Out my window

[62816inBerlin]

You should follow the irate discussions in the associated forum thread. That is an evening's entertainment.
The view from my office window is boring, most of the time <sigh>.


Gernot H.

[ron ll]

Couple of fish boats. Nothing too exciting this morning. Weekends are when most of the interesting traffic goes by, but I'm not here on weekends these days.

[ron ll]

One of the late returnees from the Bell Harbor Rendezvous. I believe this is Shearwater, altho I can't be sure from here. Kathy and I had a chance to go aboard Shearwater (among others) at Bell Harbor on Sunday. The trouble with doing that is that Kathy comes home with a lot of expensive ideas.

[BETTY-B]

[BETTY-B]

[BETTY-B]

[BETTY-B]

[BETTY-B]

[BETTY-B]

What the ef?

[BETTY-B]

[BETTY-B]

[BETTY-B]

[BETTY-B]

[Gerarddm]

Beautiful craft but migawd you have to have deep pockets to keep one up and run her.

[ron ll]

Speaking of deep pockets, most Shilshole residents will recognize Maris Pearl, a tug converted to pleasure boat.
(I'm always a little late on the trigger when they are inbound as I don't see them coming in time).

[BETTY-B]

Sheesh! I sure didnt mean to bring your thread to a halt by posting all those pics, Ron. For those that dont know, that is where they all ended up after Ron had mentioned them last week on their way by his window bound for the CYA Bell Street Rendezvous.

[ron ll]

Sheesh! I sure didnt mean to bring your thread to a halt by posting all those pics, Ron. For those that dont know, that is where they all ended up after Ron had mentioned them last week on their way by his window bound for the CYA Bell Street Rendezvous.

Not at all Dan. There are other reasons for my postings being scarce lately. For some reason, just not a lot of traffic this week, and what there is seems to be repeats of boats we have already seen. And the fishing boats are all starting to look the same to me. If I catch anything new and interesting, I'll post it.

[ron ll]

Here's a troller for your viewing pleasure.

[ron ll]

And here's a Thunderbird. There must be many stories out there of some of you having experience with a Thunderbird at one time in your boating career. I was going to add a brief history of the design, but Tad or someone else can probably do a better job. If you had a Tbird, tell us your story.

[TerryLL]

Here's a troller for your viewing pleasure.

Ummm...
Not a troller, at least not in its current configuration. Not a bit of troll gear on deck, and that high transom would make trolling difficult. The poles might have been used for trolling at one time, and retained for the stabies. But with no gear on board, no boom, no seine block, no drag gear, I'd have to say this boat is in the tending business.

[ron ll]

See, that's why I rely on you guys for the descriptions. Thanks Terry.

So what does a "tender" do?

[Mad Scientist]

I was just enjoying the photos here - again - when I noticed the 'stowaway' aboard Cle Illahee's tender in post #511.

Heh heh...

Tom

[TerryLL]

See, that's why I rely on you guys for the descriptions. Thanks Terry.

So what does a "tender" do?

Generally a tender would go to where the boats are fishing, offload their fish and deliver them to a processing plant, allowing the catcher fleet to keep fishing. In the herring fishery the tenders pump the fish out of the brailed purse seine right into their own holds, allowing the seiners to keep their holds nice and clean.

[Lew Barrett]

Beautiful craft but migawd you have to have deep pockets to keep one up and run her.

A few are live-aboards, others are in various stages and situations but you do need to make choices with these things.

[TR]

There's a nice picture of Thunderbird #1 here.......http://www.dahp.wa.gov/blog/2011/05/...-wonder-no-18/

The Thunderbird was the result of a product (Fir Plywood) looking for a use. In the mid 1950's PNW Plywood manufacturers had some sort of contest for a boat that could be built using their material. Ben Seaborn worked with Ed Hoppen of Gig Harbour to sort out the design and construction. I still can remember seeing the plans available on the self at a local building supply, I think they were $5.00. I don't think Ben ever saw any money from it but well over 1000 of the 26' Thunderbirds were built, including later fiberglass versions. There are still active racing fleets in various parts of the world. Seaborn had worked for Boeing during the war and brought aviation technology (lightweight engineering and scientific foils) to boat design. At the time he, Bill Lapworth, and Skip Calkins (both in California) were two generations ahead of Olin Stephens with separate fin keels and spade rudders.

