One of the North Olympic Peninsula’s most popular events for boaters takes place this coming Saturday, June 13, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. when the Port Angeles Yacht Club holds its ninth annual Outdoor Marine Swap Meet and Indoor Yard Sale.
As always, it’s at the yacht club building and parking lot at 1305 Marine Drive (behind Castaways Restaurant and Lounge at the west end of Port Angeles Boat Haven).
This well-attended event is a great opportunity to buy, sell or swap marine-related equipment and memorabilia with like-minded individuals.
As an added feature, the Port Angeles Yacht Club Ladies will hold the indoor yard sale in the clubhouse with treasures that are not necessarily marine-oriented.
Sellers’ spaces for the outdoor marine swap meet are available for $10 each. No sellers’ spaces are available for household items inside.
For more information, send an email to swapmeet@payc.org or contact Bob at 360-461-0602 or Randy at 619-884-4599.
Navigation app
In Port Townsend, Doug Miller, sailor and founder of Milltech Marine, will share insights about the Port Orchard company’s Automatic Identification System and popular iPad navigation applications during the Point Wilson Sail and Power Squadron meeting at 7 p.m. June 16.
All are invited to the free talk, which will be held at the Port Townsend Yacht Club, 2503 Washington St.
Miller, president and founder of Milltech Marine, began sailing at an early age and has always had a passion for combining the thrill of sailing with a love for high-tech toys.
Point Wilson Sail and Power Squadron is the Port Townsend branch of the nationwide U.S. Power Squadrons.
It’s an informal group of sailors, rowers, paddlers, fishermen and cruisers dedicated to providing public boating education, improving boating skills and enjoying social activities.
Oil boat
I recently enjoyed a brief chat with Eric Schneider, president of Lee Shore Boats west of Port Angeles.
Eric showed me a shallow-water oil-spill-response vessel the company was preparing to ship to a customer.
It’s a 21-foot, flat-bottom catamaran that is powered by a 115-horsepower Yamaha outboard motor that is outfitted with a jet pump.
The aluminum boat was built for ExxonMobil for one of its subsidiaries in Sakhalin, Russia.
Watching whales
One of the more memorable things to do on the North Olympic Peninsula is to see the beautiful orcas that ply our local waters.
Island Explorer 4 has resumed whale-watching excursions in Port Angeles.
She is an 85-foot vessel that departs Port Angeles twice daily each day for an excursion that lasts about five hours.
Depending upon where the whales are when she leaves Port Angeles Harbor, the vessel will head north toward Race Rocks off Victoria, east toward the San Juan Islands or west toward Vancouver Island’s Jordan River.
More details are at www.island-adventures.com.
In Port Townsend, Puget Sound Express also offers four hours of whale watching in and around the San Juan Islands.
A trip to Friday Harbor also is available during a daylong whale-watching tour.
More details about PS Express, which operates at Point Hudson Marina, can be found at www.pugetsoundexpress.com.
New propellers
Platypus Marine, the full-service shipyard, yacht-repair facility and steel-boat manufacturer on the Port Angeles waterfront, hauled out Kerry D to give the mechanical department an opportunity to install a new set of propellers.
The 60-foot fiberglass catamaran was back in the water a few hours later.
I understand Kerry D will be one of the support vessels for the next America’s Cup in Bermuda in 2017.
Platypus Marine has Anytime Baby in the big blue Commander Building.
She is a 25-foot Sea Dory “Tomcat” owned by Larry Cooper of Port Angeles, who said she is getting a new coat of bottom paint and some minor fiberglass repairs.
Tom was in the Navy and served aboard a couple of aircraft carriers working on the F-14 Tomcat. Part of the logo for the Grumman-built aircraft stated the words, “Anytime, baby . . . !”
Larry said when he bought a boat, the model of which was a Tomcat, it seemed to him that the natural thing to do was to name it Anytime Baby.
Yacht in for repairs
Rasa, a 131-foot Palmer Johnson yacht, has been moored at Westport LLC’s slip in Port Angeles Boat Haven for the past week or so.
According to Katie Wakefield, an administrative assistant at Westport, the company has been making repairs to the yacht.
PA Harbor watch
Tesoro Petroleum, which provides fuel to ships that park in Port Angeles Harbor, pulled its barge up to Alaskan Navigator, a 941-foot crude oil tanker operated by Alaska Tanker Co., on Friday.
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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’s waterfronts and boat yards.
Items and questions involving boating, marina and industrial activities and the North Olympic Peninsula waterfronts are always welcome. Email dgsellars@hotmail.com or phone him at 360-808-3202.
