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

ADVERTISEMENT
0 seconds of 0 secondsVolume 0%
Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts
00:00
00:00
00:00
 

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

2024 timber revenue shows Jefferson below average, Clallam on par

DNR timber delay could impact 2025 timber revenue

Forks council looks to fill vacant seat

The Forks City Council is accepting applications to fill a… Continue reading

Charter Review town hall set

The Clallam County Charter Review Commission will conduct a… Continue reading

EYE ON BUSINESS: This week’s meetings

Breakfast meetings with networking and educational… Continue reading

Port Angeles sends letter to governor

Requests a progressive tax code

Courtesy of Rep. Emily Randall's office
Rep. Emily Randall to hold town hall in Port Townsend

Congresswoman will field questions from constituents

Joshua Wright, program director for the Legacy Forest Defense Coalition, stands in a forest plot named "Dungeness and Dragons," which is managed by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Currently, the DNR is evaluating Wright's claim that there is a rare plant community in one of the units, which would qualify the parcel for automatic protection from logging. Locating rare plant communities is just one of the methods environmental activists use to protect what they call "legacy forests." (Joshua Wright)
Activists answer call to protect forests

Advocacy continues beyond timber auctions

Port of Port Angeles talks project status

Marine Trade Center work close to completion

KEITH THORPE/PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
The Rayonier #4 logging locomotive on display at Chase Street and Lauridsen Boulevard in Port Angeles, is the focus of a fundraising drive to restore the engine and further develop the site.
Locomotive viewing event scheduled for Sunday

“Restore the 4” project underway

Steve Mullensky/for Peninsula Daily News
Port Townsend High School culinary arts student Jasper Ziese, left, watches as fellow students Emil Brown sauces the dish and Raivyn Johnson, right, waits to box it up. The students prepared and served a free lunch from the program's food truck, Culinary Cruiser, for a senior project on Saturday.
Culinary Cruiser delivers practical experience for Port Townsend students

Part of Career and Technical Education culinary arts program

PC’s enrollment rates show steady growth

Numbers reverse ten-year trend