Each month, KPTZ’s Chris Bricker joins Co-hosts Eron Berg, Port of Port Townsend’s Director, and Port Commissioner Pam Petranek, to bring you news and stories surrounding our vibrant maritime community. Around our working waterfront, you may have heard the phrase, “A man and his boat,” or “A woman and her boat.” How about “One man and two boats”?  That’s not necessarily unusual either, but the tenacious owner of two old sailing vessels adds his own unique twist to that phrase. After Eron gives us this month’s Port update, we then turn to owner CJ Burleson as he recounts the comprehensive history and fascinating story of one of those vessels – the Elsita.

Each month KPTZ’s Chris Bricker joins co-hosts Port Director Eron Berg and Port Commissioner Pam Petranek to bring you news, updates and stories surrounding our Port and our vibrant maritime community. Our 300-ton yard is absolutely full this month! Eron gives us a season’s update for the Port, and then we’ll explore the fate of the abandoned tugboat Elmore (pictured above) with shipwright Clint Thomas, who spent a decade maintaining and repairing the Elmore during just one part of this storied vessel’s recent life. Now the Elmore sits on the hard amid historic schooners and working fishing vessels – all of them surrounding her as if they were perched as guardians of its 135 years of history.  The Elmore faces an uncertain future.

Our friends from the Coastal and Ocean Studies Program of Williams College and Mystic Seaport Museum were back in town to visit our shipwrights and the fishing fleet, now back in our boatyard for maintenance and repairs. We’ll visit Blaise Holly and his shop at Haven Boatworks, Ozzie Anderson, Captain and owner of fishing tenders Sunnyvale, McClure Bay, and fv Pegasus. Then over to Shipwrights Co-op owner Brad Seamans, who’s lead project director for the hauled-out halibut schooners Vansee (1913), Seymore (1914), and Grant (1926) of the historic working longliner fleet.

In this special edition of Our Working Waterfront we visit the Second Annual Boatyard BBQ, to celebrate the return of our Fishing Fleet and the 100th anniversary of the Port of Port Townsend. There was a delicious salmon dinner along with music and dancing. Captains and their crews, shipwrights and apprentices, the old and the young, longtime residents and new folks in town, all mingled beneath early-evening rainbows, a Salish wind, and the colored lights from the Travel Lift Stage well on into the night. We bring you sounds, music and stories from this magical time that brought out the true spirit of our Port Townsend community.

In 1935 William Fife III, aged 78, designed one of the sailing world’s most admired ocean racing yachts, Latifa. She was one of his all-time favorites. Today, we’re standing next to this legendary 70 foot yawl. launched in 1936, and in the loving care of past and current owners ever since. Now she’s in the boat yard at Pete Stein’s Co-op for maintenance. Unlike many large yachts of her era, she’s been in commission since her launching. Port Director and xo-host Eron Berg gives his monthly report, and then KPTZ’s Chris Bricker and Port Commissioner Pam Petranek meet up with shipwright Robert D’Arcy, the project’s lead, along with Jasper, the yacht’s young Captain for a conversation about this storied vessel.

In this episode of Our Working Waterfront, Port Director and co-host Eron Berg gives us his monthly update, and then KPTZ’s Chris Bricker and co-host Port Commissioner Pam Petranek visit with Tucker Piontek.  He’s an instructor at the Northwest School of Wooden Boat Building. Tucker’s relationship with boats began with childhood and young adult adventures on rivers, lakes, and coastal waters. As many young sailors have done over the years, he sailed into our town, fell. In love with it, and discovered the Boat School.  He’ll tell us about how his unique career journey led him later on to becoming an instructor there, his thoughts on craftsmanship and mentor relationships, and how he and three classes of students built the Nordic Folk Boat Fern, which rests on the hard for final touches before she’s shipped out to the lovely man who had commissioned her. Fern is destined to live on the Great Lakes as the Boat School’s “Ambassador.”

Left Coast Charters is a small family business that offers a unique and intimate experience aboard the traditional catboat Katie M. Captains Erik Brown and his wife and business partner, Alyce Flanagan, are at the helm, and they love meeting and interacting with their clients. Sharing their knowledge and experiences of sailing and the sea is what they love to do!

Each month, KPTZ’s Chris Bricker along with co-hosts Eron Berg, Port of Port Townsend’s Director, and Port Commissioner Pam Petronek, bring you news, updates and stories surrounding our vibrant maritime community. This month, historic Hollywood shines its spotlight on our boatyard with a visit from the brigantine staysail schooner, s/v Destiny. She’s been on the hard for repairs and further customization before she slips back in the water early June. Eron briefs us on goings-on around our busy Port, then Chris and Pam talk with the vessel’s new owner Tom Helton and the Shipwright Co-Op’s Dave Griswold about Destiny’s colorful history and the current repairs and modifications that are underway. Tom shares his plans for high seas adventures soon to become a become a reality. If Preston Sturges, Humphrey Bogart, Howard Hughes, and John Wayne ring your ship’s bell, then be sure to tune in and find out more!

Celebrating the New Point Hudson Jetty. KPTZ’s Chris Bricker rides along with co-hosts Port Commissioner Pam Petranek and Port of Port Townsend’s Director Eron Berg on the MV Saratoga, a custom-designed 149-seat catamaran built by All American Marine. On board were federal, state, and local elected officials, along with all of those whose hard work and support made it possible to celebrate the completion of the Point Hudson Jetty Replacement Project.
Because of everyone involved, under the leadership of Eron Berg and staff, our port’s Capital Projects Director Matt Klontz, the tenacity of Deputy Port Director Eric Teows, and with our community’s unwavering support, the effort was completed on time and under budget! At the vessel’s bow, our Port Commissioners Pete Hanke, Pam Petranek, and Carol Hasse cut a ceremonial ribbon made of sail trim sewn by the Sail Loft  The ribbon stretched across the entrance to the harbor prior to the on-shore celebration. As part of the project, with the support of the regulatory agencies, workers created a rock reef from original jetty rock. Prior to the old breakwater’s demolition and for two months, over 4,000 invertebrates were carefully relocated to the new reef by volunteer divers. Find out more about the Underwater Camera and get an exiting view of rotating reef locations by visiting the Port of Port Townsend’s website.