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Picture My Boating Experience
By way of introduction to my experience restoring boats, the attached pictures and links tell the story pretty well.

I have always lived and breathed boats which started back in 1954 when I gutted and caulked an old oak refrigerator and launched her on a cranberry bog reservoir in Duxbury, MA. My love affair with Puget sound started 3 years later, on Brown’s Point, when my dad and I saw an old navy launch for sale at the marina immediately west of the current Crow’s Nest Marina. Given that background one can well imagine my great pleasure at the prospect of returning to the unsurpassed cruising waters of the Pacific Northwest.

My first boat was a 32’ Hascall designed, Tregoning built cruiser called WINIKIN. When I purchased her in 1972, she looked as pictured below near C Dock at Shilshole Bay Marina. When I sold her she looked as she does now at: https://classicyacht.org/boats/winikin

Two years after buying WINIKIN I used her as security for the down payment on BLUE WATER, a 52’ Hanson designed, Tregoning built, ketch rigged motor sailor.

I bought her at a U.S. Marshall’s foreclosure sale when she looked like this:

After 10 years of living on, repowering, restoring, adding an aft cabin to her and sailing/cruising throughout the waters of Puget Sound and Southern British Columbia, BLUE WATER looked as shown below just prior the the auction.

I sold her for the seed capital to start the development of Elliott Bay Marina.

In 1984, being without a boat and under great pressure to give up my slip from the manager at Shilshole Bay Marina, I purchased the 26’ U.S. Navy designed, Uniflite built, liberty launch “26PE6715” for $1800, launched her looking as shown below on the hard and put her in my slip. I hand scribbled her new name, “SLIPKEEPER”, and had her documented as a licensed U.S. Vessel in the Coastwise Trade. SLIPKEEPER today, after three repowerings, 30 years of cruising Puget Sound, Lake Chelan and the waters surrounding Marco Island, Florida and 7000+miles of trucking, she appears as she does now, rafted to the barge GLEIPNER at Day Island:

In 1986 I purchased a brand new 48’ Fuhriman designed, Xiamen Celestial Yachts (Chinese) built ketch FOB Hong Kong harbor, which looked as she did when delivered aboard the container ship ORIENTAL DIPLOMAT at the docks on Harbor Island. I christened her “REBA” (a play on my nick name aber), commissioned her myself, a months’ long process, until she looked as she did in the picture below off Shilshole Bay.

I sailed REBA for 10 years throughout Puget Sound, Canadian Waters, the Columbia River estuary and coastal waters in between. In 1996, having moved to Alpental and become oriented upon mountain living, I sold REBA, moved SLIPKEEPER to Lake Chelan and raised two daughters in the Cascade Mountains.

REBA has had quite a life since I owned her. Steve and Jamie Sidels sailed her for many years throughout the South Pacific and the Gulf of California. Another of the pics below (a favorite of mine) is of the Sidels on REBA off Morea with a bone in her teeth; and one of their many cruising articles can be found at: https://www.latitude38.com/changes/Changes06-06.html. Her name was then changed to AHMEEK by Dennis Gray and Sherri Gibson who have been sailing from San Diego to Cabo and throughout the Gulf of California since purchasing her a few years ago. The last entry in their blog showing her on the hard at San Carlos, Mexico can be found at: https://www.sailblogs.com/member/ahmeek/?xjMsgID=340761

In 2008 I moved with SLIPKEEPER to Marco Island with the idea of relaxing in the warm waters of the 10,000 Islands between Cape Ramano and Key West. As I started doing so, however, my attention was drawn to an abandoned Bristol 34, which was in deplorable shape, but had a serviceable diesel engine and passable suit of sails. When my offer of $250 dollars was accepted, my latest, and most likely last, boat rehabilitation was begun. I named her MARGI after my lovely wife and restored her as shown below.
The progress of that odyssey can be seen, although in a most jumbled order, at:
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/BristolYachts/photos/albums/1014781580.

