Two days ago I joined the Puget Sound Chapter of the Traditional Small Craft Association at Twanoh State Park on the Hood Canal; a long, skinny finger of the southwestern Salish Sea.
The park derives its name from the word tewa´duxq. Twana, Twanoh or tewa´duxq refers to the territory that encompasses the entire Hood Canal watershed. It is comprised of nine First People villages of which the Skokomish is the largest and where most descendants reside today. The Skokomish observe their hereditary and treaty rights throughout this territory.
Before becoming a state park, the land was logged in the 1890’s and a meandering trail through the forest reveals springboard notches carved in cedar trees from early logging practices. Further exploration of the campground and day use area highlights historic park buildings which were constructed in the 1930’s by the Civilian Conservation Corps.
The beach is seeded with oysters, which can be harvested by permit. There is an excellent launch ramp and the winds on Saturday were a perfect 15 knots.
Great park facilities, excellent food, incredible sailing conditions and wonderful company.
A perfect day.
I had the pleasure of crewing with Joel Bergen in his Navigator, Ellie. You may find it difficult to believe - Ive never sailed in a John Welsford designed boat before. Needless to say, Ellie lived up to expectations and then some. Joel is a very congenial companion and allowed me the tiller and freedom to sail where I wished.
What more could a Doryman want?
Joel put together a quick video, which Ive borrowed to share with you. (Thank you, my friend!)
For his version of this story, please visit Joels Navigator Site.
Saturday October 15 was Small Boat Saturday at Cama Beach State Park on Camano Island, WA. This free end-of-season gathering had small boats on display both on land and in the water plus skills demonstrations and talks led by professionals. The event was hosted by Seattles Center for Wooden Boats and the Puget Sound chapter of the Traditional Small Craft Association.
We launched our boats at Camano Island State Park at 11:00 and had a terrific, but short, two mile sail North to Cama beach. The 10 mph winds and the tide were against us, but the sun was pleasantly warm for a mid October day. So enjoyable that I began to wish the sail was much longer than only two miles!
I arrived at Cama Beach less than an hour later set anchor.
Lately, on the jwbuilders forum, there has been some discussion about how to do a clothesline anchoring system. There are several ways to do it. I do it the simple way, which goes like this: 1) Tie one end of the anchor line to the bow cleat. 2) Run the anchor line through a ring on the end of the anchor chain. 3) Tie the other end of the anchor line to the stern cleat. 4) Drop the anchor a bit offshore. 5) Move the boat closer to shore, to knee deep water. 6) Step out, grab the shore anchor and the anchor line loop and wade ashore. 7) Place the shore anchor on the beach and tie the anchor line to it as shown below. 8) To reel the boat in and out, untie, pull one side of the anchor line loop or the other, and retie.
Clothesline Anchor Caught on Tape!
Notes: Tie the anchor line to your shore anchor. That way, if your other anchor were to slip or the anchor line were to break, you would not lose the boat because it would still be attached to the shore anchor. Also, you need plenty of anchor line, at least twice as much since were forming a loop.
Long term subscribers to Small Craft Advisor magazine may recall a series of articles in 2007 and 2008 (issues 47, 49, 51 - 53) written by Jan Nicolaisen as he built a Core Sound 17. This Core Sound was later purchased by Randy Jones, president of the Puget Sound chapter of the TSCA. Here you can see glimpse of Randys excellent seamanship skills. Randy recently returned from a weeklong trip to the San Juan islands. He sails his Core Sound everywhere without the aid of a motor - something I wish I could do. Well done Randy!
Off to look at the boats! First to catch my eye was this adorable little lapstrake dinghy, traditionally built by the NW School of Wooden Boat Building. Well done!
The Center for Wooden Boats did a beautiful job on this Babson Island 14
Cama Beach was a 1930s era salmon fishing resort. The historic fishing resort was a favorite summer getaway for families for more than 50 years. A fleet of 40 or so boats was stored in the large boathouse after the building was completed around 1950, available for rental starting at $1.50/day. Cama Beach had the largest boat livery of the many resorts on Camano Island. There were 8 different boat designs, built by a local shipwright who created simple functional lines, cedar planking with iron fittings and galvanized steel nails. By 1955, 14 rowboats, 24 kicker boats, and 4 inboards were available for recreation and fishing.
Under construction were these cedar strip canoes, built using a technique I had never seen before.
Many other boats on display, including some ever popular pelicans.
After the show, the run back to the boat launch was even quicker than the trip up. After retrieving the boats, we all headed out for pizza and beers. What better way to end such a wonderful day?
