Published bimonthly for The Center for Wooden Boats

1010 Valley Street Seattle, WA 98109

LETTER FROM THE FOUNDING DIRECTOR

Volume XVII Number 5

December. 1996 ISSN 0734-0680

1992, CWB

The engine of CWB is education. Be-cause of our hands-on learning programs, which make history come alive, we have become a model for other museums. In the past year I have spoken at maritime museums in the U.S., Canada and England about the impact of our programs and the diversity of people they serve. The media has picked up our message, too; re-cent feature articles on CWB have been pub-lished in the Albuquerque Journal, Friendly Exchange of Farmer 's Insurance, Gourmet magazine. Spirit of Southwest Airlines and Sun-set magazine.

This year we provided our widest offer-ing of educational programs. Sail NOW!, which teaches basic sailing in our various historic boats, had more than 300 adult students. Schooner sail-ing was experienced by 50 more on the 65' 1907 schooner Martha and the 127' 1924 Zodiac.

We provided 14 maritime skills work-shops for adults in one- to six-day sessions. Sub-jects ranged from fancy knots to celestial navi-gation. One was an adult-and-child workshop where each team built the 9 1/2' sailing skiff Clancy in two weekends.

Rowing tours of historic Lake Union were conducted, as well as a tour of Seattle wooden boat building shops. Field trips to CWB by child and adult groups resulted in 1,875 people hav-ing a sail in one of our classic vessels. Count-less more have experienced Cast Off, free half-hour rides in the steam vessel Puffin or sailing vessels: Salmon Gillnetter, New Flaven Sharpie and Friendship Sloop. The livery of traditional rowing and sailing boats is CWB's most notice-able image. Over 7.300 visitors went forth on Lake Union in our working exhibit fleet.

Many youths stayed at CWB long enough to master some time-tested maritime skills. Two Boy Scout troops had week-long sailing instruc-tion sessions. Summer in the City, our program for middle schoolers, served 36 youths, who re-ceived training in sailing our historic craft and

knot-work. They also hand-sewed their own ditty bags and made model boats.

World of Wonder, a summer day camp, 132 pre-teenagers learned rowing and smallcraft heritage in week-long sessions at CWB. Sailing instruction was also provided for Alternative School # 1, Bush School and Puget Sound Com-munity School. Homeless teenagers from the Orion School and the University District Youth Shelter received sailing instruction from us throughout the year.

All Aboard, a summer session for high-risk teenagers, had 16 participants. The students learned and applied math, science and history in the process of charting Lake Union, rowing and sailing heritage boats and building a 26' Umiak. The Umiak is an Aleut freight canoe dating back a thousand years. Through All Aboard the stu-dents solved complex problems, learned team-work, forged friendships and achieved academic skills at a high level of success. We are certain the All Aboard students will proudly remember their experiences here.

This summer we had four high school in-terns. They learned the purpose and programs of CWB and became valued staff and outstand-

ing ambassadors. These students were recent immigrants to Seattle, coming from Cambodia, Eritrea, Somalia and Vietnam. We were im-pressed and very pleased with how these youths, so recently from different cultures, enthusiasti-cally grasped and embraced our mission of pre-serving maritime heritage through direct experi-ence. We and the interns learned from each other.

CWB is anxious to attract and serve the whole spectrum of our community. This year we continued to provide weekly sailing experi-ences for people with AIDS. We also conducted a weekend sailing clinic, Sail Away Challenge, for people with physical disabilities. People who are deaf came weekly as volunteers. We have also recruited people who have developmental disabilities to join our volunteer teams.

Volunteers are C W B ' s energy super-charge. This year 15,065 hours were contrib-uted. Jobs included front desk reception, data entry, sailing instruction, boat restoration, livery operation and keeping CWB neat and clean.

We put on a lot of events to keep us from

VOLUNTEER NOW TO HELP MAKE THE AUCTION A SUCCESS

getting dull or stodgy. Noticeable were the Spring Cruise, with a 1943 historic theme; Book Sale; French Ecstasy, a dinner and talk on canal boating in France; our annual Auction with auc-tioneer Sandy Bradley of "Potluck" fame; the WOOD Regatta (Wooden Only One Design); a Steam Boat Meet; a visit of the ship Nina, Co-lumbus' favorite; a two-month exhibit on CWB at the Secretary of State's office, monthly speak-ers and our 20th annual Wooden Boat Festival.

Facilities projects never end at CWB. Fif-teen of our classic boats were restored and added to our working exhibit fleet. In addition, the Boat

Bench we built for a park on Lake Union was restored, our entry ramp was rebuilt, a new float was built and the floats were re-arranged for easier access to and from Lake Union.

Cama Beach was the Big Project. This is the site of a waterfront resort on Camano Island, 50 miles north of CWB. The site has 6,000' of beach and 432 acres of 100-year-old second growth forest. The State Department of Parks and Recreation is purchasing the property with the goal of a park with a theme: preserving the historic and natural resources of Cama Beach. There were originally 50 cabins and a Boathouse with 50 boats. Most of the buildings remain and will be restored as a living museum, as well as several of the boats.

