very few, after 45 days spent inside a container box . She has tested the Mediterranean [...]
Farewell SIROCCO
One our Bay’s quickest and loveliest boats, Steve Scharf’s SIROCCO. by Larry Fisher It’s often said that all boats are for sale, yet it was hard to believe the rumors we started to hear a few months ago. Could it possibly be true that Steve Scharf was preparing to part with Sirocco? For even in a town blessed with more than its share of special boats, Sirocco was a standout: beautiful, fast, meticulously maintained, and possessed of an esprit de corps that the rest of the fleet could only envy. But after 10 years Steve has sold Sirocco [...]
Don Haviland
Don Haviland, July 14, 1948 – January 7, 2014 We lost Don Haviland in January, after a two year battle with cancer. Don was an active member of our sailing community over the past decade, racing, cruising, working for PTSA and the Moorage Tenant’s Union. It was common to see Don and wife Karen Lee out in the bay on their Rhodes-designed sloop, CUBANA. Don was treasurer of the original PTSA board and contributed a lot to its formation and function. He took the job very seriously and kept us "in the black" and up to date. He [...]
Old Ships, Big Waves
Photo by Gilles Martin-Raget posted on pressure-drop.us Halsey Herreshoff in his excellent talk at the NW Maritime Center identified the south of France as today's epicenter of historic sailing vessels. If you are going to be in big Mediterranean seas, these look like the ships to be in. Photographed at the ongoing Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez. More pictures and complete story here
White Cap Series Race 3 Photos
Lapworth 45 Ocean Racer ANNIE, TOO doing what she was born to do. Photo by Craig Wester click for bigger image more pics from White Cap Race 3 after the break […]
Mystery Ketch Mystery No More
IDRIL at Patterson Glacier in Alaska. In last Friday's race report, PRO Dave Burrows wrote, "This week we welcomed a new boat to our fleet, a gaff rigged ketch. We didn’t get her name yet and have assigned a provisional rating." In response, skipper Michael Truex sent along the following ... "[Here are] a few photos of IDRIL in her home waters near Frederick sound, Alaska. An Atkin "Jonquil" by design, she is 33' 9" by 10' 6" with a draft of 5'4." I carry all sail up to around 25 knots, which turned out to be handy [...]
HMS BOUNTY: How Sound Was She?
Posted by Charles J. Doane on SAILfeed AS I NOTED in my last post on the loss of HMS Bounty during Hurricane Sandy, one of the big unanswered questions is: why was the ship taking on so much water? That she was leaking enough to sink is especially puzzling in that just 11 days earlier she'd been relaunched at Boothbay Harbor Shipyard in Maine (see photo up top) after spending a month in drydock for repairs. It may or may not be relevant, but my eyebrows did rise up a bit when I learned this week that the very same [...]
The “In-Between” Wooden Boat Festival at Deer Harbor
Deer Harbor Washington Hosts Wooden Boat Gathering – photo by Chris Thomerson The Victoria Boat Festival, always held on Labor Day weekend, is coming up fast.(August 31-Sept 2. Go to classicboatfestivel.ca ) Always an enjoyable festival, in the heart of Victoria, going on simultaneously with their Jazz Festival on the waterfront…whats not to like! Thousands of casual spectators, some boat -savy, some not, but all appreciative of the boats. Then there is our own Wooden Boat festival, Sept 10-12th this year. Thousands of curious visitors and a busy fun-packed long weekend! All in our own backyard. Go to the [...]
2012 Shipwrights’ Race Results and Photos
The race was held on Sunday, after gale warnings and lumpy seas prevented the usual Saturday start. Sunday was a glorious day to be racing on Port Townsend Bay, and the fleet of almost 20 boats looked fabulous! Thanks to our sponsors: The Northwest Maritime Center and Cafe whose support for sailing on the Bay is always appreciated, Sunrise Coffee, PT Brewing Company, SEA Marine and The Port of Port Townsend. Thanks as always to Myron and Dave of the Port Townsend Sailing Association Race Committee for running the race. More photos after the jump by Ace Spragg [...]
