PORT TOWNSEND — A boat used by author John Steinbeck to provide the blueprint for the vessel in his 1951 book The Log from the Sea of Cortez will be the focus of tour groups in April, although visitors will not be allowed on the boat itself.
“We plan to show what’s going on with the restoration and the hopes for the future,” said Hallie Kopald, Northwest Maritime Center volunteer coordinator.
“Docents will be there to answer any questions people might have.”
A one-time soft opening tour will take place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 23, with regular Saturday, Tuesday and Thursday tours beginning May 7.
The Tuesday and Thursday tours will be from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The Western Flyer is inside the Shipwrights Co-op at 919 Haines St. in the Boat Haven.
It is now located next to another large vessel that will be removed before the tours begin, according to Chris Chase, a co-op partner.
The Saturday tours will have a guide, while the weekday tours will be more informal, Kopald said.
The Western Flyer — built by Tacoma’s Western Boat Building Co. in 1937 — was chartered in 1940 by Steinbeck and a friend, marine biologist Ed Ricketts, for a six-week expedition to Mexico’s Gulf of California.
The expedition aboard the Western Flyer was the basis for his nonfiction novel The Log from the Sea of Cortez.
Ricketts became the model for the character of Doc in Steinbeck’s 1945 Cannery Row.
The boat fell into disrepair and had several owners before being purchased last year by California businessman John Gregg, who plans to spend several million dollars to turn the vessel into a floating maritime education center.
After three years outside in the Boat Haven, the vessel was moved inside last summer when restoration work began.
Chase said the renovation plans were developed through the examination of blueprints from a similar ship.
He said the design work is now complete, with several sections currently framed.
The next step, he said, will be to replace all the hull planks with Douglas fir, which was used in the original boat’s construction.
The boat will be open to educational tours during its construction, with permission to actually come aboard granted on a case-by-case basis, Chase said.
Chase can’t provide a reliable completion date but hopes it will be seaworthy by the 2018 Wooden Boat Festival in Port Townsend.
The completed vessel will have a home port because something must be painted on the hull, but it will represent a maritime community stretching from Alaska to Mexico, he said.
Chase said he understands the necessity for a slow start because it allows the owner to build a community passion for the project but that he’s anxious to start the real work.
“I’m like a horse at the starting gate,” Chase said.
“I’m looking to tear out and get going.”
Those who wish to volunteer as a tour docent can contact Kopald, email volunteer@nwmaritime.org or call 360-385-3628, ext. 115.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.