The Center for Wooden Boats is part of the Cama Beach master plan. We will operate this second CWB site as we do in Seattle. It will be a place where maritime heritage is preserved through direct experience. This year. CWB re-stored three of the buildings, which will be part of our Cama Beach campus. We expect this park to he in operation in June, 1999.

Activities cost. CWB has wisely devel-oped a financial plan in which about half our in-come is earned. The freely-donated other half provides for both general operations and specific projects and programs, about equally divided.

Foundation and corporate donations for operations came from the Davis Foundation, Cape Flattery Foundation, Seattle Foundation, Corning Corp.. Northwest Yacht-brokers Asso-ciation, Microsoft. The Boeing Company, United Way, WoodenBoat and U.S. West.

Major funding for specific projects was donated by King County Cultural Resources, the Discuren Foundation. REI. Hamalainen Chari-table Trust, Worthington Foundation and Black and Decker Corporation.

Major individual donations were also given to support operations and programs.

Our aim is to continue to be a dynamic, challenging learning resource for all aspects of our community while at the same time provid-ing as much fun and friendliness as a neighbor-hood block party. - Dick Wagner

The annual Center for Wooden Boats fund-raising auction will be held March 1, 1997, beginning at 6:30 p.m., at the same lovely loca-tion as last year: the Yale Street Landing. The previous issue of Shavings incorrectly listed the auction date as March 8, so please correct your calendars and save March 1 for a night of fun.

The auction is one of our most important fund-raising events. The revenues come in win-ter when business is slow and the money raised does wonders for our cash flow. Proceeds from the auction help CWB serve the community in many ways, such as our instructional programs for at-risk youth, sailing programs for AIDS pa-tients, Summer in the City day camps for middle and elementary school children, sailing programs for the disabled and more.

To make the auction a success, we need your help in three important areas:

Volunteer for the Auction Committee. The next meetings of the Auction Committee will be held at the CWB Boathouse December 10, 1996, and January 14. 1997, each beginning at 6 p.m. Please join us and lend a hand with gather-ing donations, inviting people to attend and day-of-event logistics.

Donate lots of goodies. Last year's auc-

Frank Prothero died at his home in Se-attle on November 16, 1996. Ninety-one years old.

In many ways, Frank was 200 years old; his thoughts and deeds embodied the golden age of wooden ships. Not just because of the tradi-tional designs and materials he used, but espe-cially because of his work ethic, which was as monumental as the boats he built. Endurance, integrity, ingenuity and love of work were Frank's trademarks.

When he was 10, in their backyard near Lake Union, his father built a woodworking and machine shop for Frank and his brother, Bob, to use. Frank proceeded to build a rowboat and never stopped. It was up at 4 a.m. and at work at 5, six days a week.

The last of about 250 boats he built is Glory of the Seas. It is afloat and rigged, but not quite finished. Frank was still working on it 'til shortly before he passed away. It wasn't impor-tant to Frank to finish Glory. Doing good work on a good design was the whole purpose of Frank's life. Glory is probably the last vessel ever built with the kind of skill and attitude Frank

tion was our most successful ever and our goal is to take in about $22,000 this year. To do that we need to gather about $44,000 worth of goods and services, since some items do not sell and others go for less than face value. Please help CWB by donating what you can and ask others to do the same. The items that sell the best have to do with entertainment, travel and personal in-dulgences such as weekend getaways, meals at restaurants, etc.

Look at your personal and business check-book registers and ask those with whom you do business to donate to the auction. CWB is a non-profit organization so donations may be tax-de-ductible. Call Sean Kennedy at CWB, (206) 382-2628, for the donation forms that donors must sign. The forms need to be completed and re-turned to CWB by February 10 so we have time to create the auction catalog.

Come to the Auction and buy, buy, buy. Bring your friends for an enjoyable evening of gourmet food, music, beverages and companion-ship. The Yale Street Landing has a very warm, inviting banquet room with spectacular views of Lake Union. The cost is $35 per person and space is limited, so call Sean Kennedy to reserve your space today. You can even charge it to Visa or MasterCard. - Dennis Palmer

bestowed on her. Glory is a 65' schooner, but the timber sizes appear twice the necessary size. Not to the 200 year-old Frank. He was proud that Glory would likely be the heaviest 65' schoo-ner in existence. That meant ease and comfort beating into a gale and a steep chop.

Frank liked big chunks of clear, air-dried, old growth white oak. Douglas Fir. red cedar, Burmese Teak. Lignum Vitae. This stuff was time-tested. For the same reason he used canvas over ship's fell on cabin tops, white and red lead for bedding, pine tar and linseed oil for sealing wood and pitch for topping deck seams. And hand-stitched canvas sails. There's a rumor on the waterfront that Frank actually picked up and tossed into the lake someone who was foolish enough to advocate fiberglass. It might be only a myth, but I like to believe it really happened. Frank made his point with the boats he built.

