THE NORTHWEST MARITIME Center’s first-ever Spring Boating Symposium will be held March 18-20 at its beautiful complex at the end of Water Street in Port Townsend.
So why the heads-up more than a month ahead?
The three-day conference is strictly limited to 200 participants.
It is being presented as a program of continuing education for the conscientious boater.
In addition to lectures in the maritime center’s buildings at 431 Water St., waterside activities and demonstrations will be held at Port Hudson Marina next door.
Numerous faculty members and presenters will cover a wide range of topics for power boats and sailboats that are centered around seamanship, boating lifestyle and the endless and ongoing issues encountered in maintaining a vessel and her varied systems.
One of the topics to be covered will be how to jury rig an equipment or system failure while under way, and a companion discussion of what unique tools and materials should be kept on board to deal with the unexpected.
Corrosion for the recreational boater is another of the informative topics on the agenda and will deal with strategies on how to deal with corrosion on different types of hulls.
There will be discussions on the rules of the road, developing marlinspike skills, how to fire-safe a vessel, docking and anchoring your boat and night navigation.
Lin and Larry Pardey will open the festivities on Friday, March 18, at 7 p.m. by sharing a few of their favorite and heart-stopping stories culled from 43 years of sailing aboard an offshore sailing vessel.
From hurricane-force winds off Cape Horn to reasoning with gun-toting Egyptian soldiers in the Red Sea and crossing the rugged mountains of Tasmania on horseback, these adventuresome souls will share with their audience one of life’s best kept secrets — and that is that most adventurers consider themselves to be ordinary people who overcame their fears, took that first step into the unfamiliar and went on to savor adventure’s compelling power.
For a complete list of the curriculum or to register for the symposium, visit the website at www.nw maritime.org/symposium or contact Managing Director Kaci Cronkhite by e-mail at symposium@nwmaritime.org, or phone her at 360-385-3628, ext. 106.
Here come the camels
The yard behind the Commander building at Platypus Marine on Marine Drive in Port Angeles last week looked more like a shipyard than a yacht repair facility.
Throughout the week, tractor-trailers delivered the prefabricated pieces of four barge camels, or floats, that are destined for Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton.
That’s where they will be used as maintenance platforms.
The parts were constructed by Maritime International in Broussard, La.
Platypus personnel — namely JR and his crew — had the task of offloading the trailers and staging the various pieces and parts for assembly by a crew of Maritime International employees.
The four camels, which measure 60 feet long by 17 feet wide each, required their own lowboy trailer for the trip to Port Angeles.
The camels were positioned onto the trailers upside down, and when JR removed them, that’s how they were placed onto the tarp-covered ground.
Another six or seven tractor-trailers were required to transport the fabricated steel cross members that make up the submerged stabilizing structure for each camel.
And yet another tractor-trailer was required to transport a scissors lift and two tool lockers that held portable welding units, generators, air compressors and a multitude of machine and hand tools.
The remote assembly team is comprised of fitters, welders, quality control and project management personnel.
They are the ones responsible for assembling what looks to be a large erector set along the lines of an assemble-by-number kit.
Each of the camels remains upside down for assembly.
By this Wednesday, the process of building the floats should be complete.
JR will then use a crane to flip each of the barges over, pick them up with the TraveLift and put them into the water.
At this point Joe Manke of Manke Tug and Barge of Tacoma will tow them to Bremerton, where they will be work platforms used by civilian and naval personnel.
More from Platypus
Capt. Charlie Crane, director of sales and marketing for Platypus Marine, said the repair firm launched the fishing vessel, Angelette, on Wednesday.
She is a 58-foot Glen Cove with a composite hull and aluminum superstructure that hails from Petersburg, Alaska.
Verne Braghettia, who heads up the fiberglass department, and his crew installed a new bulbous bow on the boat.
Craftsmen also removed the foredeck, pulled out the old aluminum water tank and replaced it with a new one.
Verne and his crew are also finishing up the installation of a bulbous bow on another commercial fishing boat, Cape Caution, a 58-foot Delta.
Verne also removed the 22-foot-long rolling chocks from the vessel, expanded them to 27 feet in length and reattached them – should help to smooth out those rough Alaskan waters.
In the harbor
On Wednesday, Tesoro Petroleum had its refueling barge alongside Ocean Leo, a 597-foot petroleum products carrier.
Then on Friday, Tesoro provided bunkers to Grebe Bulker, a new bulk cargo ship that was launched in 2010.
The 623-foot vessel is currently under a time charter to Lauritzen Bulkers of Copenhagen, Denmark, for $17,650 per day.
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David G. Sellars is a Port Angeles resident and former Navy boatswain’s mate who enjoys boats and strolling the waterfront.
Items involving boating, port activities and the North Olympic Peninsula waterfronts are always welcome.
E-mail dgsellars@hotmail.com or phone him at 360-808-3202.