Port Townsend Pocket Yachters Boat Show

Theres a new boat show in Port Townsend, Washington: Pocket Yacht Palooza.



Port Townsend’s Northwest Maritime Center will be the site of the first annual Pocket Yacht Palooza, a one-day boat show organized by the Port Townsend Pocket Yachters club to celebrate traditional small rowing and sailing boats.









The show, free to the public, is scheduled for Saturday, May 19, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.





Pocket Yacht Palooza will feature boats belonging to several Puget Sound area groups, including the Port Townsend Pocket Yachters and the Puget Sound chapter of the Traditional Small Craft Association. Boats from the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding and the Northwest Maritime Center’s boatshop will also be displayed.


Organizers are appealing to owners of small rowing or sailing craft in the 10-foot to 23-foot range to participate in the event and everyone interested is invited to participate. Newcomers are more than welcome.
And, if you are in the process of building or restoring your small craft, theyre interested in that too.








“We’re eager to celebrate a wide variety of smaller boats, whether built of wood or fiberglass and we know there are hundreds of interesting trailerable boats on the Olympic Peninsula, so we’d like to hear from owners who might be willing to display their small craft during the Pocket Yacht Palooza.” says my friend, Marty Loken.

No entry fees will be charged, Marty tells me.

“This is not one of those judged shows where people need to worry about whether their boat is in perfect condition.” The main goal, he said, is to display a variety of interesting designs and appreciate the different ways in which designers and builders have produced smaller watercraft that are functional, seaworthy and suited for surprisingly lengthy cruises.






“Most of us appreciate the famous quote of Larry and Lin Pardey, a couple who circumnavigated twice aboard a pocket cruiser. Go Small, Go Simple, Go Now.”




The Pocket Yacht Palooza is co-sponsored by the Small Craft Skills Academy, a four-day program that begins May 20 at the Northwest Maritime Museum. The Skills Academy is being organized by small-craft adventurer Howard Rice, who will speak the same Saturday evening, May 19, 7 p.m. at the Northwest Maritime Center, describing his harrowing rounding of Cape Horn—both directions—in a small Klepper sailing canoe. The public is invited to attend. Admission will be $7.00 per person. Sponsored by the Northwest Maritime Museum and Small Craft Advisor Magazine.


The Port Townsend Pocket Yachters are great folks. I guarantee you will enjoy this show - the weather is always sunny in Port Townsend!

The address for the Northwest Maritime Center and location of the Pocket Yacht Palooza is:
431 Water St, Port Townsend, WA 98368





Those who are interested in bringing a boat to display in the water or on a trailer should contact organizer Marty Loken: Marty@islandboatshop.com

There goes Marty now...

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Pocket Yacht Palooza 2013

Dont miss the second annual Pocket Yacht Palooza, the largest gathering of small-craft gunkholing designs held in the Northwest, scheduled for July 20-21 at the Northwest Maritime Center in Port Townsend, WA.

The main focus of this event is on design...not on who has the most coats of varnish. While wooden boats tend to dominate the Palooza, fiberglass hulls are welcome and the whole idea is to share information, as well as time on the water, so that participants come away with a deeper understanding of different pocket-cruising designs, whether rowboats, sailboats or traditional motorboats.

The Palooza is organized by the Port Townsend Pocket Yachters group, a loose-knit club with "no officers, no dues, no bylaws or other signs of organization." In other words, they just like to have fun on the water together. Co-sponsors of the Pocket Yacht Palooza include the Northwest Maritime Center, Small Craft Advisor magazine, Sage Marine, the Port Townsend School of Wooden Boatbuilding, the Puget Sound chapter of the Traditional Small Craft Association and the Port Townsend Marine Trades Association.

Saturday, July 20, everyone is invited to the boat show from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with many boats displayed on trailers at the Northwest Maritime Center, and others hauled up on the adjoining saltwater beach. At 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, Peter Guerrero (host of KPTZ-FMs "Boat Talk" program) will lead a waterside discussion of different traditional small-craft sailing rigs--their use, advantages and possible shortcomings. Participants with spritsails, gaff rigs, lugsails, sloop rigs, sliding gunters and others will pull their boats together on the beach to chat about their rigs and how they work. At 6 p.m., there will be a potluck on the beach, followed at 7 p.m. by slide talks in the Maritime Center by Dale McKinnon (who built her own dory and rowed the Inside Passage from Ketchikan to Bellingham), and Kirk Gresham (talking about his years of trailer-sailing a Devlin Eider from California to the Puget Sound area and into the islands of British Columbia).

