THE TIME IS nigh to mark calendars for the 34th annual Wooden Boat Festival, which will be held Sept. 10-12 in Port Townsend.
This year’s event features nearly 300 vessels totaling more than 8,000 linear feet of wood craftsmanship. More than 100 of these boats will be displayed for the first time.
The largest boat on display will be Adventuress, the 133-foot schooner that’s a Port Townsend landmark.
She was built in 1913, and a year later began a 35-year career as a pilot schooner in San Francisco Bay with the San Francisco Bar Pilots Association.
She also saw World War II service with the Coast Guard.
The smallest power boat, at 12 feet, 6 inches long, will be Speeder III, built by Mike Sabin of Port Angeles.
Speeder III is built off a set of plans that Mike saw in a 1951 Popular Mechanics magazine.
The hull is a Hacker Craft design that evolved after World War II that was the basis for the 125 class of speedboat racers.
It was no coincidence that this class of competitors was able to use military-surplus Willys four cylinder engines as well as Ford V-8, 60 horsepower flathead engines for their power plants.
Mike built his first boat of this design a few years ago with a 96-horsepower Subaru engine, which was direct drive.
The helm was moved as far aft as practicable with the engine mounted forward. Mike said the boat was too scary fast for him, so he sold it and began working on the next version.
The second time around, Mike reconfigured the placement of the cockpit and rebuilt the transom to support an outboard motor.
Once completed, there were still a couple of tweaks Mike felt would enhance his “sports car on water,” so that, too, was sold.
Now he is applying the finishing touches to Speeder III.
Sitka spruce frame
The stringers, frame and deck beams of Speeder III are built of aircraft quality Sitka spruce and the hull is constructed of Ecumi plywood that is covered with a layer of epoxy.
The deck is Honduran planked mahogany; the cockpit was upholstered by Skip Hicks.
The speedboat is powered by a four-cylinder, twin carburetor 1959 Mercury Mark 35A outboard motor.
Mike purchased the outboard on eBay from the son of the original owner who had just completely rebuilt the bottom end.
The motor has a dent-free chrome cowling — the only model year for this feature — and a new set of original Mercury decals Mike was able to acquire online.
Visitors to the Wooden Boat Festival will have the opportunity to speak with Mike about Speeder III, ask him about the changes he might make if there is a next time around (for which he has all the materials), or perhaps chat with him about another project he has been working on in his boat house at the Port Angeles Boat Haven for the past two years — the restoration of a Grand Banks 42.
Load of logs
STX Harmony, a 590-foot, Panamanian-flagged log ship, pulled into Port of Port Angeles’ Terminal 3 last week.
She is the sixth log ship to make port this year for a cargo of logs that were harvested off private lands in Western Washington.
The previous five ships were loaded from log booms from the waterside of the vessels.
This time, STX Harmony was loaded pier-side.
The change in loading protocol was dictated by the customers’ requirements that this current load of logs be free of bark.
Consequently, all of the logs were taken to the Peninsula Plywood mill and run through its stripping machine.
When it came time to load the debarked logs, PenPly loaded log trucks with the product, then it was driven over to the terminal to the west.
A couple of LeTourneau log stackers were used to hoist the logs off the trucks. The logs were then placed onto log bunks, where longshore personnel wrapped a pair of slings around them, and the crane operator aboard ship hoisted the load and placed it into one of the ship’s five holds.
In total, about 2.7 million board feet of logs were loaded.
When STX Harmony left this weekend, she headed for Aberdeen, where she will be topped of with another million board feet or more of logs and then get under way for South Korea.
Out in the harbor
Alaskan Explorer, a 941 foot crude oil tanker, is riding her hook in Port Angeles Harbor this weekend.
According to Chandra “Hollywood” McGoff of Washington Marine Repair, the topside repair company at the foot of Cedar Street, personnel are onboard for the weekend installing new equipment cabinets.
She is scheduled to get under way Monday — cabinets and all — for Valdez, Alaska.
In the boat yard
Platypus Marine is working on Siren Song, a Pan Oceanic 43 sailboat designed by noted naval architect Ted Brewer.
She is sitting on the hard in the boat yard at the Boat Haven.
According to Capt. Charlie Crane, director of sales and marketing, Platypus is repairing some fiberglass blisters on the hull and then giving her a new coat of bottom paint as well as installing a new transducer.
Capt. Charlie also said crews are working on a state Fish and Wildlife vessel, WDFW 2.
She is a 43-foot Delta, and personnel will be fabricating new brackets for electronic equipment.
Refueling report
Last Sunday, Tesoro Petroleum refueled Magnum Energy, a 623-foot bulk cargo ship that is flagged in the Marshall Islands.
On Monday, Tesoro bunkered Intrepid. She, too, is a 623-foot bulk cargo ship and is scheduled to moor in Singapore on Sept. 13.
Later in the day, Tesoro refueled Front Delta, an 849-foot petroleum products carrier.
On Friday, Tesoro had their fuel barge alongside SP5 Eric G. Gibson, a 652-foot cargo ship that was at one time under contract to the Military Sealift Command.
The Gibson was named after Tech 5 Eric G. Gibson, a Medal of Honor recipient who served in the Quartermaster Corps during World War II as a company cook with the 30th Infantry Regiment.
On Jan. 28, 1944, near the village of Isola Bella, Italy, Gibson’s company came under enemy attack.
He mobilized a tiny squad of replacements to rush out and secure the unit’s right flank – and in so doing, destroyed four enemy positions, killing 5 and capturing 2 Germans.
He then went out about 150 feet in front of the squad, and dodging automatic weapons fire, he singlehandedly knocked out another position with his machine pistol.
Tech 5 Gibson continued moving toward other bunkers firing a submachine gun with almost every step forward, as enemy artillery began to zero in on his position.
Refusing to stop his advance, he crawled 410 feet through a concentrated artillery and small-arms barrage, and dropped two hand grenades into a German machine-gun emplacement.
In his final face-to-face engagement with the enemy, the company cook was mortally wounded.
How does fate find these people of uncommon courage and valor?
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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.
