Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival 2014

After spending most of the summer on the water, cruising in Belle Starr, a fitting crescendo was the famous gathering of wood boats from near and far, in Port Townsend, Washington. This festival has grown to nearly fill the Port Hudson marina from shore to shore. Thousands of visitors mingle to view hundreds of boats of all sizes and designs.

The festivities are a bit overwhelming for a boatbuilder from a small coastal town, so I concentrate on visiting with friends and catching up with sailing tales and life's changes. Seldom have I actually taken in the entire show, preferring to spend my time in the blockade outside the marina - the small floating city of water tribe on anchor. If you think that after spending months sailing, I'd had enough, you'd be mistaken. The long weekend offered plenty of opportunity to spread canvas, not the least, the great "sail-by" of wood boats on Sunday, the last day of the festival.

Two boats stood out for me this year. The first is the Blue Moon, Katie & Ginny. This Thomas Gillmer gaff cutter has some unique details that really make her stand out. Her clam-shell cabin is both accommodating and low profile. But most of all, she is pretty under a full press of sail.

 I woke one fine morning to gander about my neighborhood and behold, a larger version of the Stone Horse was anchored nearby. The Macaw is a Sam Crocker design of the same name, and her owner claims his vessel is the only one built to that design. She is 36 feet in length, on deck and sports a gaff ketch rig. I am considering a small pilothouse, similar to that shown, for the companionway on Belle Starr.

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 As is often said, pictures tell the story. You will find random photos from the festival weekend on Doryman's Flickr site. Please enjoy.

Thanks to all the hard working people who make this giant festival possible. DoryMan raises a glass to you all.
 
Photos by Wild Heather

Belle Starr

As was reported earlier, the Stone Horse, Belle Starr has proven to be an exceptional boat. And as documentation, I was recently gifted some photos taken by my good friend, John Kohnen of the Oregon Coots.

Here comes John with a boat-full of Coots now...

On Sunday, the last day of the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival, tradition finds the participants on the water for a "sail-by". This year was the first time I've joined the parade in my own boat.

Here she is, all dressed up in tanbark, overtaking the MerrieEllen.

For her first weekend out in several years, Belle Starr looked pretty good. At the helm is Kirk Gresham (AKA Captain Kirk) and his crew is Doryman, shooting photos left and right.

With John's permission, I offer you a sailor's view of the worthy cutter.

People often ask me why I find a strenuous, dangerous and difficult activity like sailing so rewarding. These photos tell it all.

Not looking too bad for an old horse.

After the morning fog lifted, it was another beautiful day on Admiralty Inlet.

Thank you John!







This week will be the last of the season for Belle Starr. The storms that have pummeled the west coast are abating, so hopefully the cutter will get a few more miles under her keel, before she is hauled out for the winter. Please stay tuned!

Wooden Boat Festival 2013, Port Townsend

The maiden voyage of the Stone Horse, Belle Starr was north from Olympia, Washington to Port Townsend, Washington, on the Salish Sea. What a fabulous week!

This voyage began last Wednesday, in rain and thick fog with occasional lightning and ended yesterday in beautiful blue skies with a downwind run home.

In between was the always satisfying Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival. Three days of navigating one hundred nautical miles northward by GPS, with hardly a sight of land, culminated in glorious skies Friday, as Belle Starr set anchor off the Port Townsend wharf.

The festivities had already begun and spirits were high with anticipation of a fine weekend. Belle Starr proved to be in good shape, with few problems and performed as her pedigree predicted. We tried all potential sail combinations and discovered a few rigging shortcomings, but nothing to put a damper on the fun.

Doryman has friends in high places (lucky man) and soon after arrival, Belle Starr was invited to tie-up at the dock inside the Basin and join the Festival, even though that was not her intention. She elected to stay outside, at anchor, the better to spread her wings at a moments notice.

You will discover, therefore, most photos in the Doryman archives are on the water, under full canvas. Shooting while handling a sailboat is not ideal for photography, though looking through the photos might give you the feeling of being there. (That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it.)

Event Photos:
Doryman's Flickr site
Northwest Maritime Center (facebook)
Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding (facebook)

Thanks to all my good friends for making this a week to remember (you know who you are). Doryman is fortunate indeed, to be a member of such a stellar tribe.

Your happy skipper

Belle Starr on Marristone Island. A happy boat.














  Sleeping Seals on Eagle Island from doryman on Vimeo.

Tumlaren, Flygburen

One boat stole my heart before I ever saw her. I'd have to confess, Flygburen was the best of the PT Wooden Boat Fest; 2012.

