A SALTY BIO BY ROBERT F. SCHOEN LATE OF CLAM HARBOR, ORCAS ISLAND, WA.

CHANTEY 
Sailing the honeymooners,
Bob & Mary Schoen,
to Orcas Island,
San Juan Archipelago, WA.
1946.
Click image to enlarge.
From the archives of the 
Saltwater People Historical Society©

"My name is Robert F. Schoen, pronounced Shane. I lived in Seattle at 10th and Ravenna Blvd. I went to Univeristy Heights grade school, John Marshall Jr. High, and Roosevelt High School, graduating in 1936, and the U of W in 1943. (The war intervened.)
        When I went to high school we were living in the Kirkland area on the east side of Lake Washington, Homes Pt. Drive. I was boat CRAZY. During high school, I met John Adams and Anchor Jensen, and we all had a love of sailing. Bill Garden was our mentor and teacher.
        Jack Kutz, John Adams, and I all had 28-foot boats. Kutz had a gaff-headed cutter, John had a clinker double-ended teak lifeboat schooner, and I had a V-bottom John Hannah ketch, gaff main, Marconi missen.
        We were out cruising every moment we could get away, winter and summer. We learned to sail our boats well. On the first of August 1941, I joined the Coast Guard. Kutz went into the Navy, and Adams finished his architecture at the U of W, then entered the Navy as an officer.
        My boating experience served me well. I went into the Coast Guard because I wanted to work in small boats. I was stationed in West Seattle after 7 Dec 1941. I was made Chief Boatswain Mate before being transferred to California from Seattle in 1942. From Government Island, Oakland, CA, we were sent to Borneo. Several weeks later we arrived at Hollandia for our assignment vessel, a 155-foot Uniflow steam tug, L T 218.

Bob's first ship in the South Pacific.

As he inscribed verso.
From his estate papers for the 
archives of the Saltwater People
Historical Society. 

     

         We were in the invasion of the Philippines, towing three barges of aviation gas to White Beach, near Tacloban.
         I had never seen so many ships of every kind, over 10,000 boats, rather exciting. Our tug broke down when we returned to Hollandia. It looked like it would be a long wait. I opted to take a transfer and went to Samar and duty on a US Army F. boat at a P.T. base. We followed behind the P.T. boats as they strafed the Japanese-held islands. We supplied fuel and ammunition and at times carried Japanese prisoners back to the base at Samar.
         We stopped at Iloilo where the army was mopping up the Japanese soldiers in the village. We were across a river, away from the fighting. From there we went to Zamboanga and waited for an escort to take us to Balikpapan, Borneo.
         From Hollandia, I went to Manilla where the Philippine sailors took over the boat. In Manilla, we boarded a transport for San Francisco and home by train to Seattle. Nov. 19, 1945, I was discharged from the Coast Guard. It was a great experience to be in the Coast Guard and I am proud of it.
        My sailboat, 29' Marconi cutter, W.H. Dole design was at the Tony Jensen Boat Yard and I stopped to check in and told Anchor to get her ready for me to take her north for a few days and then continued to mother's house with all my gear and shared that I was going for a short cruise in Chantey. She responded with "Haven't you had enough boating?"
         I got hold of a couple of buddies and we headed for Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands. It took us a few days and all of a sudden they decided one had to get back to register for college. The other had a girl he just had to see.
        About this time I remembered that I had just met a lovely young gal from the Juanita Beach area. I headed back and looked again. In July of 1946, we were married. It's been 53 years and we are still here.
        We sailed up to the San Juans in CHANTEY on our honeymoon and decided this looked like home.
        One of the things I did in the interval before we got married, I bought and learned to fly an airplane. When we were on the island I had the only plane on the island and I was working at various odd jobs such as sliming fish in the Deer Harbor salmon cannery and helping build a garage for the school bus near the Orcas ferry landing.
         I was frequently asked by loggers and people wanting things from Bellingham, such as medicine and auto parts. Bellingham had a large airfield built during the war, eighteen minutes by air from Orcas. This made me decide to purchase a four-place plane and enter pilot training in the U.S. Veterans Flying School on Bellingham Airfield.
        That was a great experience, lots of fun. In two and a half years I operated and founded the Orcas Island Air Service on Orcas. Just before I sold the service we had a major fire at the Orcas ferry dock which burned up the store section of the dock and part of the oil dock.
        Things worked out that I could purchase the dock which included the Union Oil Co distributorship and agent for the Black Ball Ferry system. This kept me very busy.
        In 1950, we took CHANTEY to Port Ludlow for a New Year's party of cruising sailboats, about twenty or so. This was the first party since WW II.
        We departed Orcas the day before New Year's Day and after passing Point Wilson we headed for the channel between India Island and Hadlock. HOLY COW, there was now a bridge and the old NORDLAND lying on the beach on the Hadlock side.