New Photos of SPRAY and Slocum Found
My wife’s grandmother Virginia was over 90 years old when she pulled a yellowed envelope containing four film negatives out of one of her many photo albums. Like we’d done many times before, she was sharing the memories of her adventurous life captured in those albums, and I was always enthralled with the places she’d been and the people she’d met, but the writing on the envelope: “Slocum 1906,” gave me goose bumps. “Oh my God,” I said as I held one of the negatives to the light. “These are photos of Joshua Slocum and Spray.” [...]
MARTHA, Making Wood Look Good…Again!
[slideshow id=38] MARTHA cleaned up in her division in the 'Round the County Race this weekend, and possibly overall as well. MARTHA was the only boat from Port Townsend that attended (that we know of). The weather forecast kept many boats at the dock and slammed a number of the ones that went out. Check out roundthecounty.com for race results and stay tuned for the race stories! Until Kathy and the crew update their story, you can read a fun story from Ben Braden whose Moore 24 finished second in class behind MARTHA and 6th overall here. Photos lifted from [...]
Alexandra Cup 2011, Tight Racing in Bigger Breeze
ACE leads LADY VAN in the breezier conditions of this year's Alexandra Cup for R Boats. For two years we have watched LADY VAN dominate in the lighter winds on Port Townsend Bay. Now it appears ACE is coming into her own in the higher breezes facing the boats this year at the Alexandra Cup for R Boats in Vancouver at the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club. To quote ContenderCAN2399 on Sailing Anarchy, "Great to see how the design choices made in the 20's (what combo of length, sail area and displacement to chose) are playing out in the [...]
Classic Mariners Regatta
[singlepic id=298 w=640 h=480 float=center] 2010 Classic Mariners Regatta, photo M. Berman They are calling for Sun and temperatures in the 70’s this weekend. We hope you are planning to come for the Classic Mariners Regatta. If you don’t have a wood boat of your own, there are plenty of people looking for crew (and we are talking about some fast boats here!) Come to the skippers meeting to connect with the skippers in need: Saturday morning at 9:30 am at the NW Maritime Center above the boat shop. You can still register at the Welcome Party Friday night 6:30-10. [...]
The R-Boats Are Coming
We hope to have the R-boats in Port Townsend for this June’s Classic Mariners Regatta. R-Boat racing started on the West Coast in 1912 and was very active up until 1940. Most major Yacht clubs had at least one in their stall and they raced for the Seattle Lipton Cup, the Isherwood Trophy, and others, with Seattle Yacht Club’s R-Boat, Sir Tom, dominating the fleet for over 14 years. The fleet racing died on the West Coast after WWII and was not seen again until our own Wooden Boat Festival in 2010. There are now three completed, restored, [...]
2011 Shipwrights Photos from Craig Wester
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CALLING ALL WOODEN BOAT OWNERS
CALLING ALL WOODEN BOAT OWNERS Port Townsend Sailing Association is reviving wooden boat racing on the Bay this year with the First Annual Sirens Wooden Boat Series. Working in partnership with the Wooden Boat Foundation/NW Maritime Center, there will be 6 races this spring and summer open only to our amazing fleet of wood hulled sailboats. The races will be held on: Saturday April 2 at noon Saturday May 7 at approx. 1:30 following the Opening Day Sail Pass Saturday June 5- 2 races in the afternoon as part of the Classic Mariners Regatta Sunday June 6-1 race [...]
Meeting Meteor
When the doors to Sea Marine opened for the Wooden Boat Festival, there was Meteor. The revolutionary 38-foot Meteor was designed and built in 1938 by the Jensen family, owners of Seattle’s Jensen Motorboat Company, for themselves. With double-planked hull and triple-planked superstructure, she has a beautifully flared bow and torpedo-like stern, far ahead of her time. The “streamlined” Meteor was cutting edge boat design in 1938 for she had hardly a straight line and absolutely no sharp corners. To some eyes, she reminds you most of Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion car of 1933. The Jensens had [...]
First West Coast R-Class Race in 70 Years
The first West Coast fleet race for R-Class yachts in 70 years took place on Port Townsend Bay on Friday, September 11th. In light air and a building flood they struggled out to the Pt Hudson buoy, spinnaker reached back along town to the "Y" buoy on the west end of Boat Haven, found a small wind line to the Tower, and beat back to the line. Lady Van took the horn followed by Aloha and Pirate. From the deck of the committee boat, Ev & Susan Diehl's Azure, the order of finish seemed less important than the [...]
