ONE OF THE
behemoths which transport crude from Alaska to the Puget Sound area, Polar Endeavour, will dock at the Port of Port Angeles’ Terminal 1 North on Monday.
The 854-foot oil tanker will be in port for routine maintenance and upkeep.
She will be undergoing her annual Coast Guard-mandated Critical Area Inspection Program.
Each of the ship’s oil tanks will be filled with water, and inspectors will maneuver about the tanks in a small boat to check critical areas for cracks using non-destructive testing methods.
This process, called rafting the tanks, typically takes about 4 to 5 days to complete for a ship of this size.
Once testing is finished, Roy McKay and his personnel at Straits Marine and Industrial will make any recommended repairs.
Port stays busy
The day after the Polar Endeavour docks, Sun Ruby, a 580-foot log ship that hails from Hong Kong, will moor astern of the tanker at the Port of Port Angeles T-Pier for about five days.
This is the fourth log ship to make port this year for cargo bound for South Korea.
Merrill & Ring, the North Olympic Peninsula-based forest products company, will again be supplying the ship with much of the cargo that was harvested from their private land holdings in Western Washington.
There is a number of other suppliers who have been transporting and storing their logs at the port’s log dump on Marine Drive whose product will be loaded onboard as well.
Visitor en route
Last Sunday, Contessa was tied up to Port Angeles City Pier.
She is a 104-foot, shallow-draft aluminum boat built by Nichols Brothers Boat Builders in 1986 at their facility on Whidbey Island.
Until the conclusion of the summer season of 2008, the twin-hull vessel was used as a 48-passenger yacht-style “cruise ship” sailing between Ketchikan and Sitka, Alaska.
She visited out-of-the-way places and stayed off the beaten path, affording guests up-close and personal viewing of glaciers and wildlife.
For the past two years, Contessa has been mothballed in Portland, Ore.
Allen Marine of Sitka purchased her a short time ago, and the boat is now on her way there to undergo a complete inspection of her electronic and propulsion systems.
Some renovations may be in the offing, but that decision has yet to be made.
According to Jamey Cagle of Allen Marine, Contessa will become part of Allen’s fleet next season and used for overnight cruises in Southeast Alaska.
Allen Marine is an aluminum boat manufacturer and has built its own fleet of 27 vessels that are used to conduct boat excursions in Juneau, Sitka and Ketchikan.
In addition, it also built 19 fast ferries that are in current use in New York Harbor.
Two boats launched
Port Angeles’ local aluminum boat fabricator, Armstrong Marine, located next to the race track on U.S. Highway 101 between Port Angeles and Sequim, launched two boats last week.
J A B is a 34-foot catamaran built for Brayton Pointner of Vancouver, Wash. The boat is powered by twin diesel Cummins that generate a combined 1,000 horsepower that drive Hamilton Jet Drives, which push the boat along at a stout 34 knots.
Brayton will use the boat as a hydrographic survey vessel and works primarily for NOAA mapping the sea floor.
Judy J V is also a 34-foot catamaran and is the third boat built by Armstrong for the Dinh family of Sidney, B.C., who fish the deep waters off the coast of Vancouver Island for crab.
Coming out
Evivva, the second mega-yacht built by Westport Shipyard in its Port Angeles plant, is due to be hauled out of the harbor Monday morning at 7:30.
The 164-foot tri-deck yacht, which is owned by Orin Edson, the majority stockholder of Westport Shipyard, long ago passed the two-year warranty period, so it is reasonable to surmise that she will be at Westport for her annual inspections, maintenance and no doubt some upgrades.
The cost of maintaining and staffing yachts is roughly 10 percent of the yacht’s purchase price, which in this case well exceeded $30 million.
A hefty chunk of those maintenance costs will undoubtedly be spent during the time she is hanging in the slings of Westport’s 550-ton TraveLift.
Fishing boat fix-up
Platypus Marine Inc. hauled the fishing vessel, North, out of the water, and she is sitting on the hard in their yard.
She is an 86-year-old wooden fishing boat that is 62 feet long and hails from Neah Bay.
Capt. Charlie Crane, Platypus’ director of sales and marketing, said personnel are repairing the mast, doing some miscellaneous welding and carpentry repairs, and installing transducers and new aluminum trawling poles.
Pacific Concept, also a commercial fishing vessel, is in the Commander Building.
She hails from Victoria and came across the Strait to have repairs made to her interior windows, new zincs installed and a fresh coat of bottom paint.
Mariner, a 50-foot Ocean Alexander power boat, is on the hard to be waxed and polished. She will also get a new set of zincs and new bottom paint.
Charade, a 58-foot Hatteras yacht, is having repairs made to the gelcoat, a new coat of bottom paint and the boat will completely waxed and polished.
Tatoosh, a 38-foot Munson that is under contract to NOAA, will be in the Commander Building for the next two weeks.
Her hull as well as the port and starboard side of the house will be sandblasted and repainted.
The hydraulic system will be evaluated and repairs made as necessary, and the Caterpillar engines and Hamilton Jet Drives are scheduled for their annual maintenance.
Fueling in the harbor
On Tuesday, Tesoro Petroleum in Port Angeles refueled Overseas Boston as she headed to San Francisco.
She is a 576-foot petroleum products carrier that is under contract to Tesoro Petroleum Corp.
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David G. Sellars is a Port Angeles resident and former Navy boatswain’s mate who enjoys boats and strolling the waterfront.
Items involving boating, port activities and the North Olympic Peninsula waterfronts are always welcome. E-mail dgsellars@ hotmail.com or phone him at 360-417-3736. His column, On the Waterfront, appears every Sunday.
