PORT TOWNSEND — There is still a lot of adventure left for the Adventuress.
The 133-foot, 100-ton historical ship took a five-minute journey from the Boat Haven to Point Hudson, where it will serve as a floating classroom before beginning the 2016 sailing season in March.
“We had a very successful sailing season, with more than 3,400 people coming aboard,” Sound Experience Executive Director Catherine Collins said of the 2015 season.
“We brought it back to Port Townsend for the winter for two reasons: the incredible infrastructure — a heavy lift to get us in and out of the water — and our partnering with the Maritime Discovery Schools.”
This is the second winter the vessel has hosted students, framing subject matter from English to biology in a maritime environment.
“The marine environment inspires kids, and this training can encourage them to seek a career in the maritime trades,” Collins said.
The schooner was built in East Boothbay, Maine, in 1913 and sold a year later to the Port of San Francisco as a pilot ship.
In 1952, it was moved to the Pacific Northwest. The nonprofit Sound Experience, based in Port Townsend, has operated it since 1989.
In recent years, an average of 5,000 people have participated annually in its sailing programs.
In preparation for the vessel’s 2013 centennial, Sound Experience launched a restoration project that replaced several aging components and resulted in a ship that is operating in much the same way as when it was first commissioned.
“These original boats are still the same,” Collins said.
“They retain the same integrity and intent of the shipbuilder and [it] sails the same way it did in 1913.”
The Adventuress is authentic, using materials and plans from the original vessel, but only about 10 percent of the current ship consists of those same parts.
One of these items is the original ship’s bell, which was recovered in 2014.
Up to that point, the ship had had a 1915 bell, which Collins then thought was the original.
During its time out of the water this year, it was given a Coast Guard inspection, “which it passed with flying colors,” according to Collins, and touch-up paint on the hull was applied.
Still to come this winter is the installation of a new boom and a redesign of the battery system, Collins said.
Maintenance requires Collins to spearhead a fundraising process that never ends.
“People who donate at any level are really passionate about the Adventuress because it is an irreplaceable historical landmark that is an active educational component for the kids of our region,” Collins said.
“When kids fall in love with Puget Sound, they learn to protect it.”
For more information about the school district’s maritime program, go to www.maritimediscovery.org.
For information about Sound Experience programs, phone 360-379-0438 or visit www.soundexp.org.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
