Salish Sea Again

[David Patterson]

Be careful of what you ask for Robert. I'm at the Port Townsend Annual Wooden Boat Festival, and could post 3-5 photos every hour. I won't, however.

[David Patterson]

I hope these photos are of some general interest. The Port Townsend festival opens today, but the boats gathered yesterday. Here are small, medium, and large examples. First is a little water-bug-sized craft of immense charm. I like the captain's chair by the outboard. Second is a jewel-quality Friendship sloop that Paul had me aboard two years ago in Fossil Bay of Sucia, at a gathering of small boats. Exquisite. Note the solid fuel heater's Charlie Noble. Last are two of the big guys. To the left is a Canadian tall ship, whose name was obscured in my poor stern photo. To the right is the bow of VICTORIA V, 125' on deck, built 1922, well-restored. You can find her info on line. The range of craft, and the general high quality, quickly reinforces the awareness that the wooden boat-building art yet flourishes. It all heightens my appreciation of my own durable and well-considered Alberg design, as did her management of the 25 plus knot winds that blew her into Admiralty Inlet from Juan de Fuca Strait, a couple of days ago. Sunny, in the low 70's. Light airs.

[David Patterson]

More bits. A window in a big schooner. No right angles here! Also my dinghy track across a tide flat, CLOUD GIRL to the left. I had to make a program time so couldn't wait on the tide. Last, here is why one anchors out a ways, around Port Townsend. This boat will likely pound in the ship wakes when the flood comes.

[David Patterson]

A jungle of wooden boats in the closely packed festival marina, first. Next, a local foundry creates "bench cleats." Last, craftsman's hand tools in a boatwright's shop.

[David Patterson]

One presentatation at the festival was a half hour (limited) film titled The Unknown Salish Sea, or something close. Here is the definitional look at the 17000 square miles of water, the watershed marked by a brown line. Conservation efforts are promising, but challenging, as is true everywhere. My own cruising has been in the middle third. I have plans to cruise to the area near that large island, Texada, in the Strait of Georgia within weeks, as well as cruising some of the west coast of Vancouver Island (perhaps) next summer. In this large area there are places I will likely never get into, regrettably. A link to this map (can't call this a chart) is here: https://huxley.wwu.edu/sites/huxley.wwu ... ea_125.jpg

[David Patterson]

Seen at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival: a finally-crafted variation on an ancient boat design, the coracle or bull boat, depending on the continent; a youngster on a playful wooden boat (Lookout! She's filling that squirter again!); Mt Baker seems part of the flotilla, as big wooden schooners and other boats enjoy good wind out in Admiralty Inlet, as seen from Point Hudson.

[David Patterson]

With your patience, I intend to post a few more times about the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival, and be done with it. The last day ends with a sail-by. My conservative estimate was of a hundred boats under sail. I'll show a few of the boats docked, then some under sail. Here are photos of the SPRAY replica JOSHUA. Each time I've been aboard I've been impressed with the size. I imagine Slocum handling her around Cape Horn, and marvel. His largest anchor weighed 140 pounds, I think. The last photo is from above, from the bow of VIRGINIA V, and shows some of the docked boats.

[David Patterson]

A copper-fastened long boat hull, a translucent "skin" boat, and a public service info board.

[David Patterson]

The climax of the boat festival is the Sail-By. The numbers and nature of the sailing craft were overwhelming to me. Here are a yawl with a junk-rigged main, and big ADVENTURESS, selected from the many, from tiny gaff-riggers to the square-rigged LADY WASHINGTON. The last photo shows a portion of the Sail-By flotilla south of Point Wilson during a bit of a lull. I was aboard a 29' on-deck owner-designed and built pilot-boat cutter, trucked in from Salt Lake City to the Salish Sea, earlier in the season, crewing for the young couple who built her. I showed RABANNAH last week. [Okay, no more about the boat show.]

[tjr818]

I hope these photos are of some general interest. The Port Townsend festival opens today, but the boats gathered yesterday. Here are small, medium, and large examples. First is a little water-bug-sized craft of immense charm. I like the captain's chair by the outboard....

HI David,
That little boat sure looks like the hull of a Great Pelican, designed by Capt. Short out of San Francisco.

Great Pelican.jpg (11.47 KiB) Viewed 922 times

[David Patterson]

I'm sure you are right, Tim. It may have been named PELICAN, if I can trust my recall. Excellent little craft.

[David Patterson]

I took this photo on a friend's boat, while lying on my back on the cabin top. I like the mix of fluid curves together with the strict geometry of mast and shrouds. The other photo is of the open waters of Juan de Fuca Strait, as I motor-sailed across in light airs. It usually doesn't look like this at all, at least not when I've crossed. I've only crossed six times, three in each direction, over the eastern end.

[David Patterson]

Another quote, this one from Slocum's Sailing Alone Around the World. He is setting out across the Atlantic from Nova Scotia, in 1894. He writes:
"During these days a feeling of awe crept over me. My memory worked with startling power. The ominous, the insignificant, the great, the small, the wonderful, the commonplace --all appeared before my mental vision in magical succession. Pages of my history were recalled which had been so long forgotten that they seemed to belong to a previous existence. I heard all the voices of the past laughing, crying, telling what I had heard them tell in many corners of the earth."
Perhaps anyone who has sailed single-handed for very long can relate to this aspect of Slocum's experience. I know I can, to a degree. I've often wondered how I might feel, setting out to cross an ocean alone.

[David Patterson]

A useful anchoring technique, especially in rough conditions, is to set up some nylon line as a spring line or shock line on an all-chain rode. I've called them snub lines. Earl R. Hines in his Complete Book of Anchoring and Mooring references chain-riding stoppers. Here is an illustration from his interesting book, worth reading. Notice what he calls a "lazy loop." Enough of a loop needs to be left to allow the three strand nylon line to fully stretch out. By doing so, the chain will not snub under high strain, jerking hard on the head fitting and bow roller, and on whatever the chain is cleated to aboard. Ideally there will be enough catenary curve in the chain to prevent such snubbing anyway. Situations are not always ideal. Below are two photos of boats to port and starboard in my current anchorage, neither one of which has left a lazy loop. Their snub lines, not under any strain in the photos, are useless without a lazy chain loop to allow the line to stretch. Only illustration C shows a proper lazy loop, and it may be too small. Nylon is pretty stretchy. 17% comes to mind, but I may not have that correct.

[David Patterson]

In my inexperience I had not realized one other --most likely-- possibility illustrated in the photos of my last post. Probably those two boats are using the nylon lines straight-forwardly as chain stops, making for an easy adjustment of the length of chain let out. The question of how to secure the bitter end of the rode has interesting considerations, of course. I wonder what would happen if one of their lines became un-hooked during pitching. Would all of their chain then run out? Chain can shoot overboard rapidly. "Hooks" are less secure than "claws" on chain, apparently. One of the boats had a very well chafe-protected line.