Thanks Frank, for the legacy you left us: passionate commitment to the best designs, high-est quality craftsmanship and working for the love of it. Your message will live as long as your vessels sail - which will surely be long past the time of fiberglass. - Dick Wagner

FRANK PROTHERO, BOATBUILDER

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SAILING INTO HISTORY Twenty CWB volunteers sailed into his-

tory aboard the schooner Zodiac, the first week-end in November. Friday, we caught the early morning Amtrak to Bellingham, delighting in the scenic view as we rolled along Peter Puget's Sound at water's edge, then inland through farmsteads little changed by the century. The Zodiac, a 127' gaff-rigged schooner built in 1924 in East Boothbav, Maine, is home docked a stone's throw from the rail station.

Excitement tinged the bright, sunny air as the expectant gang from CWB hiked across the tracks to the handsome large vessel. A week-end voyage on such a beauty promised to be an uncommon adventure.

I had just finished reading The Living by Annie Dillard. A saga of the settlement on the bay at what became Bellingham. the novel weaves an intimacy between the land and sea, the native people, the settlers and their descen-dants. Now, on the Zodiac, I could retrace the sea and landmarks while sailing the same type of vessel that delivered settlers to Whatcom Bay in the 1850s.

"Sailing" history must be even better than "living" history! Imagine how native people saw their thick, twisted forests civilized into farms, towns and now summer homes. Imagine the wonder as Eastern city folk sailed through Rosario Strait on a long schooner pas-sage from San Francisco. The rigor of such a voyage can be appreciated on the Zodiac to-day, even though current passengers are grate-ful for the retrofit generator and flush toilets. As the weather turned wet and chilly, one won-ders how anyone ever stayed warm without polypropylene and Polartec!

We left Bellingham under motor and, due to calm conditions, the sails stayed furled. The Zodiac's captain and crew of 12 oriented the auxiliary CWB crew of 20 and assigned watches and sailing stations. Zodiac anchored in Hughes Bay. on the south east of Lopez Is-land, for the night. The life boat was taken for a twilight row by several crew, while others explored the ship, read or visited till spaghetti and garlic bread (obviously a Zodiac specialty) were served. An impromptu Celtic harp con-cert and singing attracted many to the saloon before the lights were turned down and all aboard turned in, anticipating full sails in the morning.

Sailors with coffee mugs watched from the dewy deck as sun streaks topped the east-ern mountain peaks and mist hovered between the sea and high fog in the distance. After down-ing a hearty breakfast, the crew was anxious to raise the sails and tack out of the harbor, full confidence in our captain, as we twice headed his beloved ship at the rock confines of Hughes Bay.

Actually, the tacking tactics were not lost on those of us used to sailing smaller vessels. The need to either backwind or lower the jib to allow the mainsail to turn the ship into the wind, and then quickly reset the jib made sense - and worked! We could really marvel that the captain knew exactly how to maneuver his boat so that she danced with precision. Those of us who were at the helm while Zodiac was under sail could even better appreciate the synchronicity required to turn her on a dime when necessary.

Raising and lowering the sails on the gaff-rigged schooner was the main activity and de-light of the weekend. Most of the crew had po-sitions on the lines of the mainsail, laced to a huge log boom stretching the back third of Zo-diac. First we pulled together, then the starboard throat side, then the peak on the port, again to-gether, until the sail was fully stretched. Two-thirds of the crew moved on to raise the foresail, while the rest trimmed the mainsail lines. Then the smaller but powerful staysail and jib were raised and set. Some precision was required to raise and drop and raise again the jib as the large vessel sailed off anchor and tacked into open water. The best way to learn is by practice and we were getting the hang of it.

On deck, with the mega-yards of sail stretched above, really sailing on a national his-toric treasure was a thrill. When the wind died in the afternoon, we motored to anchorage at Port Townsend. After a tour of town, supper aboard, jokes, relaxing and music, the happy and tired crew climbed into their bunks. Yes, those tight sleeping bunks with little curtains you've looked into on stationary historic ships - and they do not magically get bigger when 30 people are sleeping head to toe. Just part of living sailing history! A pounding rain squall and the roll of a wake big enough to rock the schooner only helped lull the crew into a heavy sleep.

Waking a bit slowly the third day. Pan-cakes for breakfast and then the Captain's cry: "Sailing stations, all hands on deck." The four sails were raised and set and we were sailing by nine. The wind in the sails was again a glorious sight, thrilling to feel the moving line of the big

wooden beauty, and more to be caught off guard by her list in the brisk wind.

The weekend was a working voyage for the regular crew. They brought Zodiac down to Seattle for maintenance and the CWB crew had a fantastic experience sailing the historic ship's last cruise of 1996.

