PORT TOWNSEND — One of the most prominent tall ships in operation is spending its down time in the Port Townsend Boat Haven this week as a two-week repair period finishes up.
After appearing at the Wooden Boat Festival earlier this month, the Lady Washington was hauled out of the water for maintenance and repairs aimed at refurbishing the propeller and repainting the hull, according to Capt. Ken Lazarus.
Upon inspection, several bad planks on the port side were discovered and needed to be replaced, Lazarus said.
Current plans are to put the ship back into the water at around 1 p.m. Thursday.
The vessel operates year-round educational programs from San Diego to Canada, Lazarus said.
“This is living history,” he said.
“And we want to let kids know there are career opportunities in the maritime industry.”
On Monday, crew members were sanding and patching up spots on the hull in preparation for painting, which is one of the last steps before the ship goes back into the water.
During its time in Port Townsend, there will be a switch between the summer and the winter crew, which will begin with seven members — about half strength — and recruit more along the way.
Launched in 1989 as part of the Washington centennial celebrations, Lady Washington was designed by Ray Wallace as a replica of one of the first U.S. flagged vessels to explore the west coast of North America.
The original Lady Washington was built in the 1750s near Boston and sailed around Cape Horn in 1788 to trade furs with the First Nations peoples of Vancouver Island.
The modern version is 112 feet long overall, 22 feet wide, and her main mast rises 89 feet from the water.
The ship was named the state’s tall-ship ambassador by the Legislature in 2007 and sails to more than 40 ports a year in Washington, Oregon and California.
The ship, based in Aberdeen, has appeared in several movies, including “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” in 2003.
The Lady Washington is at the southernmost part of the Boat Haven, two spaces down from where the Western Flyer, once used by author John Steinbeck, has been stored for the past 18 months.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
