Platypus personnel remove a door on the North Building of Platypus' compound on Marine Drive in Port Angeles to allow ingress and egress of Navy barges. David Sellars/for Peninsula Daily News

Platypus personnel remove a door on the North Building of Platypus' compound on Marine Drive in Port Angeles to allow ingress and egress of Navy barges. David Sellars/for Peninsula Daily News

DAVID SELLARS’ ON THE WATERFRONT: Platypus makes room for Navy barge

  • Sunday, August 23, 2015 12:01am
  • News

ON SATURDAY, AUG. 15, Global Striker moored to the Port of Port Angeles’ Terminal 3.

The 587-foot cargo ship spent the week being loaded with approximately 5.2 million board-feet of softwood logs that were harvested off private land in Western Washington.

The vessel was scheduled to leave Port Angeles on Saturday for Dongjiakou, China.

Hale’s Navy, an Ed Monk Sr.-designed 53-foot wooden boat built in 1950 by Morris Shain at his boatyard in Seattle and launched as Periwinkle, is in the Port Angeles Boat Yard. I understand that Mike Evans is working on her engines.

Many constant readers will recall that on Aug. 22, 2013, the wooden vessel sank in her boat house and was hauled out of the water using the boat yard’s TraveLift and hung in the lift’s slings long enough for much of the water to drain from the vessel’s saturated interior.

The owners have long since settled with their insurance company, and the boat has been sold to an individual in Norway who plans on restoring the vessel, doing most of the work himself.

Headed for Norway

I was told that once Mike is through working on the engines, the boat will be taken to Victoria where it will be put aboard a ship and transported to Norway.

Keith Benson of Vashon Island hauled his classic wooden boat, Arro, out of the water and had her sitting on the hard in the Port Angeles Boat Yard for a day while he attached a new set of zincs.

Arro is a 50-foot wooden yacht that was built in 1922 by Barbare Bros. of Tacoma, which shared ownership in the fantail yacht with Herbert A. Hoover.

On March 20, 1933, Arro was moored at the Tacoma Yacht Club when a nearby vessel, Argosy, exploded shortly after taking on nearly 1,000 gallons of gasoline.

In addition to destroying the 54-foot Argosy and killing her owner, Dr. Edward A. Rich, the blast blew off Arro’s wheelhouse.

Keith said it was at this time that the original engine was removed and replaced with an Atlas Imperial diesel that had been previously used by the city of Auburn to generate electricity.

Navy barges

Platypus Marine Inc., the full-service shipyard, yacht-repair facility and steel-boat manufacturer on Marine Drive in Port Angeles, returned the Navy barge YC 1090 to the water.

She had been in one of their satellite buildings the past couple of months getting sandblasted and painted.

Her space in the building was quickly filled by another Navy barge, YC 1569.

This barge too will be sandblasted and painted before it too is returned to Bremerton.

Putting the barges in the satellite building — in this case, the North Building — is no small feat.

First, personnel must remove one of the doors to the building to provide access to the structure.

Then, once the barges are hoisted out of the water, Monroe House Movers places dollies under them to maneuver them in and out of the building.

The barges are open lighter barges that are non-self-propelled steel barges designed to transport cargo in rivers, harbors or other protected waters.

Watertight sections

The craft is divided into watertight compartments. Access to these compartments is through manholes.

I stopped by Lee Shore Boats’ facility on the west side of Port Angeles this week and spoke with company President Eric Schneider.

He and some of his crew were working on a 21-foot spec boat that Eric said has been rumbling around his grey matter for quite some time and now was the time to build.

Eric said that in his mind’s eye, the vessel straddles the line between a sport boat and a commercial boat. Furthermore, Eric believes the boat is ideally suited for the local waters.

This week, Tesoro Petroleum provided bunkers to the U.S. Coast Guard seagoing buoy tender Spar, which is based in Kodiak, Alaska. Spar is named after the Coast Guard women’s reserve also known as Spars from the Latin and English translations of the Coast Guard motto: “Semper paratus” or “Always ready.”

During the early stages of World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt signed legislation that created the Spars.

Women from all over the country jumped at the opportunity to do their part.

They took the oath, attended training, wore the uniform and served in shoreside positions throughout the nation.

_________

David G. Sellars is a Port Angeles resident and former Navy boatswain’s mate who enjoys boats and strolling the area’s waterfronts and boat yards.

Items and questions involving boating, marina and industrial activities and the North Olympic Peninsula waterfronts are always welcome. News announcements about boating groups, including yacht clubs and squadrons, are welcome as well.

Email dgsellars@hotmail.com or phone him at 360-808-3202.

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