PORT TOWNSEND — With the summer sailing season just around the bend, three classic wooden boats are clearing their decks for visitors to raise interest in opportunities to take to the water, including scholarships for youth sail training.
“We can take a lot of local kids sailing,” Holly Kays said. “Any kid that’s interested should apply.”
Kays and her husband, Capt. Robert D’Arcy, operate the Martha, a 1907 schooner that started life as the flagship for the San Francisco Yacht Club.
Martha and two other sailboats will be open Saturday for young visitors to view — and possibly sail aboard.
Now the oldest working sailboat in Washington state, Martha is run by a nonprofit organization that has received grants for youth sail training and is in line for a grant specifically for Olympic Peninsula residents ages 12 to 18, Kays said.
“It’s really neat because there’re a lot of youth who never get out on the water,” Kays said.
“It’s great to get kids out to the islands and give them a different perspective on what it’s like around here.”
Open enrollment
While Martha offers sail training for adults, it focuses on youth trips in the summer, Kays said.
Most of the youth sail training is open enrollment, with one-, two- and three-week trips available, she said.
“This year we’re doing a three-week trip to the San Juans, Gulf Islands and Desolation Sound,” Kays said. “We’re also doing a trip in May in tandem with Alcyone.”
The granddaddy of local sail training — this is its 17th year — Alcyone is a gaff-rigged schooner that carries 11 sets of sails.
Operated by Capt. Sugar Flanagan, Leslie McNish and their two daughters, it has sailed the seven seas but returns to home port at the Port Townsend Boat Haven regularly, where it serves as the family home.
In the summer, the family invites youth groups aboard for sail training, and is planning a trip to the San Juan Islands for 12- to 13-year-olds, plus cruises to Desolation Sound and Barclay Sound.
“Desolation Sound behind Vancouver Island is a great cruising destination — the water warms up, and there are deep fiords,” McNish said.
“Barclay Sound takes us through the straits and out into the ocean and is a comeback trip for the older youth.”
Shore excursions
Alcyone is 85 feet overall, but carries three dories and a skiff for shore excursions, offering big-boat sailing, rowing and small-boat sailing, she said.
“There’s lots to learn and lots to do,” McNish said.
The third boat open for tour Saturday is the Bryony, a 45-foot gaff cutter which is moored at the Point Hudson Marina at the end of Water Street.
Owned by MacRae and Ellen Wylde, Bryony is modeled after a turn-of-the-century Bristol pilot boat and was built at Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding in Jefferson County.
The Wyldes focus on adult sail training, and offer a five-day session from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily for people who can’t be gone a whole week.
