PORT TOWNSEND — Call it a labor of love — an awful lot of love, which is what it has taken Marc Landry to restore his 55-foot Patrol No. 1, just in time for its centennial year.
The boat was built to conduct fire patrols in Seattle Harbor and was “armed” with three water cannons.
The Seattle Harbor Police launched it into service in 1914, an event commemorated with a later cover shot on Pacific Motor Boat and Motor Ship, a trade publication of the time.
Landry, a Canadian native whose career has taken him as far as the oil fields of Texas, said he’d been looking for a boat for some time when he first ran across Patrol No. 1 in Roche Harbor in 2008.
He took it home to Parksville, B.C., recaulked it and moored it.
He asked a boat surveyor to take a look and heard words that were music to his ears: “He said it was the finest 100-year-old boat he’d seen in a long time,” Landry said.
Unfortunately — or in the end, perhaps fortunately — Landry moored it in Parksville adjacent to several much larger boats.
The big boys managed to chew up Patrol No. 1 pretty good, he said.
“She started taking on too much water,” Landry said. “I had to do something.”
He asked around and heard good things about the boat yard in Port Townsend.
Landry figured a few months in town would do to whip the old boat back into shape.
That was just shy of four years ago.
“I realized the hull had to be refastened,” he said.
“And then I decided to replace some things while she was out of the water.”
Since then, he’s replaced and sistered 40 frames, and rebuilt the entire stern and parts of the keel.
The deck is now being redone. The old water and fuel tanks have been replaced with six new stainless steel units, each holding about 100 gallons.
He also added a new water cannon, a 3-inch unit that can throw water more than 500 feet.
He had a good reason for adding it: “Fun,” he said.
Landry has kept the boat’s engine. It isn’t original, but it is also a vintage unit, a Caterpillar D-13,0000M built in 1937.
The engine, based on a bulldozer design, can drive the boat at speeds up to 12 knots.
Landry said he’s just about ready to relaunch Patrol No. 1, this time as a charter boat.
He said the work has cost him just under $200,000 and “three years and eight months of my life.”
A new appreciation
Landry has done most of the work himself, crawling through nook and cranny.
He said his background in science and math helped but added that he has a newfound appreciation for the art and craft of boat-building.
He said he’s also been fortunate to have the occasional assistance of local boat-builder and restoration specialist Bob Cunningham.
Landry recently received some unanticipated aid from Jeremy Kraemer, who makes his livliehood in fine arts.
Based in Park City, Utah, Kraemer visited Port Townsend to draw and paint some of the boats parked along the shore.
With their shared enthusiasm for woodworking and boat-making, the two soon became friends.
Kraemer enthusiastically agreed to lend a hand.
“I’m a fellow woodworker,” he said. “And anyone who is a woodworker is going to find boat-building fascinating.”
In the end, Kraemer never got around to painting but instead spent several weeks working on Patrol No. 1.
“I just found it fascinating that something so old, and has been through so much, is still ticking,” he said.
“For a fine artist and a history buff, this is a really interesting thing.”
Long-lived love
For Landry, working on Patrol No. 1 is just the latest adventure in a longtime love affair with boats.
He first stepped on a deck more than 30 years ago when he went to work as a geoduck diver.
“It was a 127-foot tug built in 1944,” he said. “I’ve been hooked ever since.”
But he admits Patrol No. 1 is different.
“I have a new appreciation of woodworkers, boat-builders. It’s an all-encompassing job.”
Through his restoration work, he said, “I’m discovering what she is. I’m becoming aware of what she is.
“She is in my bones, I’ll tell you.”
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Reporter Mark Couhig can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at mcouhig@peninsuladailynews.com.
