While much of the populace in Port Townsend was occupied with the Great Kinetic Skulpture Race last weekend, my wife and I spent a couple of hours nosing around the Port of Port Townsend’s Boat Haven and the adjacent boatyard.
I saw Rich Passage I sitting in the Boat Haven for the first time. (I need to get out more.)
She is a 78-foot, 118-passenger aluminum catamaran that was built for Kitsap Transit and was used for ferry service between Bremerton and Seattle until October 2012.
However, the vessel is primarily a research vessel that was built specifically to explore available and emerging technologies with the goal of designing a hull that throws off the least amount of turbulence as it passes through the water.
It was theorized that it would be suitable for high-speed passenger service in wake-sensitive areas.
Rich Passage I gained some noteworthiness last January when she ran aground in the narrow Portage Creek canal separating Indian Island from Port Hadlock.
She was refloated and taken to Port Townsend, where she incurred little damage.
Sitting on the hard in the boatyard was Discovery, an 87-foot fantail yacht.
It was built in San Pedro, Calif., in 1931 for William Morris Jr. of the William Morris Agency.
She was launched as Holiday, and her teak decks and main salon hosted the glitterati of the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Discovery can accommodate up to a dozen guests in six staterooms and is available from early May to the middle of September for cruising in Southeast Alaska.
From September to May, the yacht is available for private bookings by the hour, with a three-hour minimum, and by the day for cruising in and around Seattle and the San Juan Islands.
A stone’s throw from Discovery was another fantail yacht, MV Westward.
It is 86 feet long and was built in 1924 by Ted Geary for Campbell Church Sr.
The vessel is based in Seattle and is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
Westward is one of the early pioneers of charter vessels that took clients on hunting and fishing expeditions to Alaska after first traversing the Inside Passage.
Among the who’s who who’ve traveled aboard the classic fantail yacht were Walt Disney, George Pabst of the Pabst Brewing Co. and John Wayne, just to name a scant few.
During World War II, Westward was pressed into service for the war effort, after which she was moored in California’s Sacramento River Delta.
She is now owned by Hugh Reilly, who renovated the yacht and has since been up and down the West Coast to Mexico and cruised to the South Pacific.
Westward is still powered by her original 1923 Atlas-Imperial diesel engine that generates
110 horsepower and gives her a cruising speed of about 8 knots.
October tradition
It seems that every October — at least since I’ve been writing this column — Silverado finds her way into the turquoise blue Commander Building at Platypus Marine, the full-service shipyard, yacht-repair facility and steel-boat manufacturer on Marine Drive in Port Angeles.
She is 120 feet long and was built by Willard Boat Works of Costa Mesa, Calif., in 1974 for Harry See of See’s candy fame.
At the time, she was the largest fiberglass yacht ever built.
After spending the summer in Alaska, the yacht will be on the hard for the next couple of months.
According to Marty Marchant, Platypus’ director of sales and marketing, personnel will paint the bottom and tend to a laundry list of incidental maintenance items one would expect to perform on a yacht that was nearly 40 years old.
Her ownership keeps her in pristine condition.
Platypus Marine also has Surfbird in the Commander Building.
She is a 115-foot expedition yacht that is available for charters in Southeast Alaska from late May to the middle of September.
Marty said she is having her bottom sandblasted and will then receive a fresh coat of bottom paint and a set of shiny new zincs.
Port Townsend talks
Two talks this week in Port Townsend will make you smarter about circumnavigating Vancouver Island and sketching your maritime adventures:
■ John Hazen Jr., will share pictures and the story of his 100-day circumnavigation of Vancouver Island at a meeting of the Point Wilson Sail and Power Squadron on Tuesday.
The meeting will be held at the Port Townsend Yacht Club, 2503 Washington St. It’s fee and open to the public.
A potluck dinner will be at 6 p.m., and Hazen’s talk is set for 7 p.m.
The public can attend both events or show up for the presentation.
Hazen has just returned from a 100-day circumnavigation of Vancouver Island aboard his 20-foot Pacific Seacraft Flicka Windward Pilgrim.
He will share a whole summer’s worth of adventures, current information and a “boatload” of great pictures.
For more information, phone Linda Newland at 360-437-9350.
■ Wooden Boat Wednesday continues at noon this Wednesday in the Maritime Meeting Room of the Northwest Maritime Center, 431 Water St. in Port Townsend.
Vashon Island artist Darsie Beck will discuss “How to Sketch Maritime Traveling.”
Darsie specializes in soapstone sculpture and watercolor paintings. He will teach the basics of “travel journal sketching” and share his passion for the maritime settings of the Pacific Northwest.
Wooden Boat Wednesday is a free event that begins promptly at noon and typically lasts for 90 minutes.
Wednesday’s program, which requires advance registration, is limited to 25 participants.
Reservations can be made by phoning the Northwest Maritime Center at 360-385-3628, ext. 101, or emailing chandlery @nwmaritime.org.
Back in business
Tesoro Petroleum is back in operation on Port Angeles’ Ediz Hook after being out of commission since mid-July.
That was when contractors started replacing all of the over-the-water piping and installed a new master control center — industry lingo for an upgraded electrical panel box.
Its office building received a new set of vinyl double-pane windows, and a new dirty-water separator was installed at the tank farm.
The separator is an integral part of maintaining a clean environment at Tesoro’s tank farm, which stores fuel for the big ships that anchor in the harbor.
The ground upon which the tanks sit is covered with concrete, so there’s no exposed dirt within the tank farm.
Whenever it rains, the runoff contaminated with petroleum is funneled into the dirty-water separator.
Since dirty water floats, it spills over into its own tank, and the clean runoff goes into its own tank and is then pumped to the water clarification treatment system operated by the adjacent Nippon Paper Industries mill.
Periodically, a contractor will pump the dirty water into a tanker truck and transport it to a refinery for processing.
Tesoro’s prior dirty-water separator was cleaned before contractors removed it from the ground.
It was then placed onto a flat-deck trailer and taken to a salvage yard for final processing.
Out in the PA Harbor
Tesoro on Tuesday refueled Yayoi Express.
The distinctively red petroleum-products carrier is Panamanian-flagged and 590 feet long.
She’s now underway for Chile.
On Thursday, Tesoro refueled Aqua Liberty, an 817-foot crude-oil tanker that is flagged in Liberia.
She is on her way to Long Beach, Calif., and is scheduled to arrive there Monday night.
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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 every Sunday.