Zodiac is docked at the Naval Reserve Center next to the Center for Wooden Boats. You can see her there. The owners are looking for volunteers to help with repairs on weekends. They do Elderhostels and charters throughout the year. Sail on her if you get the chance. It's quite a history- lesson. - \Iarjie Fries

TREASURES IN THE RAIN

The rain poured, the wind howled and there were several prime shopping events in town the same day but, thanks to the hard work of a hardy group of volunteers and the open pocket-books of a dedicated bunch of shoppers, CWB's Treasure Trove garage sale November 16 was a $ucce$$.

The shoppers swarmed the door even be-fore the 9 a.m. opening. By the time we wearily closed the warehouse at 5 p.m., we had taken in more than $3,000 - and cleared out some much-needed warehouse space. Not to mention that we sold a few items that had defied identification until a canny shopper came along to declare that the whatzit over there was just what he or she needed to repair a 1950 whozit.

From books to masts, oars to outboards, a large group of satisfied shoppers came through our doors. Probably the most delighted garage sale patrons were those who went home with a boat (several shoppers bought more than one!) or a trailer or both.

If you didn't make it to the garage sale, don't despair. There still are some great boat buys left, among them a delightful Chamberlain dory (full rig, sail, trailer) for just $2,500, a tidy Lake Oswego boat for $1,400 and a rowing shell we think dates to the '20s for $600. (A full list is on page 7.) Bob Perkins will be delighted to take your call - (206) 382-2628 - and haggle over the price of any one of these with you.

No story of the garage sale would be com-plete without a great big Thank You! to the vol-unteers who made it all happen on an incredibly short deadline under what can only be described as primitive conditions (coffee but no bath-r o o m s ) . So C o l l e e n , W a r r e n , D a v e , M a r c , Steve, Trip , J o h n , Bald Bob, Patrick, Charles , you can all take a bow. (You can also be certain I've got your number for the next sale!) - Judie Romeo

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INTO ENGLAND Early June, early afternoon. We drove

from Heathrow airport into London. Hot. muggy, hazy. Fields and cows just outside the airport. Islands of rowhouses topped with chimney pots. Old brick, well maintained. No industry, malls, billboards or poles and wires. Narrow irregular freeway. Following old property lines? Roman speed control?

Suddenly we passed through an invisible gate and entered urban land. From grazing cows to browsing, strolling, chattering cafe-sitting people. Wall-to-wall shops and houses. Small shops, low two- and three-story homes. Neigh-borhoods: separate, self-sufficient and allied as one. London.

We were in London because I was invited to give a talk at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. My "Making Waves" talk would be part of the Annual Wooden Boat Show, which the NMM has sponsored for the past 10 years. It would be about CWB's hand-on programs and how they serve diverse and disadvantaged people.

I also was scheduled to provide consultation on the nuts and bolts of running direct experience programs. There was extra time - but not a lot -for "must see" stuff.

Our first stop was Greenland Docks. It was a brilliant idea in Britain's early empire years: to gouge out pools alongside the river Thames in London, connect them with the river by locks and build shipyards, warehouses, custom houses and manufacturing centers around the pools. There no longer is a merchant marine for these dockyards to serve, so they have been converted into neighborhoods. Another brilliant idea. The locks, cranes, bridges have been saved. High craftsmanship in their stone work and ironwork, these pieces of functional sculpture are the icons of each dockyard. The pools have become yacht marinas and playgrounds for small craft. And history lurks about. Greenland Docks, where ships fitted out for whaling and brought back their hard-earned cargo. You can almost smell it.

A few blocks down is Deptford Naval Dockyard. There, in 1790, Vancouver got his ships Discovery and Chatham ready for their exploration of Northwest America. It's another neighborhood with some of the original brick warehouses recycled as condos.

The Thames. Silty, salty, powerfu l . Twenty-six-foot tides. Accommodated by sea-walls but not tamed. Numberless half-circle curves give a view of the river from almost any direction. At dusk, a snakey pavement of bur-nished bronze.

Upstream. The Tower Bridge, possibly the most magnificent entry to a city. The pub where Dickens wrote Great Expectations. Houses of Parliament. Christopher Wren's St. Paul's. Past the London bustle is Richmond, where time

stopped 200 years ago. A vest pocket city of el-egant buildings, lying in a crook of the Thames with park-like banks of fields and trees. A clas-sic paved plaza overlooks the river, with boat-shops building traditional Elizabethan wherries in the dark cool caverns below the plaza. Wher-ries can be rented for a pull of about 3 1/2 miles

Proprietor: Tyrone Marlow 1 -3 Bridge Boathouses, Richmond, Surrey

up to the Teddington Locks and return. The locks mark the upper end of the Port of London. We walked to the village of Petersham where we found Vancouver 's grave in the yard of St. Peter's Church along a tiny twisting two-horse-wide lane. There's a new headstone placed by the City of Vancouver: "Capt. George Vancou-ver, 1798. age 40." Not a word about his great accomplishments of surveying and diplomacy in his 1790-96 expedition to Northwest America.

