Armstrong Marine, the aluminum boat fabricator on U.S. Highway 101 midway between Port Angeles and Sequim, launched Coastal Explorer last week.

For the past three weeks, the displacement catamaran was stowed in the large building at the Port Angeles Boatyard, where personnel attended to a countless number of details prior to her going into the water.

Jason Minnoch, who works in Armstrong’s sales department, said the vessel, which is 54 feet long with an 18-foot beam, is a floating classroom built for Coastal Carolina University in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Coastal Explorer is powered by twin Cummins 6.7-liter turbocharged diesel engines that will allow the survey boat and training platform to comfortably cruise at 18 knots.

The superstructure is two decks tall, and within those confines are six survey stations — four on the lower level and two on the upper level.

Additionally, there is a rear-facing aft steering station on the uppermost level that allows the boat’s captain to simultaneously run the boat and operate the vessel’s A-frame.

Jason said the A-frame will be used to service and maintain the weather buoys that the university uses in conjunction with its extensive marine science program.

Jason added that during hurricane seasons, the university plans to mount cameras on a number of its buoys to monitor the effects of a hurricane on the ocean’s surface.

The cameras are expected to either give credence to or dispel the notion that there is calm before the storm.

Late Thursday afternoon, Coastal Explorer made her way out of the Boat Haven and into Port Angeles Harbor for her first sea trial.

According to Jason, personnel will spend the next couple of weeks testing her systems and putting her through her paces.

She then will be put upon a barge or a yacht transport vessel for shipment to Myrtle Beach.

Harmonic convergence

Two of Westport Shipyard’s 164-foot tri-deck mega-yachts are in Port Angeles for the next couple of weeks.

Harmony, which was launched a few years ago at the company’s plant on Harbor Drive, is moored at Westport’s dock in the Boat Haven.

The yacht spent much of the summer season in Alaska, and her crew is currently polishing the exterior and no doubt the engineering personnel are performing maintenance on the vessel’s complex mechanical equipment.

When all of the housekeeping tasks have been completed, Harmony will get underway for the invitingly warm climate of south Florida.

Now stay with me on this:

Harmony, the 11th 164-footer in the series, was hauled out of the water last week by Westport’s 550-ton TraveLift and placed on the hard to the rear of Westport’s production facility.

Yes, another Harmony.

In addition to finishing up a couple of leftover production projects for the latter Harmony’s owner, the inharmonious situation with the two yachts’ names is being resolved by remaining the yacht Calex.

Once her stint on the hard is over, Calex also will no doubt seek out a warmer climate for the winter months.

Passing through

Lady Lola moored to Port of Port Angeles’ Terminal 3 on Monday.

The 203-foot luxury motor yacht was built by the Dutch shipyard Oceano for Duane Hagadone, a real estate developer and head of a group that owns 20 newspapers, mostly in Montana, Idaho and Eastern Washington.

Hagadone also owns the Coeur d’Alene Resort and Golf Course in Idaho, which helps to explain the retractable golf tee he had installed on Lady Lola’s deck to keep his golf game sharp.

I’d hate to be the ball-retrieval boy.

Lady Lola came into port for bunkers provided by Pettit Oil.

She got underway for San Francisco at midnight Monday and was scheduled to arrive in California’s “Baghdad by the Bay” on Friday afternoon.

That sinking feeling

In the waning daylight hours of Aug. 22, Hale’s Navy was hauled out of the water at the Port Angeles Boatyard.

Earlier in the afternoon, a Boat Haven tenant was passing on the waterside of the boathouse where Hale’s Navy was moored and noticed that the boat was sitting at an angle.

He contacted the harbormaster’s office, which sent its leaking boat specialists, Todd Ritchie and Dan Schmid, to investigate.

When they entered the vessel’s boathouse, they saw that the boat had taken on water and was sinking.

Anticipating this contingency, they placed the dewatering pumps they had brought along into the boat and pumped out much of the water.

Then Todd, using the marina’s skiff, towed the boat to the haul-out dock at the boatyard.

Dan hoisted her out of the water using the yard’s 70-ton TraveLift, then let the boat hang in the slings for quite sometime to allow the bulk of the water to drain from the vessel.

When Hale’s Navy was set on the hard, water continued to ooze from a number of areas all along the garboard seam, which is that area where the keel meets the hull.

Hale’s Navy is an Ed Monk Sr.-designed, 53-foot wooden boat built in 1950 by Morris Shain at his boatyard in Seattle and was launched as Periwinkle.

The boat has a distinctive reverse transom, and I believe her hull is constructed of 1½-inch red cedar planking laid over steam-bent oak ribs.

I haven’t had the pleasure of going aboard the boat, but in her day this lady unquestionably turned a lot of heads.

She was the pride of the Portland, Ore., yacht fleet, but ran aground in Grays Harbor in 1953.

She was salvaged and rebuilt, then acquired by Al Hale of Port Angeles after an unknown number of years.

Hale’s Navy now is owned by Al’s widow, Ellie McCormick, and Dick Lovern.

The classic wooden boat now is sitting on the hard across from the boatyard, and her fate is yet to be determined.

I surmise that much depends upon assessments that the owners’ insurance company is making.

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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.