This Tumlaren was built in Kirkland, WA by Richard and Andy McConkey between 1985 and 1993. The Tumlaren is a 22 foot square meter designed after the "skjaergaardskrysser" (loosely translated as "skerry cruiser"), a  narrow, easily driven, light displacement sailboat common to the Skerry Islands of Sweden.

Knud Reimers designed the Tumlaren in 1936. Originally a carvel-planked boat, Flygburen was built cold molded, using four layers of Western Red Cedar veneers over a Douglas Fir frame.

The Tumlaren incorporated the long and narrow efficiency of a koster, with those of the even faster Square Meter yachts that where popular in Scandinavia at the time.




The Skerry Cruiser, like the Folkboat, was created for sailing in protected waters.

About the Skerry Islands, history tells us:

"...the Skerries is everywhere marked with detached rocks of various sizes, which stand up amidst the sea to tell us modems that this skeleton-like archipelago was probably at some remote period one continuous island of no mean extent. However interesting to the geologist and dangerous to the navigator, some of these rocks are of considerable practical utility."

Dr Robert Cowie (1874)

The intricate passages of the Skerries - around rocks and islands - require boats that are handy to tack and close winded, boats that accelerate quickly, using each puff of wind whispering around rock outcroppings and through the trees.

One detail really struck me, so I asked Andy why the headstay on Flygburen was mounted aft of the bow.
He told me:
"The racing design was based upon a sail area requirement, with no restriction on waterline length. Many of the square meter boats had similar headstay arrangements. A positive byproduct of the headstay location is the ease of flying an asymmetrical spinnaker from a turning block off the bow."

As for the lines of this "tumlaren-sterned" beauty, for once, I'm speechless.


Year built:       1993
Builders:          Andy and Richard McConkey
Designer:         Knud Reimers
LOA:               27'-10"
Beam:              6'-0"
Draft:               3'6"



In the first photo above, rafted up to Flygburen , we see more of Andy's handiwork, a Doug Hylan "Beach Pea". Andy has another important project coming up, so we'll check in with him later. Thanks go to him for the photos of his fine vessel, at anchor.

"Look from the land, and there are the green isles or dark rocks, gently sleeping on the bosom of the deep blue sea. Its gentle waves are here and there speckled by the white sail of the fishermen, as they go to and from the scene of their labours and trials. Overhead is the summer’s sun, pouring down his bright and cheering, but not scorching and enervating rays, to gladden all nature around. Sounds there are none, save the distant bleating of the sheep, the lowing of the cattle, the neighing of the ponies as they career through their native hills, or the cackling of the seagull; or if, perchance, you walk along the strand after the breeze has given place to the calm, your ears aid you in fully appreciating the notable line of Homer. Stand on the same hill on a stormy December day, and the scene is greatly changed There are the wild waves tossing their white-crested heads mountains high, and rushing on with the speed of a racehorse, till, dashing with the force of their mighty artillery against the lofty cliffs, they heave their white foam high into the air and far over the hills. Such a scene is conceived by the poet when he says, 'And Thule bellows to her utmost isles/ Woe to the hapless mariner who has such a coast for his lee-shore!' "

Dr Robert Cowie (1874) 

Ness Yawl, Otter

By now it must be apparent that Doryman loves a double-ended sea boat. Then, it comes as no surprise that at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival last month, a particular boat stood out. Now, to claim you have a favorite boat at such an event is very hard to say. Impossible, in fact.

So, let's just say that Dan and Mette's Ness Yawl Otter was one of the finalists on Doryman's list. Iain Oughtred designed this fine sea boat on the lines of the Shetland Yoals. In days of yore, these boats were imported to the Shetland Islands from Norway, and then assembled by local builders. They were of lapstrake construction dating to the Vikings.

In the years since the development of the Ness Yawl, many similar boats have been built to it's capable sea qualities, including several new designs by Iain himself.

The popularity of the open double-ender was apparent at the PT Festival, with several examples tied along the same dock, all rigged for open water sail-and-oar gunkholing.

Otter was moored at the end of the dock, amid a jumble of small boats and the activity of a cul-de-sac, but Doryman has a discerning eye for a well crafted boat.

Dan confessed he was not a professional boat builder though he's a fine woodworker, there is no doubt.
His new Ness Yawl is beautiful.

Congratulations Dan and Mette! A fine vessel. May she provide you with many pleasant hours on the water.

The proud builder. He looks mighty pleased, and well he should.

Doesn't get better than this.

If you would like to see what a Ness Yawl can do, please visit the Man on the River, for Giacomo de Stefano's fabulous trip across Europe in Clodia.

For a very good example of how a Viking might build a boat like this, visit Adrian Morgan.