The Port Angeles Boatyard continues to be a beehive of activity, although that should not be surprising to anyone.
The management of the yard is overseen by individuals who eagerly strive to meet their customers’ needs.
Additionally, there are numerous local qualified tradespeople who are readily available to work on vessels at an owner’s behest.
In addition, Port Angeles’ is one of a dwindling number of yards along the West Coast where a boat owner can work on his or her own vessel.
One of them is Al Davis. He is a former commodore and ardent supporter of the Port Angeles Yacht Club who has his boat, Pearl, sitting on the hard in the boat yard.
Pearl is a 1955 Chris Craft that is 45 feet long. Al and his wife, Pam, have owned the classic wooden boat for 13 years and have done an admirable job of maintaining an icon of a bygone era.
Lisa Britton, a local tradesperson who works out of the boat yard, painted the bottom.
Al spent his evenings last week reinstalling a repaired strut on the portside drive line.
He drove to Seattle on Saturday to retrieve his tuned-up propellers from a contractor and will spend today affixing them to their respective shafts.
After some related prepping, Pearl will go back into the water Monday morning.
Coincidentally, across from Al’s boat are more Davises.
Jean and Brian Davis are working on their boat, Tradition.
The 40-foot blue and soon-to-be eggshell white pleasure craft is a Bruce Roberts-designed gaff-rigged ketch built in Fort Bragg, Calif., in 1978 by Christian Van Peer.
Tradition is a steel boat that was built as a commercial troller and is documented as a fisheries vessel by the California Department of Fish and Game despite the fact that her trolling poles have never touched salt water.
Were Tradition to be used as a commercial vessel, the motor-sailer could be handled by one person.
However, from the day she rolled off the ways, she has been used as a pleasure boat.
Brian and Jean have owned the boat for three years and spend as much time as their careers allow day-cruising the Inside Passage and laying over during the evenings in the numerous harbors and coves along Vancouver Island as well as the mainland of British Columbia.
Jean has been painting the interior of the bulwarks and will be painting the wheelhouse the aforementioned eggshell white.
Brian painted the bottom and has been piddling around in the engine room; among other things, he has installed new through-hull fittings.
Brian and Jean possess complementary skills when it comes to boating.
Jean holds a 1,600-ton license as well as a third-mate ticket and works in Alaskan waters.
Brian is an engineer and works aboard the Crowley-owned Ocean Giant, an ice-strengthened heavy-lift ship that is used to supply McMurdo Station, the research facility in the Antarctic, and Thule Air Force Base in Greenland.
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David G. Sellars is a Port Angeles resident and former Navy boatswain’s mate who enjoys boats and strolling the area waterfronts.
Items and questions involving boating, port activities and the North Olympic Peninsula waterfronts are always welcome. Email dgsellars@hotmail.com or phone him at 360-808-3202.
His column, On the Waterfront, appears Sundays.
