I recently visited with Perry Knudson, who directs the international sales and marketing programs for Armstrong Marine in the company’s manufacturing facilities at the site of the former Port Angeles Speedway on U.S. Highway 101 midway between Sequim and Port Angeles.
Their shop is bursting at the seams with projects in differing stages of construction.
Armstrong Marine, with input from noted naval architect and marine engineer Tim Nolan, has developed a line of aluminum pilot boats for use in both protected waters and exposed ocean transfers.
The vessels, known as JL Series Pilot Boats, come in three lengths: 42 feet, 52 feet and 62 feet.
The boats are diesel-powered with water-jet propulsion.
One of the projects Armstrong is working on is a 35-foot catamaran that will be used as a whale-watching boat by Outer Island Expeditions in the San Juan Islands.
Perry said the vessel will also be used as an emergency response boat pursuant to a contract with the boat’s owner and a local fire department.
Another of the projects Perry showed me was a 50-foot catamaran with two state rooms and a full-service galley that is powered by Scania Marine Diesel. Propulsion is via Hamilton Waterjets.
Perry said that the Alaskan owner enjoys hunting and fishing in areas where others can’t go.
The final project Perry showed me was a 35-foot catamaran tour boat whose hailing port will be Hanalei Bay on the island of Kauai.
The vessel carries two dozen passengers and is named Kamahele Kai II.
This week Perry, along with sales and marketing colleagues Josh Armstrong and Charlie Crane, are attending the International WorkBoat Show in New Orleans to attempt to drum up even more business for their company.
I spoke briefly with Crane, who told me he has seen Darryl Wakefield, president of Westport LLC, and Eric Schneider and Joe Beck of Lee Shore Boats at the show.
Thanksgiving Day Global Heart, a 585-foot Panamanian-flagged cargo ship, recently moored to the Port of Port Angeles’ Terminal 3 for 1.8 million board feet of softwood logs that were harvested from private lands in Western Washington.
The vessel made her way to Port Angeles after having first received 2.7 million board feet of logs at the Port of Aberdeen.
The fully loaded vessel left Port Angeles on Wednesday bound for Lanshan, China.
On Monday, Tesoro petroleum provided bunkers to Bulk Chile, a 623-foot bulk cargo ship that was on its way to Aberdeen.
Tesoro refueled Ardmore Seatrader, a 599-foot petroleum products tanker, Wednesday. She then got underway for Anacortes.
On Saturday, Tesoro was scheduled to bunker Port Union, a 600-foot petroleum products tanker that is flagged in the Marshall Islands.
Also Saturday, Overseas Boston, a 600-foot petroleum products tanker, was to offload a quantity of dirty diesel to the Tesoro Refueling Barge HMS 2000, which will be taken to the Paramount petroleum storage facility at Point Wells.
The diesel was used to clean the vessel’s fuel tanks and associated lines and is no longer suitable for use in diesel engines, although the dirty diesel fuel could be used to thin down bunker fuel and be consumed as fuel in that fashion.
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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. 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.