Armstrong Marine, the aluminum-boat manufacturer whose headquarters are just off U.S. Highway 101 midway between Port Angeles and Sequim, attached the wheelhouse and passenger compartment to a 39-foot catamaran hull Thursday morning at the Port Angeles Boat Yard.
It was necessary to transport the aluminum boat in two pieces to the boatyard for assembly because the completed vessel is too large to haul down the highway and city streets to the water.
She’s scheduled for launch in early June for sea trials.
Once the trials are completed, she will be shipped to American Samoa, where she will be used as a passenger ferry between Ofu and Ta’u islands in the Manu’a Islands group.
I understand the ferry will hold about 40 passengers and be powered by four 225-horsepower Mercury outboard motors.
Fireboat tender
I visited Lee Shore Boats’ facility west of Port Angeles recently and spoke with Joe Beck, who’s involved in sales and design for the company.
He showed me a 16-foot tender with a foam collar Lee Shore had just completed for a fireboat that Foss Maritime is building at its Seattle shipyard for the Port of Long Beach, Calif.
Joe said Lee Shore personnel will build a cradle that will be affixed to the deck of the fireboat into which the tender will be placed.
Demonstration rides
Joe added that in the near future, Foss Maritime will send a truck to pick up the cradle and tender, take them to its Seattle shipyard and install them on the fireboat.
On Friday, Lee Shore Boats took one of its 46-foot aluminum mono-hull work boats that the company built for a South American corporation to a rendezvous near Deception Pass — between Whidbey and Fidalgo islands — that was sponsored by Hamilton Jet Drives.
Joe said Lee Shore was asked to bring the boat to the gathering to offer demonstration rides, which Joe said the Port Angeles company was more than happy to oblige.
The vessel weighs roughly 25,000 pounds and cuts through the water at an impressive 40 knots, well in excess of the 32 knots that was anticipated at the design stage.
Joe went on to say that Joe Schmitt, a local boat captain, drove the boat to Deception Pass.
Joe Beck said he sticks to road maps and leaves navigation charts to the experts.
Fishing boat hoisted
Platypus Marine, the full-service shipyard, yacht-repair facility and steel-boat manufacturer on Marine Drive in Port Angeles, hauled out Molly Ann on Monday.
She is an 82-foot commercial fishing vessel that was built in 1980 by Texas True Trawlers in Brownsville, Texas, and launched as Texas III.
Brad Hale, who works in Platypus’ sales and marketing department, said the boat was getting a “shave and a haircut” — meaning that the bottom was getting a cleaning and fresh coat of paint.
Personnel also modified the rudder to improve steerage.
Molly Ann went back into the water Friday.
Platypus also has a 33-foot SAFE boat — SAFE stands for Secure All-around Flotation Equipped — in one of its outlying satellite buildings.
She is one of eight such vessels that are used by the Navy as police boats throughout Puget Sound.
Brad said that for the next couple of months, each of the police boats will pass through Platypus’ plant, and personnel will install an environmental control unit on each one.
Environmental control unit, in non-governmental jargon, is a ducted heating system.
Merchant mariner
Capt. Duane Madinger, a professional merchant mariner who has lived in Port Townsend since 1985, will be the featured speaker at the Point Wilson Sail and Power Squadron meeting at the Port Townsend Yacht Club on Washington Street.
The meeting will be held Tuesday starting at
7 p.m.
Madinger will chronicle life in the Merchant Marine with a slide show describing a typical ocean voyage on a supertanker from Portland, Ore., to the Gulf of Mexico.
He will describe the crew and the ship as it crosses the Equator, rounds Cape Horn and visits a tropical island.
Point Wilson Sail and Power Squadron, the Port Townsend branch of the nationwide U.S. Power Squadrons, is an informal group of sailors, rowers, paddlers, fishermen and cruisers dedicated to providing public boating education, improving boating skills and enjoying social activities.
Members of the public are invited to bring a dish and attend the monthly potluck at 6 p.m. before Madinger’s presentation.
The program is free and open to everyone.
For more information, phone Paul Snider at 360-891-5268.
Repair and fueling
Tesoro Petroleum on Tuesday bunkered the K-Sea-owned articulated tug and barge Dublin Sea when the pusher tug was moored to the Port of Port Angeles Terminal 1 with her barge, DBL 185.
I understand that the barge needed to have a ballast pump replaced, which Vigor Industries, the topside ship-repair company with two locations on the Port Angeles waterfront, was called upon to do.
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David G. Sellars is a Port Angeles resident and former Navy boatswain’s mate who enjoys boats and strolling the area waterfronts.
Items and questions involving boating, port activities and the North Olympic Peninsula waterfronts are always welcome. Email dgsellars@hotmail.com or phone him at 360-808-3202.
His column, On the Waterfront, appears every Sunday.