We checked out a bit of the South Coast. Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, home of Mary Rose. Victory and Warrior as well as a working Royal Navy Shipyard. The world's first dry-dock was built here in 1495. Henry VIII's flagship. Mary Rose, was built here in 1505. Victory, or-

dered in 1758, the same year as Lord Nelson's birth, is still a commissioned warship. Victory and Nelson are as essential to England's identity as Camelot and King Arthur. Warrior is a prod-uct of Victorian technology—steam and sail power, advanced armament such as breech load-ing cannon and Enfield rifles. Even a steam laun-dry. Jolly Jack Sailor must have had it rather easy then, with time to rehearse for the ship's Gilbert and Sullivan productions.

Mary Rose, dripping under a perpetual shower of polyethylene glycol which stabilizes her timbers, looms dark and massive through the mist. An ominous ship of war, even in this na-ked state of keel, frames and beams.

Victory is still alive. Echoes of the Napoleonic Wars are in every triced hammock, stack of cannonballs, rack of cutlass and mus-kets. Jack Sailor had no time for the ship's cho-ral club. He was occupied with brutally hard, sweat and muscle ship handling, interrupted at irregular intervals by close-in battles involving yet more superhuman hauley-pulley effort with cannonballs. musketballs and splinters flying every which way and the brain-deadening roars and screams of gunwale-to-gunwale fighting.

A bit west of Portsmouth is Chichester Bay in West Sussex—a vast network of inlets and estuaries that has been settled since the Romans. There, at Bosham Hoe, we found The Combes Boatyard. Bosham is as quaint and neat as a tour-ist brochure of Olde England, with thatched roof cottages and Norman Churches. Almost too per-fect. It was a pleasant surprise to find Combes a rather helter skelter collection of sheds, docks, floats, lumber, machinery, spars and hundreds of wooden boats. The yard, at the upper end of the bay, dries out at low tide. Then those vessels moored to the floats and docks lie in the mother of ooze—the black mud of Chichester Bay. Bob Forsythe. wise in the craft and business of wooden boatbuilding, guided us past a close-to-expiration Thames River Barge, an on-going res-toration of a Baltic Trader, a restored and ready-to-launch Navy Pinnace and yachts designed by British legends including Hillyer. Giles, Butler and Buchanan. The yard was obviously a place which attracted yacht owners with more hope than money.

Inspection of traditional boats is a thirst-making job, so we were forced to retreat to a

4

nearby pub. We found the Anchor. It was a stone and timber structure that William the Conqueror might have visited. Paving stone floor, low ceil-ing, dark and cool. We suspected central cast-ing was involved when some chaps in morning coats and dove grey top hats stopped for a drink in their way to a wedding. The chapel was 200 yards away, yet another picture perfect masonry structure on a winding cobblestone lane. Next, a 1920's Rolls Royce glided past the Anchor with bride and father. What a show for a pint of lager! I don't know if this stuff happens at the Anchor every day, but the tide certainly does and in due time we and the other guests who came by automobile and parked in the bayside lot had to leave if we didn't want to wade out to our cars. At the Anchor, the tide table is as prominent a display as the menu. Pubs. As es-sential to British culture as tea. Located where people gathered (or maybe people gather where a pub is), friendly atmosphere, cheap food, great beer. The people's clubhouse.

Rowhouses are another foundation of En-gland. We stayed in one, Mrs. Hartley's Bed and Breakfast on Circus St., Greenwich. Built in 1696. The right scale for a small, heavily-populated island. Simple, symmetrical, elegant, understated. A central hall with rooms off both

sides. A walled garden in the back. The garden is England gone amok. A wild place where any-thing and everything is planted and flourishes.

I asked Steve, an historian, if there is knowl-edge of British plants before gardens began. Steve: "There have always been gardens in Britain."

The Annual Wooden Boat Show is a lot like British tea time. An intricate ritual in an elegant setting: The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, in the Royal Park. A grass field surrounding the Georgian Museum and Admin-istration Buildings and the Roman classical pe-riod Queens House. Hovering above all was the Royal Observatory, which made us stupidly smirk every time we strolled across zero merid-ian—the beginning of time.

The show is for small craft brought on top of vehicles or trailers. They ranged from coracles to 30' sail and power craft. Restora-tion. replicas and new designs. The exhibitors

were builders, designers, tool and gear suppliers, paint, varnish and adhesive suppliers, riggers, sail makers, and maritime publications. There was a collegial spirit. The exhibitors came to sell, but they were equally anxious to talk to each other at the show, after hours at the Plume of Feathers Pub and in their encampment in the trees fringing the lawn. Through this mutual support environment at the Greenwich meet, the Wooden Boatbuilders Trade Association was formed. Their annual mem-bership meeting is at the Greenwich show. The Association is similar to a guild, with standards of the art and craft of wooden boatbuilding that are expected of members. It is a healthy group whose mission is support of the industry, an or-ganization that symbolizes respect for each other and quality of products.

