The Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding in Port Hadlock has launched a Whitehall pulling boat that was built by the students in the Traditional Small Craft class in 2011 and 2012 that was taught by Jack Becker and Ray Speck, respectively.
The plans for the boat are from Alderbrook, a Whitehall that was purchased new in San Francisco in 1906.
They were developed in a 2010 training session at Cama Beach State Park on Camano Island that was designed to teach the participants how to record a vessel’s lines for the Historic American Engineering Record — or HAER — for inclusion in the Library of Congress.
HAER is a program administered by the National Park Service and maintained by the Library of Congress that documents, among other things, engineering achievements, buildings, ships and small-craft design in the United States and its territories.
HAER and its counterparts, the Historic Buildings Survey, HABS, and the Historic Landscape Survey, HALS, are among the largest and most heavily used collections in the prints and photographs division of the Library of Congress.
These three archives alone include more than 556,900 measured drawings, large-format photographs and written histories for more than 38,600 classic structures, vessels and sites.
Numerous sites on the Olympic Peninsula have been documented in the HABS database.
The material in these extensive databases is free and available to the public online via http://tinyurl.com/habs-haer.
Participants in the training session learned to record the historic vessel’s lines using modern surveying equipment.
Typically, a boat’s lines are recorded manually, and the methodology for doing so is part of the curriculum at the school.
However, it is a painstakingly complex process that can take days for even a small craft such as the Whitehall.
By contrast, using current surveying techniques, the time taken to perform the task can be whittled down to a few hours, if not a few minutes, depending on the type of recording equipment used.
The school’s clone of the original Whitehall is 16 feet 2 inches long with a 4-foot 2-inch beam.
It was built with a white oak stem and keel and a mahogany transom, and planked with western red cedar.
In keeping with the original’s adornment, her mahogany sheerstrake is varnished — “finished bright,” as is said in maritime parlance — and is a classic touch often found on surviving vintage Whitehalls and a sure sign of a proud owner.
Alderbrook was owned by the same family since her purchase in 1906, and within the past couple of years, the family donated her to the Center for Wooden Boats on Lake Union.
She has since been donated to the San Francisco Maritime Museum, where Alderbrook resides in the museum’s small-craft collection.
Whitehalls are an American boat developed from craft used aboard the ships of the British Royal Navy in the early 19th century.
They were initially built in and around New York and Boston, and were subsequently brought around Cape Horn to the West Coast, where construction began in earnest on the vessels at the dawning of the 20th century.
During the height of their popularity, Whitehalls were known as fast, capable boats — adaptable to either oars or sails — and in their various forms were used to carry harbor pilots out to inbound clipper ships, water taxis and to deliver cargo to ships at anchorage.
Diamond anniversary
The Port Angeles Yacht Club was formed in 1937, and for the first 23 years, members held their meetings in the Legion Hall on Ediz Hook.
Since 1961, the yacht club has been meeting in its current location at the north side of the parking lot behind Castaways Restaurant on Marine Drive.
From its inception, the club has been led by a board of directors, and in keeping with its maritime theme, the board is referred to as the bridge.
The figurehead and public face of the club is the commodore, who this year is Bob Morrison.
To celebrate the club’s 75th anniversary, Commodore Morrison and the bridge are inviting the public to join them at an open house at their clubhouse on Marine Drive from noon to 3 p.m. this coming Saturday, May 5.
Club members will be on hand with membership information and to talk about various boating and cruising events in which the club engages throughout the year.
Free Coast Guard vessel safety checks will be available to anyone who arrives at the event towing a boat.
Additional recreational maritime-related activities and associations will also be in attendance, including the United States Power Squadron, Clallam County Family YMCA and the Olympic Peninsula Rowing Association.
Expert sawing
Jim Tolpin, co-founder of the Port Townsend School of Woodworking, will be the featured guest at Wooden Boat Wednesday this week at Port Townsend’s Northwest Maritime Center & Wooden Boat Foundation.
The topic Jim will speak on, “How to Saw from an Expert’s Eye,” provides an introduction to the tools and skill of hand sawing.
He will offer a woodworker’s perspective on the use of Western-style — as opposed to Asian-style — hand saws for working in wood.
Wednesday’s presentation will focus on the many different sizes and shapes of wood saws and the different types of cuts they make.
Jim also will show the audience how to sharpen these saws and how to maintain them so the tools will last for generations.
Jim has been a professional cabinetmaker, boat and residential finish carpenter for more than 40 years, and has written a number of books on these topics.
His latest is The New Traditional Woodworker.
Jim also teaches courses on hand-tool woodworking and design methodologies at the Port Townsend School of Woodworking at Fort Worden State Park.
I suspect that anyone with an interest in collecting or using traditional Western hand tools will enjoy his talk.
Wooden Boat Wednesday is a free event that begins promptly at noon and typically lasts for 90 minutes.
Seating is limited and requires advance registration by phoning the Northwest Maritime Center, 431 Water St., Port Townsend, at 360-385-3628, ext. 101.
Or send an email to chandlery@nwmaritime.org.
Boat delivery
Lee Shore Boats has delivered an aluminum landing craft that was built at its facility east of Port Angeles.
The 24-foot-long vessel is powered by twin 115-horsepower Honda outboard motors and has a wheelhouse that can be accessed on three sides.
Eric Schneider, the owner of Lee Shore Boats, said the landing craft was built for Net@Venture in Olympia.
She was delivered last week.
The vessel will be used on tidelands Net@Venture owns to grow geoducks commercially.
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David G. Sellars is a Port Angeles resident and former Navy boatswain’s mate who enjoys boats and strolling the waterfronts.
Items involving boating, port activities and the North Olympic Peninsula waterfronts are always welcome.
Email dgsellars@
hotmail.com or phone him at 360-808-3202.
His column, On the Waterfront, appears every Sunday.
