PORT ANGELES — For the first time in its 22-year history, the Metal Boat Festival landed in Port Angeles.
The three-day event began Friday. It is based at the Port Angeles Red Lion Hotel, 221 N. Lincoln St.
Metal boats are moored at City Pier, with some of their owners giving tours and sharing the intricacies of building, maintaining and operating metal boats.
“We’d encourage the general public to come down and talk with them,” said Bill Larson, a Port Angeles member of the Metal Boat Society, which hosts the annual event.
Inside the hotel, leading experts in the metal boat industry will discuss an array of topics in Red Lion conference rooms.
The cost for the entire weekend is $95 per couple, said Candy Larreau, president of the Metal Boat Society.
Carol Hasse, who owns Hasse & Company Port Townsend Sails Inc., will give a hourlong slide presentation on selection and care of sails for all weather conditions Saturday morning.
Other headlining speakers include industry experts Andy Copeland, Brian Smyth, John Armstrong and John Simpson.
Event topics
Other sessions for the Metal Boat Show will include these topics:
• Painting, repainting and painting repairs.
• Today’s boating equipment and how to install it.
• Thin insulation coatings and their optimal uses.
• Welding safety in the metal boating world.
• The custom building process of a metal boat.
• The economy and aluminum boat building.
Larreau said she is expecting nearly 100 people.
“Hopefully we get anywhere from 80 to 95,” she said.
In past years, the Metal Boat Festival has been held in Oak Harbor, Vancouver, Wash., and Bellingham.
“It’s a collection of people who are interested in owning, building and studying boats made of metal,” Larson said.
Larson is a longtime metal boat owner and the former master of the wooden tall ship, the Lady Washington. He said metal boats come with unique challenges like rust, corrosion and electric conductivity.
“Mother Nature wants to take metal boats back,” Larson said.
“One gets quickly into the physics and chemistry of having a metal boat.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
