PORT TOWNSEND — After a busy season of conducting educational programs around Puget Sound, the schooner Adventuress is back in Port Townsend this weekend to participate in two fundraisers prior to next weekend’s Wooden Boat Festival.
The Adventuress was built in 1913 as an exploratory ship, but its current mission is education.
“Schools are having a difficult time coming up with money to support educational programs,” said Catherine Collins, the director of Sound Experience, the Port Townsend nonprofit that owns and operates the tall ship.
“We need to find some creative ways in our fundraising to get kids out on the boat.”
On Saturday, the Adventuress will sail from the Northwest Maritime Center, 431 Water St., to the Protection Island National Wildlife Refuge in a benefit for the Port Townsend Marine Science Center.
On Sunday, a benefit concert to support the Adventuress’ educational programs will begin at 6 p.m. at the maritime center’s dock.
On Thursday, about a dozen seats were still available for Saturday’s Protection Island trip, which will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with participants asked to arrive at least 30 minutes before the sailing.
Tickets are $80 per person or $75 for members of the Port Townsend Marine Science Center, Burke Museum or Audubon or Washington Ornithological Society.
Reservations are required and are available by phone at 360-385-5582 or 800-566-3932, or by email to cruises@ptmsc.org.
On Sunday, no admission will be charged to the concert featuring the Locust Street Taxi band, but donations will be solicited from the crowd during the show.
During the Wooden Boat Festival scheduled Sept. 9-11, the boat will conduct two daily sailings: from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., leaving from the maritime center dock.
Tickets are $55 for adults and $25 for youths, with members of area nonprofits, including libraries, receiving a $10 discount for adults and $5 discount for youths Friday, Sept. 9, only.
As of this week, 1,871 people had participated in 92 different programs offered during 2011, most of them three-hour sails, Sound Experience said.
During these programs, those on board are pressed into service to raise and lower sails, while they learn the boat’s history and safety procedures.
After the Wooden Boat Festival, the Adventuress will move to South Lake Union in Seattle until December, where it will be docked with three other historical ships.
The public will be able to tour the boat during that time, but there will be no sailings.
It will then be moved back to the Port Townsend Boat Yard for winter repairs, which include work on the mainsail, the foresail and the tail shaft.
Collins said these repairs represent phase four of a $360,000 Centennial Restoration Project begun last year to fix up the boat before its 100th birthday in 2013.
Phase four will be financed by private contributions and matching funds, Collins said.
A $180,000 National Park Service “Save America’s Treasures” grant, with donors matching that amount, and a $125,000 historical preservation grant given to the Adventuress by American Express after it gained the most votes in an online contest were used in earlier phases.
The repairs will be conducted in partnership with the Northwest School of Wooden Boat Building, with the new sails constructed using student labor.
The sailing season will begin in March, with next year’s program the last prior to the boat’s 2013 centennial.
For this, Collins anticipates a special celebration that has yet to be planned.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.