Builders came from all corners. Most were professionals. The amateurs were in the minority, but treated as equals. One of the awards, given by the magazine The Boatman, was for the best ama-teur built boat. And Classic Boat sponsored an award for the best professionally-built boat.

Most of the boats were absolute gems of design, construction and finish—dinghies, day sailers and pocket cruisers. There were lots of demonstrations and hands-on activities including wire rope splicing, fancy knotwork, sailmaking. Maine Guide canoe construction, coracle construc-tion and toy boatbuilding. The visitors, besides British, came from Germany and Holland. Halsey Herreshoff. grandson of the legendary Nathaniel,

gave the opening talk and told us an adventure story of his grandfather in his early 20s building a small sailboat on the Mediterranean coast, camping cruising the French canals and the Thames River. It was a delightful piece of inti-mate Herreshoffiana, told as if we were sitting around a pub table rather than tricked out in blaz-ers at the National Maritime Museum.

Of course pomp and ritual comes with the environment. The show officially began with the firing of an 18th Century field piece, serviced by men in period costume. We and key planners and museum trustees and staff then retreated to a lunch hosted by the Director. Several courses and wines. A great mahogany table, surrounded by hovering servants and overlooked by mag-nificent maritime paintings of the museum. We were immersed, for the moment, in a world of lords and ladies. Oxford and Cambridge, Con-stable and Turner. Back at the show there was a pond to try out coracles, canoes and toy boats. There were food booths in each corner of the

show and a pub in a tent, to enhance the friendly, convivial setting.

The trip introduced us to high tea, pubs, the ploughman's lunch. Traditions. Great histori-cal vessels. The last of the best. And wrapped around all, the people. Warm, considerate, good-humored and knowledgeable. We came to give information about CWB. We left with more than we gave. A seabag of life-lasting impressions. And weary feet. No wonder British Air hands out free eyeshades and socks for the trip home. -Dick Wagner

20 Circus St., Greenwich

Amateur Award contestants. - photo by Colleen Wagner

5

The Maritime Museum from the Old Observatory. - photo by Colleen Wagner

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

Every 3rd Friday CWB THIRD FRIDAY SPEAKER SERIES 8:00 p.m. CWB Boathouse

Each month CWB finds a speaker of wit and experience to talk about his or her special knowledge. It is also an opportunity for CWB members to meet one another and the staff. Re-freshments served (donations to cover costs are appreciated).

December 29, 1996 (Sunday) FROSTBITE POTLATCH

This is one of our four membership gath-erings. but open to all guests of members too. The purpose is to show off our collections, give a rundown on our plans and have some recre-ational sailing. Members and guests are wel-come to bring their boats. There will be a pot-luck dinner. A $5 donation is requested for the use of our boats.

January 17, 1997 CWB THIRD FRIDAY SPEAKER SERIES 8:00p.m CWB Boathouse

Jim Cole on "The Evolution of Fishing Vessels of the Northwest." Cole, a professional in ship design and repair, is a leading authority on fishing boat heritage. He has created a won-derful collection of slides and drawings.

February 1,1997 TOUR OF BRITANNIA HERITAGE SHIP-YARD. STEVESTON. BRITISH COLUMBIA. Fee: $35/$40 plus lunch

An all-day trip by plush bus to a thriving fishing village at the mouth of the Fraser River. We will visit an historic shipyard, cannery, boatworks, talk to volunteers restoring fishing boats and visit the fishing boat marina where most of the old classics are still working.

Limited to 47 participants.

February 9, 1997 VENETIAN DELIGHTS DINNER AND TALK 6:00 CWB Boathouse

The dinner will be a taste of Venice at its sensuous best, featuring seafood. The talk will celebrate the Venetian Gondola, a boat that has become a cultural icon. Norman and Sheila Warsinske of Bellevue will tell us what made them decide to purchase an historic gondola in Venice and learn to operate it. Norm will show the video he made: "Object of Desire: An Ameri-can Affair with the Gondola." Attendees of the dinner/talk will have a chance to ride the gon-dola (in groups of six) on the day before. Lim-ited to 50 guests.

February 17, 1997 CWB Third Friday Speaker Series FAMOUS SQUARE RIGGERS: MARITIME MUSEUMS AND ENGLISH BARGES 8:00p.m CWB Boathouse

Chas Dowd, seaman, literati and racon-teur will give a slide talk on some of his experi-ences knocking around waterfronts from the Duwamish, U.S., to the Thames, U.K.. Chas has a sharp eye for good boats and an encyclopedic memory of maritime history.

February 22 and 23, 1997 ANNUAL BOOK SALE 10 a.m - 5p.m CWB Boathouse

An astonishing range of books is found at this sale from history to how-to. Sales benefit the Center for Wooden Boats and the Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society.

March 1, 1997 ANNUAL CWB AUCTION Yale St. Landing. 6:30p.m

Each year, through the auction, thousands of dollars are raised to help fund CWB's ongo-ing educational programs offered to the public.

