Wooden boat show,
northwest style
Logbook
Out and about
8WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY JAN HEIN
Port Townsend’s Wooden Boat Festival this year featured more
than 300 craft of all sizes, exhibited on land and sea, as well as
demonstrations and talks on design, boatbuilding and 120 other
topics, live music all day, entertainment for children and much
more besides. The show takes place each autumn at the
Northwest Maritime Center in Washington State.
This year’s stars were the 115ft schooner Pacifi c Grace, the
newest dame of Canada’s Sail and Life Training Society (see more
at salts.ca). Howard Rice drew crowds around Southern Cross, the
11ft 11in Scamp he sailed around Cape Horn. Felicity Ann, the 23ft
sloop that carried the fi rst woman singlehandedly across the
Atlantic in 1953, made her debut at the show following a 10-year
rebuild. It was a packed schedule crammed into four days.
The fi nale was a sail-by of more than 100 vessels.1 More than 300 wooden boats were shown at the
event, on the pontoons and ashore 2 Vixen taking it
easy during the sail-by 3 The Port Townsend Foundry
stand was busy 4 Howard Rice and his Southern Cross
5 Felicity Ann, the boat Ann Davison sailed into history
in 1953, on show after a major refi t 6 Contender for the
Edensaw Woods Wooden Boatbuilding Challenge, a
quick-and-dirty-style contest 7 The competition’s
winners proudly display their $1,500 voucher,
redeemable at the Port Townsend timber supplier
8 Two schooners by BB Crowninshield, Martha of 1907
and Adventuress of 1913 (in foreground) in the sail-by,
both now operated as training ships for all ages
9 Steam-bending demonstration.4
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