Sunday, July 21, participating boats will hit the water for a day of rowing, sailing and/or motoring together on Port Townsend Bay, with a picnic lunch on the beach of Rat Island, next to Fort Flagler State Park. The main emphasis of the day will be sharing boats--either boat rides or actual short-term trading of boats so that everyone can experience different designs and their sailing/rowing characteristics. The day of boating will begin at 10 a.m. and end in the late afternoon when many participants will rendezvous on Port Townsend Bay with Native paddlers as they arrive at Fort Worden State Park, their overnight stop, as part of their Tribal Canoe Journey to Quinault, on the outer coast of Washington.

The Palooza is absolutely free to participants and the public--no registration fees, complicated forms or other requirements. Just let organizer Marty Loken know youre coming and include a brief description of your boat when you email him: Norseboater22(at)gmail.com.

For updated details on the Palooza, check the Port Townsend Pocket Yachters website or follow postings on the Port Townsend Small Boats forum.

Hope to see you there!

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Pocket Yacht Palooza

Yesterday we had a great time at the first ever Pocket Yacht Palooza.  The Palooza was a one-day show celebrating smaller rowing and sailing boats, co-sponsored by the Port Townsend Pocket Yachters, the Small Craft Skills Academy and Northwest Maritime Center. Id like to extend a special thanks to Marty Loken for organizing this event.

With over 50 boats signed up, there was quite a variety to see.  Here are some examples. My apologies for the brief descriptions and for all the ones I neglected to include.

This is  Rogers restoration project, the 16 Nooka Rose featuring a 55 sq ft sprit rig. A work in progress aquired 3 years ago, Rogers objective is to simply catch up on 15 years or so of deferred maintenance, then replace the rub rails and breasthook. The boat features an experimental and interesting Cullar inspired rudder fashioned from a salvaged door, but Roger hung on to the original higher aspect rudder just in case.

This is Bobs boat "Duck", a Jim Michalak designed Scram Pram, featuring 300 pounds of water ballast in 3 tanks which makes it very stiff in a breeze. The birdwatcher style cabin keeps the crew dry in a chop and makes the boat self righting.

Next is Michaels Iain Oughtred designed 14-6" Whilly Boat "L Hirondelle"

Toms 15-8" Jonesport Peapod has a 65 sq ft spritsail and gets its lines from Am. Small Sailing Craft. The original of this Peapod was built in 1975 in cold-molded cedar. This boat came from a mold of the original.

This is Rogers 11-2" Joel White designed dinghy built by Roger in 2010.

This 11 150 lb Rich Kolin designed Heidi Skiff was built by the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding.

This is Richards "SASe", a 12 B&B yacht Amanda.  SASe stands for Solar Assisted Sail and Electric. The bimini top is actually two Solar panels that provide 45watts at 44 volts to power two torqeedo outboards and charge three 680 watt lithium ion batteries giving the boat unlimited range possibilities. The boat is also equipped with sail and oars.

 

A coolidge centerboard daysailor built and for sale by the NW School of Wooden Boatbuilding.

Nik & Elizabeths Ian Oughtred designed caledonia yawl "Sutil" built by Grapeview Point Boat Works in 2009. Glued lapstrake construction, sapele plywood, spruce spars, white oak floors and sales, Alaska yellow cedar floorboards and benches. Powered by oar, sail and Torqeedo electric outboard.

Chelcies charming 11-1" dinghy "Puff", inspired by George Holmes 1888 Ethel from Sail and Oar, scaled down to make her a shorter and lighter boat.

Randys Core Sound 17 should be familiar to many of you by now. Built by Jan Nikolaisen and featured in Small Craft Advisor magazine 2007-2008, issues 47, 49, 51-53.

Beautiful community-built Redfish Kayak (for sale - $5900)

John built this 17-6" adirondack guideboat in 2009, extended from the usual 15-16 for racing.  Strip built from patterns of a design that was built by William McCaffery, a hunting guide and hotel owner during the early 1900s in the Adirondack region of upstate New York.

Happy Scampers!

Andrews Bolger designed Bobcat "Bobs Cat", converted to a cruiser with a cabin and other modifications, recently purchased from Bob by Andrew to learn to sail.

Several others were on display on the beach and there for the Small Craft Skills Academy.

James McMullen demonstrating his new boom tent for Rowan

The first ever Pocket Yacht Palooza was a great success and Im sure it will become an annual event!

Update:  Many more nice photos from the Palooza can be found here.

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