[Garret]

As the owner of a Seaborn boat, I've read up on him some. The Thunderbird was exactly as Tad said, but you can see the influences of what he learned designing it in many of his later designs. Not as pretty as his early boats (I'm prejudiced ) - but great sailers from what I've heard.

[John B]

I don't think we got Thunderbirds here but I do love the Tadpole schooner, we had one here. And of course part of the brief for the design was to make use of an old Thunderbird keel.

[ron ll]

The other early spade rudder, fin keel boat in the PNW was the Blanchard Sr. Knockabout. I had B22 and I could easily outfoot a Tbird in very light wind. But if a breeze and a little chop came up, the Tbirds were gone and I was left reefing and bailing.

[johnw]

The other early spade rudder, fin keel boat in the PNW was the Blanchard Sr. Knockabout. I had B22 and I could easily outfoot a Tbird in very light wind. But if a breeze and a little chop came up, the Tbirds were gone and I was left reefing and bailing.

Not sure I've ever seen one without broken and sistered frames. Some of those frames even had cousins.

[ron ll]

Not sure I've ever seen one without broken and sistered frames. Some of those frames even had cousins.

Yeah, but that's why they were so good in light wind .

[johnw]

And why they were cheap!

[Durnik]

I was just enjoying the photos here - again - when I noticed the 'stowaway' aboard Cle Illahee's tender in post #511.

Heh heh...

Tom

Good catch! With my bad eyes, I presumed it was a hanging rudder! ;-)

enjoy
bobby

[ron ll]

And why they were cheap!

Yes they were cheap, as were the Tbirds. But both fleets in the '70s were very active and well cared for. But moorage was cheap then. So Blanchards and Tbirds were great entry level boats for young people. I bought my Blanchard in 1974 in VERY good shape for $2400. And I remember being outraged that the moorage in Lake Union doubled when I bought it. It went from $7.50 per month to $15.00 per month. Now it would be hard to find a place near Seattle to keep a Blanchard or Tbird for less than $3-400 per month. That keeps the boats from being bought by the kids who would be happy to keep them up. So both fleets have suffered.

[BrianW]

Ummm...
Not a troller, at least not in its current configuration. Not a bit of troll gear on deck, and that high transom would make trolling difficult. The poles might have been used for trolling at one time, and retained for the stabies. But with no gear on board, no boom, no seine block, no drag gear, I'd have to say this boat is in the tending business.

Good eye. But the lack of a decent crane makes me wonder if it's even ready to tender. I'd say it's been stripped of anything usable. Maybe ready for a retrofit?

[BrianW]

The Ginny C had two cranes when we owned her....





We didn't really offload two gillnetters at once. I'm not sure if we had two scales or not (I was deckhanding on my own boat) but just keeping track of alternating brailer bags would set up a situation where someone might feel slighted. A second boat could, and often did, tie up on the opposite side though, while waiting it's turn.

Funny thing... some of the gillnetters were good at handling their boats when empty. But you'd be surprised how many hit us pretty hard when loaded and coming up to offload. They just weren't use to that much mass I guess.

Hold full with 90,000lbs of salmon...

[Irv Mac Dowell]

The Gig Harbor Boatshop has just relaunched Thunderbird #2 after an extensive renovation. Pictures are on their website.

Best regards,

Irv

[TerryLL]

I do miss that place from time to time.

[five guys named moe]

I don't think we got Thunderbirds here but I do love the Tadpole schooner, we had one here. And of course part of the brief for the design was to make use of an old Thunderbird keel.

Lots of T-Birds in Aus though! They are cool boats!

[TR]

I don't think we got Thunderbirds here but I do love the Tadpole schooner, we had one here. And of course part of the brief for the design was to make use of an old Thunderbird keel.

I believe you're on about the Toadstool?........ Designed by William Garden, who on occasion was influenced by Ben Seaborn.

[Old Dryfoot]

With the interest in Thunderbirds being expressed, I just thought I'd mention that I do know of one for sale here. If anyone is interested, PM me and I'll pass along the info.

[Lew Barrett]

Lots of them here, probably something of a center for them and one can presume they were drawn with local use and conditions well in mind.

[TR]

This boat lost steering and ended up on a beach between Cordova and Yakutat.

I have not heard if she has been refloated.
That is a tough neighborhood to have a problem in...

