PORT TOWNSEND — The gift of a $1.6 million yacht to the Northwest Maritime Center will enable it to expand its educational offerings greatly, said the organization’s executive director.
“Can you believe it?” Jake Beattie said of the gift, which was made in August and announced last week.
“It’s impressive to me when people show that kind of generosity.”
John Shelton, a retired real estate developer who shares his time between Friday Harbor and Patagonia, Ariz., donated a 62-foot Nordhavn motor yacht, the Undine, to the maritime center.
“I’m getting older and thought it was time to slow down a bit,” said Shelton, 86.
“I’m only up here three months out of very year, and I wanted to put it to better use than having it sit around just waiting for me.”
Shelton had owned the vessel since 1997, sailing it to Costa Rica, to Alaska and around the Pacific Northwest.
In addition to the Undine, Shelton donated a 26-foot diesel motor launch/workboat and four rowing/sailing dinghies in mint condition.
All the donated vessels will be put to use in the maritime center’s adult and youth programs, Beattie said.
When Shelton decided to give the boat away, he interviewed representatives of several nonprofits.
He said he chose the maritime center because its programs benefit boat enthusiasts of all ages.
“Some of them just wanted to rent it out as a charter,” Shelton said.
“That didn’t seem real beneficial to anyone, aside from themselves.”
Beattie said there are “a bunch of ideas” that are under discussion about how the yacht can be used for maritime education.
“It’s an exciting opportunity for us to offer programs that we would not have been able to do without this windfall,” he said.
“It certainly wasn’t our plan to own a $1.6 million yacht.”
One possibility is to use it for long educational cruises, while another is to participate in next year’s Race to Alaska as “a kind of floating VIP lounge,” he said.
“If we wanted to, we could go to Costa Rica today,” Beattie said. “We’d just fill her up and go.”
Beattie said it was possible to use it to instruct people in yacht operation.
It is a complicated vessel, Beattie said, with “systems on top of systems” that include multiple radars, two generators and two diesel-powered propulsion engines.
Even so, there won’t be any difficulty assembling a crew, he added.
“This town is full of people who know how to operate this,” Beattie said.
It will be in full service in time for the 2016 season, he said.
“We got it right before the Wooden Boat Festival,” which was Sept. 11-13, he said, adding that center personnel hadn’t planned to wait so long before announcing the donation.
“It was more of a workload thing.”
The vessel sleeps 13. Two people are required for its operation, Shelton said.
The Undine is docked at the Port Ludlow Marina. There are no immediate plans to move it to Port Townsend.
“There aren’t many places that can take a 62-foot boat immediately and for an indefinite period,” Beattle said.
“If we took it to Port Townsend, there would have been a long waiting period.”
The vessel will stay in Port Ludlow for a while but could be operated in a remote location.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