In 2013, after 5 years of fighting the heat, electrical storms, poorly maintained navigational aids and shoal draft sailing of Southwest Florida; and, having rekindled my desire to enjoy cruising under sail, I began an online search for a place on Puget Sound where I could enjoy the delight of having my two boats moored in front of my home, as I did on Marco Island. It took two years of searching and bird dogging likely parcels, but I managed to locate one of the very few lots on the east shore of Puget Sound (i.e. no ferry or long drive to get to the VA, Home Depot or Nordstrom’s) with the potential for protected moorage directly on the Sound. It was located on Day Island, WA and upon the lot was a fixer upper in the true sense of the word (To the point that my darling wife, S/V MARGI’s namesake, found the word “dump” to be apropos). Upon our first visit to the property, Margi, having made the aforementioned observation, I knew I had my work cut out for me; but, more importantly, I confirmed that about 20 feet off shore on the accompanying submerged lot was a solid 20’ x 12” pile and thirty feet from it, at 45 degree angles were two more identical pilings. The import of those pilings cannot be over emphasized Because the restrictions upon building docks and other waterfront improvements under Washington’s draconian Shoreline Management Act it would nearly impossible to install the typical dock, ramp and moorage float at that location. However, such a triangle of solid pilings provided a perfect location to moor such a thing as a 50’ by 15’ barge with a 30’ gangplank to which one could easily raft his 34’ Bristol Sloop and 27’ diesel day cruiser. Thanks to my 15 year training course in shoreline development that the Elliott Bay Marina project provided, I found I had enough remaining contacts to locate such a “barge” and “gangplank” on the Tacoma waterfront. I tied them up with a deposit, guaranteed the owner (whose intention it had been to demolish both for recycling, the very next week) that I would return by the 1st of December, four months hence, and we went back to Florida to go about arranging our relocation and that of our boats.

The relocation was another odyssey, of some eight months’ duration. First came the transformation of SLIPKEEPER from a 27’ day cruiser back to the shipping container that she had been for her trip from Washington to Florida seven years before (happily I had saved the plywood and 2 x4’s from that experience-all of which had been handy for boarding up our house in anticipation of the various hurricanes that had threatened us since arriving) and stuffing her to the gills with all that we could for the move. Next, arranging for her shipment from the closest yard on Marco Island.

This was no easy task as that yard is an expensive place where you are not allowed to do any of your own work and are expected to strictly conform to their schedule on pain of added fees and delays. That combined with the fact that the trucker had his schedule demands imposed by record cold forecasts for virtually his entire route (It was now November); and, my “shipping container” was no longer operable as a day cruiser, which meant I had to tow her to the yard with my Bristol 34 that draws 5’6”, allowing only a small window of feasibility within each tide cycle. I got it shipped, though and basked in the luxury of knowing that SLIPKEEPER was headed to a yard in Seattle owned by a former client and close friend who had launched her when I bought her for $1800 back in 1984 (The launching pictured above). I knew that he would treat me in the manner to which I had become accustomed as somewhat of a mover and shaker on the Puget Sound waterfront.

Next, with the acquisition of a 10’ trailer that I loaded with all the additional stuff that I could haul with my ride of choice, my somewhat restored, antique 1975 GMC Jimmy, I headed for Seattle via LA (I had missed the window my trucker had grabbed and nothing was moving north of I-10 and east of I-5). While the first day amounted to a false start of 80 miles that necessitated Margi coming to pick me up and returning me with a new distributor to install the next day, it allowed us to enjoy a wonderful meal at Carrabba’s and an unexpected night together, much softening my leave taking. The rest of the trip was uneventful, though grueling. My itinerary called for me to get to Day Island, some 3400 miles, unload a few things destined for our newest project, drive 40 miles to SLIPKEEPER in Seattle, changer her back from a shipping container to a day cruiser, load a few things that, in addition to what remained in the trailer, were destined to furnish our rental home 180 miles and two nasty passes further, in Chelan, WA.

We had had our Chelan home vacated for our return while I transformed the “dump”. Once I had unloaded the trailer in Chelan, I had to get back to SLIPKEEPER, unload and transport the rest of her cargo (Primarily power and hand tools) destined for Day Island, return, recommission, launch and run her the 30 miles to Tacoma in time to pick up my barge and gangplank. My best efforts at keeping to that itinerary placed me back at an unloaded SLIPKEEPER two days before I was due in Tacoma in the middle of a very rare (for Seattle) blizzard. I worked and slept in my foulies to put the fly-bridge, controls, etc. back together over those two days and nights to awake on the morning of the day I was due in Tacoma on a snow covered but theoretically functional diesel day cruiser and spectacularly beautiful winter day. Had the view from the deck on the hard out over Seaview West boat yard to the Olympic Mountains been any less inspiring I might just have slit my wrists. As it was, at midday on Monday, December 1st, with the help of a heater to melt the ice in the bilge and the replacement of the frozen starter motor with my always carried spare, I was underway on Elliott Bay and Puget Sound waters with which I had become familiar through over 50 years of the most wonderful boating imaginable. Despite the sobering thought that I was commencing a rather ambitious shake-down cruise, I don’t think I have ever felt more at home on any deck anywhere.