I had a note this morning from a friend concerning the St. Joseph. (Actually she was the St. Joseph II)

He wrote.......
"dismayed to see a photo of St. Joseph lying on her beam ends high and dry. She seined in B.C. prior to being sold to America. The Boroevich family owned her for many years and had great sucess in the heyday of the roe herring fishery. I have lost many of my photos of the early days of that fishery but to the best of my recollection she had an aluminum house and bulwarks at that time. I have no idea in which yard she was built but it would be interesting to find a photo or two of her with her original house. To the best of my knowledge, Joe Boroevich (maybe the son of the original owner) is still seining. He has a steel Manly seiner called the Ante B but he kept St. Joseph for several years after Ante B was built and always had her in pretty nice shape. A sad end for a good boat."

From here http://www.nauticapedia.ca/dbase/Que...t=St.%20Joseph we learn a few more details of St. Joseph.......

It seems she was built 1941 in Vancouver, as this was during WWII, at a guess she was built for Department of National Defense. In 1942-47' she was a transport vessel for RC Army Service Corps. 1949-61' owned by Ante Boroevich, Vancouver (I guess the father). In 2004 owned by Sandyne Fishing of Delta, which could be the son Joe.

What is often forgotten is that these boats represented wealth, success, jobs, independence, and a future for entire extended families. The typical smallish seiner fished salmon with a 5-6 man crew, usually they were related. The skipper, cook, and engineer were old guys and the rest were sons or nephews. In this way the knowledge and experience was passed on to the next generation. In the 1970's seiners fished salmon for 3-4 months (roughly 3 days per week) in summer plus a month of herring fishing in March-February. Today they might get only a few days fishing per year, and herring might last only a few hours. This will not support a family.

[TR]

Couple of fish boats. Nothing too exciting this morning. Weekends are when most of the interesting traffic goes by, but I'm not here on weekends these days.

Polar Lady would have been built as a Berring Sea (King) Crabber. She is steel and might be one of the many standard Marco (Marine Design & Construction Co. now closed) Crabbers built in sizes from about 95' to 120'. All the aluminum gear on her deck may be freight headed for Alaska, there's a new seine skiff there and a bunch of weighing/grading/sorting chutes. I don't know much about current Alaskan fishing practice so it could be destined for a cannery or her own fish buying setup.

Lake Bay is a production fiberglass 58' Delta seiner. She'll be headed for Alaska to chase salmon. You can see the net stacked on her aft deck. Other key equipment is the power skiff and the power block (to haul the net back) hanging from the main boom. It's interesting seeing the different fishing methods between two countries with different laws chasing the same fish. In BC seiners are not allowed to use a power skiff except on the "blue line" (US/Canada border in Juan da Fuca strait) where they are fishing alongside each other. And the power block is no longer used in fishing (still used to move nets around) here because of the universal adoption of the seine drum, which I think is outlawed in the US (too efficient).

[TR]

Lots of them here, probably something of a center for them and one can presume they were drawn with local use and conditions well in mind.

It's not really surprising that Thunderbird fleets survive in Victoria and Seattle, it is surprising that they have successful fleets racing every week in Boston and Sidney, Australia. Another nice piece on Thunderbirds.....http://www.apawood.org/level_b.cfm?c...rch_s05_plycen

[ron ll]

Uhhh, sailboat. Can't tell you much more. Not enough pixels to make out the name or the flag. Anyone care to guess?

[Old Dryfoot]

Enlarging and squinting really hard leads me to guess that it might be named Destiny.

[Garret]

Oyster or Hylas of some sort?

[TR]

Uhhh, sailboat. Can't tell you much more. Not enough pixels to make out the name or the flag. Anyone care to guess?

Not a Hylas, probably an Oyster, perhaps the current 655 model designed by Rob Humphreys. Oyster use that 3 spreader with jumper strut and runners rig. Main furls in the boom, perhaps a Leisurefurl. Flag might be a Red Ensign, US courtesy flag on starboard spreader. The Red Ensign is used by British Merchant ships, Bermudian flagged vessels, and it's the former official flag of Canada (prior to the Maple Leaf), still popular with some. I'll guess she's out of Bermuda.

[John B]

I believe you're on about the Toadstool?........ Designed by William Garden, who on occasion was influenced by Ben Seaborn.

I was just testing to see if you were awake. At least I got the T and two syllables.

[SV Papillon]

Ok I'm a little up river of Mr Ron,

What is this thing?? Keep seeing it go by some weird gov power cat thing





Jake