The Navy barge YFN 1217 is shown on the hard at Platypus Marine Inc. in Port Angeles before she was put back in the water last week. —Photo by David G. Sellars/for Peninsula Daily News

The Navy barge YFN 1217 is shown on the hard at Platypus Marine Inc. in Port Angeles before she was put back in the water last week. —Photo by David G. Sellars/for Peninsula Daily News

DAVID G. SELLARS ON THE WATERFRONT: Navy barge refurbished in Port Angeles yard looks new [GALLERY]

Platypus Marine relaunched the Navy barge YFN 1217.

She had been stowed on the hard at the Port Angeles full-service shipyard, steel-boat manufacturer and yacht-repair facility since early May, during which time the vessel was enveloped in a maze of scaffolding.

And the barge was wrapped with a thick plastic-like product that was stretched wrinkle-free across the barge and secured to the scaffolding.

While encased in this envelope, personnel sandblasted, primed and painted the interior spaces and exterior of the vessel.

Lovely lady

Richard Ying, who own Paspatoo, a 65-foot wooden trawler-style yacht, had her out of her boathouse at Port Angeles last week and was making preparations to take a trip to San Francisco.

But the weather became uncooperative, so back into the boathouse went the lovely lady.

Richard said the yacht was built in 1942 for the U.S. Army by the Blanchard Boatyard on Lake Union in Seattle.

Richard surmises that the boat was used by the Army to supply coastal installations in Alaska.

Paspatoo was refit in the 1980s at Admiral Marine Works in Port Townsend, he said.

The vessel’s hull is carvel planking of 2¼-inch old-growth Douglas fir. The decks are teak-planked.

Richard went on to say that he has owned Paspatoo for 30 years, and as he will soon be 70 years old, it is time for another to assume ownership, so the yacht is now for sale.

Logs in and out

At the beginning of last week, Astoria Bay, a 610-foot cargo ship, moored to Port of Port Angeles Terminal 3 and is taking on a load of debarked logs destined for China that were harvested off Merrill & Ring’s private landholdings in Western Washington.

Earlier, the deck barge Captain Vancouver (formerly named Paul Bunyan) unloaded a cargo of logs from British Columbia that Alcan Forest Products added to its inventory that will be loaded aboard an upcoming log ship bound for the Far East.

Breaking boats

The Port of Port Angeles is ridding itself of three unwanted and otherwise abandoned wooden vessels.

Although I am not privy to the details, no doubt the specifics entail a failure in each instance to pay one or more fees when due.

The port is disposing of the vessels by breaking them up and disposing of them in the landfill, which is the only recourse left to the agency.

One of the boats, Low Roller, had been escorted into Port Angeles in October 2014 by the Coast Guard because it found the vessel to be in a questionable state of seaworthiness.

She also had been leaking ­diesel fuel in the Strait.

Another of the boats headed for the landfill is Trio, an old harbor tug that has been on the hard for five years or more.

In the 1957 edition of Pacific Tugboats by Gordon Newell, there is an undated photograph of Trio at the Colman dock in Seattle, and the caption reads in part that her decks are shown loaded with new canvas to be delivered to an anchored windjammer in the harbor.

Port Angeles Harbor watch

Tesoro Petroleum on Monday provided bunkers to Pinnacle Spirit, a 900-foot petroleum-products carrier that is flagged in the Bahamas.

The vessel, which was anchored in Port Angeles Harbor, is now headed to Puerto Armuelles on Panama’s Pacific coast.

Later Monday, Tesoro refueled Iris Glory, a 741-foot LPG carrier that is now underway to Ulsan, South Korea.

________

David G. Sellars is a Port Angeles resident and former Navy boatswain’s mate who enjoys boats and strolling the area’s waterfronts and boat yards.

Items and questions involving boating, marina and industrial activities and the North Olympic Peninsula waterfronts are always welcome. News announcements about boating groups, including yacht clubs and squadrons, are welcome as well.

Email dgsellars@hotmail.com or phone him at 360-808-3202.

More in News

Highway 112 partially reopens to single-lane traffic

Maintenance crews have reopened state Highway 112 between Sekiu… Continue reading

Laken Folsom, a Winter Ice Village employee, tries to remove leaves that blew in from this week’s wind storm before they freeze into the surface of the rink on Thursday. The Winter Ice Village, operated by the Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce in the 100 block of West Front Street, opens today and runs through Jan. 5. Hours are from noon to 9 p.m. daily. New this year is camera showing the current ice village conditions at www.skatecam.org. (Dave Logan/for Peninsula Daily News)
Ice village opens in Port Angeles

Laken Folsom, a Winter Ice Village employee, tries to remove leaves that… Continue reading

Fort PDA receiver protecting assets

Principal: New revenue streams needed

Ella Biss, 4, sits next to her adoptive mother, Alexis Biss, as they wait in Clallam County Family Court on Thursday for the commencement of the ceremony that will formalize the adoption of Ella and her 9-year-old brother John. (Emma Maple/Peninsula Daily News)
Adoption ceremony highlights need for Peninsula foster families

State department says there’s a lack of foster homes for older children, babies

Legislature to decide fate of miscalculation

Peninsula College may have to repay $339K

The Sequim Valley Lions Club donated $5,000 the Sequim Unit of the Boys Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula.
Mary Budke, on left, and Norma Turner, on right, received the donation on behalf of the Boys Girls Clubs.
Lions donation

The Sequim Valley Lions Club donated $5,000 the Sequim Unit of the… Continue reading

Jae McGinley
Jae McGinley selected for fellowship, scholarship

Jae McGinley has been selected for the Next Generation… Continue reading

A street sweeper on I Street in Port Angeles cleans up the street along the curbs of all the debris that blew down during Tuesday evening’s storm. Thousands were without power at the peak of the storm. (Dave Logan/for Peninsula Daily News)
Storm causes power outages, road closures

Smaller weather system may hit Friday

Port Angeles funds lodging tax requests

Sixteen applications to undergo review

Port Townsend’s Water Street sewer project gets funds

City council authorizes contracts; construction to start in January

Port of Port Angeles commissioners approve 2025 budget

Board OKs project that would treat seawater to make it less acidic