My plan was to arrive at the Marine Floats Company’s wharf on the Thea Foss Waterway, take delivery of my barge and gangplank and tow them at 2 knots the six miles to Point Defiance at the north entrance to the Tacoma Narrows (the Narrows) where a protected public dock is available. The Narrows is a fascinating body of water about six miles long, two to four hundred feet deep and a mile wide. The tides in Puget Sound vary as much as 17 feet and the southern half of Puget Sound must disgorge all of its water through the Narrows creating a powerful river that flows as much as six knots with whirlpools and tidal falls that are spectacular indeed. Any vessel intending to transit the Narrows with a substantial tow and any hope of success will only attempt to do so at slack tide prior to the flood if going south and at slack tide prior to ebb if going north. I intended to part the public dock at Point Defiance at 7am on December 2nd just at slack prior to flood which would allow me to ride that flood at 3 to 5 knots right into Day Harbor, between Day Island and the mainland, which lies at the south end of the Narrows.

The trip south to Tacoma was idyllic, sparkling sunshine, following breeze at 10 to 15 knots, blue sky and snowcapped Olympics and Cascades to the west and east respectively. Marred only by the fact that the breeze died for the last few miles and the resultant rising apparent wind combined with a lowering sunshine should have prompted me to either go below or add some layers. Having not done so, I realized that I had become quite chilled as I pulled into the waterway and that I would need to warm myself up significantly before heading out to Point Defiance.
Not to worry though, for as I approached Marine Floats’ wharf I noticed that my barge was moored under a crane from which, suspended in midair, was my gangplank. Upon arriving, I was advised that the engine on the crane had died as they prepared to load the gangplank aboard in anticipation of my arrival. The needed repair could not be accomplished until morning. In discussions with the owner, a friend of a friend; because the timing for catching the tide at the narrows was now bad, northerlies were predicted to build the next day that would mean the run across Commencement Bay to Point Defiance would be off a lee shore for the entire distance; and, because my dear and badly missed Margi was due to fly into SeaTac Airport on the next day, we agreed to postpone my taking delivery into the next week. I moored SLIPKEEPER alongside the barge, accepted the loan of a company car and drove over to Day Island for a well needed rest, enjoying a fine meal at one of my old haunts in Tacoma, where I had grown up as well as spending a year while stationed at Fort Lewis, along the way.
The next week, after a happy reunion with Margi, I was able to choose a day with slack/flood at the Narrows at noon, giving me all morning of what turned out to be a perfectly calm day to traverse Commencement Bay. I christened my barge “GLEIPNER” applied appropriate signage reflecting her status as a named vessel with a hailing port, reached Point Defiance right on time and shared the joy ride through the Narrows with a local tug and its quite large log tow. GLEIPNER was nicely moored with SLIPKEEPER comfortably rafted alongside in front of our future home, the relocation of the first half of my fleet was accomplished and I had the winter to perfect the moorage arrangement to accommodate MARGI’s 5’6” draft and make the “dump” habitable for Margi, my wife.
In April of 2015, I returned to Marco Island, loaded MARGI aboard a trailer to be delivered to a user friendly yard in Olympia, WA, 20 miles south of Day Island. I rented a 20’ van and car trailer, packed all of the rest of our belongings into the van, loaded our car on the trailer and beat feet for Chelan where I unloaded everything, turned in the van and trailer and headed for Olympia and the awaiting S/V MARGI.
I attacked her bottom of which I had never seen more than the pictures of her aground in the early pictures of my MARGI folder posted on our site. Two weeks of 14 hour days later I launched MARGI with a bottom that had been sanded bare, ground at spots where needed, sealed with two epoxy barrier coats and painted with two coats of the latest and best anti fouling bottom paint available, new lettering, accent strip and boot top. In addition, I had rebuilt the shaft log, mounted a beautiful new Michigan 12”x10” bronze propeller in place of the electrolyzed partial relic that appears in the above referenced pictures. Imagine my delight when, as I transited Olympia harbor, I discovered that she was doing 6 knots at 2200rpm and that she would run up to 3000rpm underway (I had never been able to get more than 5 knots and 2000rpm with the old warn out shaft log, cutlass bearing and prop).
The day was as beautiful as it gets and I had one of the very best cruises under power of my life time as I made my way up through the islands of South Puget Sound on a very nearly completely restored and delightful to ride Bristol 34. See the latest pics in the MARGI folder and look closely at the shots of the horizon over the starboard and aft rails. You will get a little bit of an idea of just how incomparably beautiful cruising on Puget Sound can be. And keep in mind that it is available 365 days a year and continues for more than a thousand miles to the waters of the Gulf of Alaska. As those pics show, my fleet now rests comfortably in front of my fixer upper (At least it’s no longer a dump), we have enjoyed nearly a year of truly magnificent boating and I can wish nothing better for you all than to hope you get to experience cruising in the Pacific Northwest at least once in your lives. While I had suspected it before, I now can confirm that I have found the promised land.
After 4 years at Day Island of continued work and enjoyment of Puget Sound on MARGI, we’ve sold her upon purchase of a long abandoned Valiant 40, which I am positive is my last boat restoration project. We have renamed her MARGI II and am well on my way to having her fit for the spring of 2019.
13 07-12-2018 14:11


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