Your support, either as an item donor or as a bidding participant at the auction, will go for: maintaining the boats; the mainstay of our hands-on museum, providing special programs for local disadvantaged youth and the diverse populations of our community; building our li-brary collection, and information resources such as monographs on historic boat designs.

Items in past auctions have included va-cation getaways, great dinners at local restau-rants and lots of nautical novelties, gift certifi-cates and services.

March 8,1997 TOUR OF THE COLUMBIA RIVER MARITIME MUSEUM, ASTORIA OREGON. Fee: $35/$40 plus lunch.

Travel in a comfortable bus to the historic town of Astoria. We will visit a world-class mu-seum and learn the intriguing maritime heritage of the Columbia River region. The newest ex-hibit. "Exploradores." examines the little-known era of Spanish control of the Northwest.

April 27, 1997 (Sunday SPRING CRUISE Noon-8 p.m Membership meeting at 1 p.m

The spring cruise is an annual time-cap-sule adventure. This year it will be 1897. Seattle is turned upside down when the steamer Port-land arrives with a bunch of miners just down from the Klondike and a ton of gold dust. Down in Humbolt Bay, California, the 165' schooner Wawona had just been launched to carry the Douglas fir timbers from the mills of the North-

west to all ports on the Pacific Ocean. Prizes for costumes and best potluck supper. Registration for use of one of our boats is $5 - or bring your own.

May 17 & 18, 1997 STEAMBOAT MEET 10 a.m- 5 p.m, CWB North Floats

Call me Puffin. I am a steamboat. I get lots of oil squirted on all my joints. It smells funny, but I like it. My owner keeps feeding me with wood, coal or oil. Yummy! My owner some-times taps my gauges that show how much steam pressure I have. That tickles. My owner is happy to talk all about my pistons, boiler and stuff like that. It sort of embarrasses me, but my owner really is proud of me, and he likes others to know about it. I let my owner toot my whistle because we both love the sound and it is a great stress reliever for both of us. We want you to come down and take free rides on me and my cousins. We will let you toot the whistle, too.

MARINE SKILLS WORKSHOPS

All year 'round LEARN TO ''SAIL NOW!" FEE: $150 PER PERSON (INCLUDES A ONE-YEAR CWB MEMBERSHIP) 11a.m to 1 p.m Saturday & Sunday - also at 1:30p.m to 3:30p.m Saturday & Sunday Instructor: Volunteers

Students will learn to sail classic boats in one session of classroom work as many sessions of hands-on instruction in our small boats, no more than three students per instructor. Students will graduate when able to sail a variety of keel, centerboard, sloop and catboats by instinct. You may begin any Saturday, space permitting. Please call ahead for reservations. For the student who is only free on weekdays, or prefers one-on-one instruction, we continue to offer individual les-sons ($20/hour) on weekdays. Call for an ap-pointment.

February 8 and 9,1997 LOFTING WORKSHOP Fee: $115/$125 8:30 a.m to 5:30p.m CWB Boathouse Instructor: Eric Hvalsoe

Students will loft a classic boat from a table of offsets. This workshop will enable stu-dents to read plans and understand the arcane mysteries of bevels, rabbet lines, deductions and construction drawings. Eric Hvalsoe is an expe-rienced boatbuilder and designer. He has con-ducted lofting and boat building workshops for more than 10 years. This class is highly recom-mended as a prerequisite for our boat building workshops. Limited to 6 students.

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February 22 - March 1, 1997 LAPSTRAKE WORKSHOP Fee: $550/$575 8:30 a.m. to 5:30p.m CWB Boathouse Instructor: Eric Hvalsoe

Lapstrake construction utilizes overlap-ping planks in the great tradition of the Viking long boats. It is one of the best ways to build a dinghy or tender. Students will build a favorite pulling boat, the 15' Acme. This will be a replica of an 1890's Seattle livery boat, which is in our collection. The instructor, a nationally recognized boatbuilder, has led dozens of CWB workshops. Basic woodworking skills are required. Limited to 7 students.

March 7, 8 and 9, 1997 MARINE CABINET MAKING WORKSHOP Fee: $ I00/$115 9:00 a.m to 3:00 p.m CWB Boathouse Instructor: Craig Kirkby

The purpose of the class is to expose the students to the intricacies of marine cabinetry. A plan is presented of a cabinet that is fit into a curved wall space on the interior of a boat. Stu-dents will draw a more specific plan during the design phase of the course. Students will work in pairs to build their own cabinet designed spe-cifically to introduce them to yacht joinery. Rab-bets, dadoes, tenons, raised panels, plugs and sea rails will all be a part of the design.

March 9,1997 STRIP PLANKED KAYAK SEMINAR Fee: $25/$30 9 a.m to 3 p.m CWB Boathouse Instructor: Prof. Paul Ford

Strip planking is a hybrid technology. Thin 1/4" strips of wood are edge-glued to form the hull shape. Then the planks are encased in fiber-glass for strength and water proofing. The result is a strong, rigid, light "sandwich" construction. This is the only class at the Center that discusses extensive use of fiberglass.