Alexandra Cup Contestants Arrive in PT for WBF
With Aloha and Lady Van already in PT and Pirate on the way, this promises to be a very special WBF weekend on the Bay. If you have not seen these boats, you owe it to yourself to head to Pt Hudson and take a look. While the 6 Meters are essentially half-size 12 Meters, the R Boats are 1/3rd size J-Class boats and from the same era. In this case, 1/3rd size means 40 feet long and 9000 lbs displacement, of which 6000 lbs is in the keel. The other 3000 lbs supports a huge sail plan [...]
Classic Mariners Regatta
Just a reminder, the Classic Mariners Regatta is this weekend. Welcome party at 6:30 at the NWMC boat shop. Last minute sign ups for the Regatta accepted.
Boat Wins! Boat Wins!
This morning it was announced that the schooner Adventuress will be awarded $125,000 as people all over the world Voted for the Boat. The campaign that Sound Experience and their Board put together was impressive. Not only will the Adventuress benefit from this award but it seems likely that the Port Townsend marine trades will as well. Three cheers, too, for American Express and Partners in Preservation for a wonderfully designed and implemented public relations event that raised awareness of the importance of preserving our historic treasures while putting the sponsors in the best light. Because of the closeness of [...]
Vote For the Boat!
In case you didn't get Kiwi's email this morning, Vote For the Boat! Only three days left and we're in a tight race with a building. Three More Voting Days Left!! We can't do this without your votes so please try and vote every day up to and including this coming Wednesday. Let all your email contacts know that we are down to the wire and need to really put on the pressure to win this competition and $125,000 from American Express. Any non voters who want to join in and help us obtain this goal please feel [...]
Vote for the Boat!
From a nice note from Elizabeth Becker ... Hello, PT Sailors! For those of you who haven’t heard, I’m delighted to announce that Adventuress is one of only twenty-five historic sites in the Puget Sound region vying for a portion of one million dollars in grant funds from the National Trust for Historic Preservation and American Express. It’s an online voting campaign and if Adventuress wins, Sound Experience is guaranteed $100,000 to spend on restoration (and shipwrights!) next winter. And right now, Adventuress is in FIRST PLACE! It's all about who gets the most votes, and we need [...]
For sale: Neil Young’s exquisite old boat
From Three Sheets NW, the Ragland is for sale again including some nice photos and a recent history of this former resident of Boat Haven. By Deborah Bach on April 26th, 2010 Walter Wallace makes one thing clear from the outset: he doesn’t like to talk about Neil Young. Yes, Wallace bought the sailboat he’s now selling from the Canadian rock legend. Yes, he’s met him. But if you’re looking for stories about when Neil Young owned the boat, how he used it, what rock luminaries might have been entertained onboard or anything along those lines, well, you’re out of [...]
Bringing Back American Classics
From Kimball Livingston’s always interesting blog, Blue Planet Times, Published: March 8, 2010 With classic American racing yachts, there’s more than one meaning to the phrase, bring’em back. Any wood boat that’s been out there a while will surely have been “brought back” one time or more through restoration procedures that we can reasonably hope are unreasonably fanatical. There’s also: Bring’em back home. Dorade, courtesy Sparkman & Stephens Association For a while it seemed that all our classic raceboats were off to the Med. Lately, less so. I knew I had to write about this when I heard that Dorade [...]
In Praise of Martha and Her Crew
[singlepic id=45 w=465 h=365 float=center] The following article ran last November in the new Northwest boating site, Three Sheets Northwest, to celebrate Port Townsend’s own schooner Martha’s victory in the recent Round the County race. In case you missed it, here’s the article and some pictures by Sean Trew of Pacific Fog. […]
19th Annual WBF Shipwright’s Regatta February 20th
Mark your calendars for the WBF Shipwright’s Regatta, this coming February 20th Start your boating season with this traditional Port Townsend regatta. Lots of fun prizes and wacky awards. Boats of all construction welcome! Skippers Meeting at 9 am at the NW Maritime Center/Wooden Boat Foundation. Race starts at 11:30 on Port Townsend Bay. Awards at the Shanghai Restaurant at 4:30. There will be a Racing, Cruising, and Inshore small boat class. […]