Wednesday, September 13, 2006
wooden boat: Folks soak up nostalgia with wooden ships
2006-09-08
by JEFF CHEW
PORT TOWNSEND -- If maritime heritage really floats your boat, the 30th annual Wooden Boat Festival is bound to put wind in your sails and a song in your heart.
With more boats than ever expected to be exhibited at or near Point Hudson Marina -- about 200 -- the festival runs today through Sunday.
``Bigger than ever,'' said Dave Robinson, Northwest Maritime Center executive director, who was making the rounds Thursday as exhibitors were sailing in and setting up at Point Hudson.
Audrey McSperitt, the festival's maritime information coordinator, said Thursday that about 175 boats would be exhibited on the water and another 25 on land.
It's still not too late to catch an ear-splitting close-up shot of a cannon blast aboard the tall ship Privateer Lynx, which will challenge the tall ship Lady Washington in a mock battle in Port Townsend Bay.
There are still plenty of spaces aboard the Lynx, said Jeffrey Woods, Lynx Educational Foundation director, on Thursday.
On board tours of the Lynx and Lady Washington are scheduled during the festival, for donations.
The Lady Washington, which last visited Port Townsend in 2005 along with the Lynx and several other tallships en route to the Tacoma Tall Ship Festival, is a replica of the original Lady Washington.
The Lady Washington was painted in Port Townsend in 2002 for its appearance in the Disney movie, ``Pirates of the Caribbean.''
The Lynx is an interpretation of an actual privateer named Lynx that was built by Thomas Kemp in 1812 in Fell's Point, Md.
The vessels have visited the popular festival in past years.
New this year is a live broadcast of National Public Radio's West Coast Live from the Wooden Boat Festival.
The broadcast will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday from the Main Stage, near the Cupola House at Point Hudson.
Hosted by Sedge Thomson, who last appeared at the Upstage in Port Townsend for last year's Port Townsend Film Festival, the show is carried by KALW-FM in San Francisco, and usually is broadcast from Fort Mason.
Lemanski said he keeps the boat in the water until October at his home port in Afton, then stores it in a covered pole building during the winter. He has a hydraulic trailer to lift the boat from the water.
Aside from the beauty of the craft, Lemanski said the boat offers a better ride than many of today’s fiberglass models.
“Because of its weight and because of the wood, it sits a little bit lower in the water and has a tendency to just glide through the water better,” he explained.
Mark Ludlow, who along with other resort operators organizes the annual boat show, said his own love affair with wooden boats began in the 1970s.
“My wife Sally’s parents, the Beaurlines, had two wooden Chris-Crafts hanging in the boathouse,” he said. “We decided to get one going in the late 1970s.” From there, the fleet expanded to include the cruiser Sally Anne and a wooden boat that shuttles passengers to and from Ludlow’s Island Resort.
The annual boat show is “pretty informal” as shows go, said Ludlow. “There are only two prizes — one is the Skippers’ Choice and the other the People’s Choice. The real purpose is to show off the boats and familiarize people with the boats.”
That’s not to say that the show doesn’t attract some major boating enthusiasts.
Jeff Stebbins owns 14 wooden watercraft, including a 28-foot 1954 Chris-Craft Sportsman that is one of a kind. He first started obtaining the boats in the early 1970s. “Wood boats were cheap then,” he recalled. “Nobody wanted them. In the mid-70s, they started to become collectors’ items instead of just discarded relics.”
Stebbins said classic wooden boats please all the senses.
“They look beautiful, they smell great, they sound great and they ride great,” he said.
Stebbins, who has a house on Lake Minnetonka, recently purchased a home on Lake Vermilion, where he and his wife Nancy plan to become full-time residents. When he visited friends in the area, Stebbins said he became smitten with the lake. His travels as a member and past officer of the International Antique and Classic Boat Society reinforced his feelings.
“We travel all over,” he said, “and Lake Vermilion is one of the top five lakes in North America.”
by JEFF CHEW
PORT TOWNSEND -- If maritime heritage really floats your boat, the 30th annual Wooden Boat Festival is bound to put wind in your sails and a song in your heart.
With more boats than ever expected to be exhibited at or near Point Hudson Marina -- about 200 -- the festival runs today through Sunday.
``Bigger than ever,'' said Dave Robinson, Northwest Maritime Center executive director, who was making the rounds Thursday as exhibitors were sailing in and setting up at Point Hudson.
Audrey McSperitt, the festival's maritime information coordinator, said Thursday that about 175 boats would be exhibited on the water and another 25 on land.
It's still not too late to catch an ear-splitting close-up shot of a cannon blast aboard the tall ship Privateer Lynx, which will challenge the tall ship Lady Washington in a mock battle in Port Townsend Bay.
There are still plenty of spaces aboard the Lynx, said Jeffrey Woods, Lynx Educational Foundation director, on Thursday.
On board tours of the Lynx and Lady Washington are scheduled during the festival, for donations.
The Lady Washington, which last visited Port Townsend in 2005 along with the Lynx and several other tallships en route to the Tacoma Tall Ship Festival, is a replica of the original Lady Washington.
The Lady Washington was painted in Port Townsend in 2002 for its appearance in the Disney movie, ``Pirates of the Caribbean.''
The Lynx is an interpretation of an actual privateer named Lynx that was built by Thomas Kemp in 1812 in Fell's Point, Md.
The vessels have visited the popular festival in past years.
New this year is a live broadcast of National Public Radio's West Coast Live from the Wooden Boat Festival.
The broadcast will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday from the Main Stage, near the Cupola House at Point Hudson.
Hosted by Sedge Thomson, who last appeared at the Upstage in Port Townsend for last year's Port Townsend Film Festival, the show is carried by KALW-FM in San Francisco, and usually is broadcast from Fort Mason.
Lemanski said he keeps the boat in the water until October at his home port in Afton, then stores it in a covered pole building during the winter. He has a hydraulic trailer to lift the boat from the water.
Aside from the beauty of the craft, Lemanski said the boat offers a better ride than many of today’s fiberglass models.
“Because of its weight and because of the wood, it sits a little bit lower in the water and has a tendency to just glide through the water better,” he explained.
Mark Ludlow, who along with other resort operators organizes the annual boat show, said his own love affair with wooden boats began in the 1970s.
“My wife Sally’s parents, the Beaurlines, had two wooden Chris-Crafts hanging in the boathouse,” he said. “We decided to get one going in the late 1970s.” From there, the fleet expanded to include the cruiser Sally Anne and a wooden boat that shuttles passengers to and from Ludlow’s Island Resort.
The annual boat show is “pretty informal” as shows go, said Ludlow. “There are only two prizes — one is the Skippers’ Choice and the other the People’s Choice. The real purpose is to show off the boats and familiarize people with the boats.”
That’s not to say that the show doesn’t attract some major boating enthusiasts.
Jeff Stebbins owns 14 wooden watercraft, including a 28-foot 1954 Chris-Craft Sportsman that is one of a kind. He first started obtaining the boats in the early 1970s. “Wood boats were cheap then,” he recalled. “Nobody wanted them. In the mid-70s, they started to become collectors’ items instead of just discarded relics.”
Stebbins said classic wooden boats please all the senses.
“They look beautiful, they smell great, they sound great and they ride great,” he said.
Stebbins, who has a house on Lake Minnetonka, recently purchased a home on Lake Vermilion, where he and his wife Nancy plan to become full-time residents. When he visited friends in the area, Stebbins said he became smitten with the lake. His travels as a member and past officer of the International Antique and Classic Boat Society reinforced his feelings.
“We travel all over,” he said, “and Lake Vermilion is one of the top five lakes in North America.”