The instructor is experienced in strip build-ing and effectively provides students with the technical information needed - in a seminar ses-sion - to enable them to build their own kayak using the strip planked method. Limited to 20.

March 29-30, 1997 OAR MAKING WORKSHOP Fee: $100/$125 9 a.m to 5 p.m CWB Boatshop Instructor: Rich Kolin

A good set of oars makes all the differ-ence. Rich Kolin will instruct students in tradi-tional oar making techniques, making 8' spoons, straight oars and a variety of handle styles and leathers. The first morning will be lecture instruc-tion on design physics and construction tech-niques; the rest of the weekend students will team up to make a set of oars for the CWB livery. Rich

sells these oars for about $200 a set. Limited to 10 students.

April 14-19 and April 21-26, 1997 (two sepa-rate classes, each Monday-Saturday) MAINE GUIDE CANOE WORKSHOP Fee: $500-$550 8:30 a.m - 5p.m each day CWB Boatshop Instructor: Jerry Stelmok

Students will build a classic canvas-on-wood canoe. Jerry Stelmok of Maine is the pre-mier builder of this type of canoe, has written the definitive book on canvas and wood canoe building and has taught several classes on the subject. Students must have woodworking ex-perience. Maximum 6 students.

NOTE: Fees indicate member/non-mem-ber costs. A $100 non-refundable deposit is re-quired with registration for all boat building workshops, with the balance payable one week prior to the workshop. Pre-payment in full will insure your place in all other workshops. Classes will be canceled or postponed if fewer than four students register.

VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR

NOMINATION Each year the Center for Wooden Boats

asks its members to nominate a volunteer who fits the description on the permanent trophy in our library: "In recognition of the highest quali-ties of volunteerism: Dedication, enthusiasm, leadership and commitment to the goals of the Center for Wooden Boats. "The Volunteer of the Year is the volunteer who receives the most nominations for this award. In the event two or more people receive the same number of nomi-nations, the previous Volunteers of the Year will decide which person is most deserving of the honor. All nominees will be announced and all volunteers will be honored at the Spring Cruise. The 1997 Spring Cruise will be April 27.

Please turn in your nomination, describ-ing why you've chosen this person as Volunteer of the Year. All nominations are due at the Cen-ter by April 6, 1997.

THESE VESSELS ARE CURRENTLY

OFFERED FOR SALE BY CWB:

Blanchard Seniors: We have two for sale. Both are 26'. Both are project boats, each needing different kinds of work. $1,200 OBO.

Folkboat: 1 lull in good shape but needs new transom. Deck and cabin need work. In-cludes outboard and radar. $5,000 OBO.

'32 Jensen powerboat: 1937. Well-built, double diagonal plank. Hull very sound. Needs new engine. $5,000 OBO.

Lightnings: Two. One with trailer. $100. $400 w/. trailer OBO.

Lake Oswego Boat: $1,400. Lovely double-ended rowing skiff. Good shape, a few split planks easily repaired.

Rowing shell: $600. Circa 1920? Com-pletely intact. Needs gunwales.

Chamberlain Dory skiff: 13', w/trailer. Excellent shape, needs refinishing. Includes tanbark gaff rig. $2,500.

Blanchard 33 Seawind: Classic N'west cruiser. $10,000. One of the favorite boats in our fleet but she's for sale at the right price.

FOR SALE 12 ft Porta-bote & 4 hp Johnson both excellent 363-4236 Bob Hayward

NORMA BEACH WHARF - Build your Boat with Boat Builders... large indoor wa-terfront workshop. lockers, shop tools & hoists. Long Term Storage and Launching facilities for Boats, Kayaks & Canoes. 14725 Norma Beach Road, Edmonds, WA 98026(206) 742-7100

T A H I T I , F R E N C H P O L Y N E S I A Jerry Stelmok teaches wood-and-canvas ca-noe building course. March 31-April 4. $695 (course, lodging, meals) BIRCHBARK CANOE BUILDING COURSES. Summer, 1997, on Lake Su-perior (Wisconsin). $850, including lodg-ing. David Gidmark. Dept. 4B. Box 26. Maniwaki. Quebec J9E 3B3.

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Check out the new merchandise at CWB!

Shirts, hats, mugs, posters and more.

Drop in today or call 382-2628 for a catalog.

SOLD TO THE GENTLEMAN IN THE

DENIM SHIRT! The Center for Wooden Boats annual

auction is March 1, 1997. and the search for auction items is on now! We're currently look-ing for friendly voices to contact potential do-nors for services, skills, items and adventures for this year's extravaganza. Additional volun-teer opportunities include assisting with adver-tising, invitations, catering, transport, set-up, decor and clean up.

Please get involved in the most impor-tant. and by far the most glamorous fund-raising event of the year and help us make 1997 the most successful auction yet. For more infor-mation, please call Margaret Huchting at 382-2628.

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