NORDLAND

Official No. 228932

Class: Ferry

34 G.T., / 30 Net tons.

L, 58.1 x 22.4 b.

Home Port: Port Townsend, WA.

Built in 1929 at  

Hadlock, Jefferson County, WA., 1929.

Construction: wood

Power: WA. Estep 2 cyc. 26 HPR diesel

With the author of this essay at his 

dock, next to the Orcas ferry landing.

Click to enlarge.

From the archives of the 

Saltwater People Historical Society©

       On returning north from the Port Ludlow New Year's party and passing the Nordland on the beach I had inspiration hit me between my eyes. This is just what I need at Orcas to supplement the oil business. I stopped at Port Townsend and looked up Blair Hetrick and Zelma, old-timers here. Blair was a hard hat diver in the area. I told him my thoughts about the vessel, and he told me it was for sale on a sealed bid. He took me up to the county courthouse and I went into the commissioner's office and they referred me to the county attorney. I went into his office and he said, "Kid, that thing is a pile of junk, forget it and save your money." I went back and told Blair about this and he said I'll get a bid form from one of my commission friends, I told him to get me two bid forms. I'll mail one in and I'll mail one to you to give to your commissioner friend and have him open it at the end of the opening. I got the bid by fifty bucks.
It took me six months to get those papers and only after I went back to the commissioners in person.
        It was a learning experience handling the old girl. She would slide sideways as fast as she went forward, with her 26 HPR  engine, not very powerful, and her reverse not too hot. BUT she could carry a hell of a load. And with her ramp, you could load and offload easily. It was something like learning the operation of an air-starting heavy-duty engine.
        You learn to love those wonderful machines. If you keep oiling them and keep the diesel coming they run forever, the engineer that ran the Nordland said 'They never shut the engine down the full length of WW II.'
        

Home port for NORDLAND

ORCAS LANDING
DATED 1954.
Click the image to enlarge. 
From the archives of the 
Saltwater People Historical Society©.

Our first jobs were delivering fuel to loggers on islands without ferry service which involved filling steel 55-gal drums along with tractors, and logging equipment, not all at the same time. We had a loading area just west of the Orcas ferry landing, one at Obstruction Pass, and several others. We landed on various beaches all over the county. We always tried to land them on the highest part of the tide and immediately reverse and get off the beach. If we missed and couldn't get off, we could be stuck till the next tide, 6 or 8 hours later.

        Working the tides was very crucial to the job. When delivering fuel, the logger had to be there with a tractor or some men to roll the drums up above high tide or a full drum of fuel would drift away.
        I have hauled, over my 12 years of operating the NORDLAND; cattle and sheep to a Lopez slaughterhouse, broken aircraft, 1,000 sacks of cement, mobile homes, everything.
        The development of Blakely Island was started with Nordland. Four years later they built their own barge.
        The Orcas Power and Light Co used NORDLAND in several inter-island cable laying and repair jobs. I did most of the early years running of the boat usually alone or with my wife and kids. I had help from Miles McCoy and he later ran it as stand-by.
        In 1963, I sold NORDLAND to Wayne "Corkey" North of Deer Harbor. He moved the wheelhouse to the stern and raised it so he could look over the vehicles and cargo on board.

      In 1968, NORDLAND was sold to Bob Greenway of Friday Harbor. He remodeled the wheelhouse again, installed a marine toilet, and replaced the WA Estep diesel with a 671 G.M. engine. The old WA-Estep was dumped out on a sandspit near Jensen Shipyard in Friday Harbor. A diesel engine school in Bellingham came over and picked up the old engine and rebuilt it as a school project. Somebody in the last few years purchased it and took it to California for another old boat.

      Al Jones, who has homes in San Francisco and San Juan Island, purchased the NORDLAND in 1976.
      Finally, it was from Alaska Packers haul out at their plant on Semiahmoo in Blaine, WA that I came upon the SEMIDI.

SEMIDI

ON 214876
Built Astoria, OR 1917.
36 N.t./ 45.95 Gross t.
Oil screw, 59.0' x 16.4' x 7.05' 
Atlas Imperial Diesel engine
4 cyl. 135 HPR
Purchased by Robert F. Schoen
5 Oct. 1959
Sold 11 July 1965

      I used this boat for log towing, worked with Orcas Power and Light Co in servicing the cable laying, helped locate and service cable recovery, hauled cased goods, and barreled products. Many times I worked the two boats together on a job.

The author Bob Schoen
off watch with his wife, 
Mary, at the helm.
August 1961
Click image to enlarge.
From the archives of the 
Saltwater People Hist. Society.©
Photos and essay by Mr. Robert Schoen,
Clam Harbor, Orcas Island, WA.

❖ THE ART OF WINDING DOWN ❖ by John Dustrude

Friday Harbor, WA. on the
day of the San Juan Rendezvous.
The scene of the annual giant salmon barbecues for 
many summers beginning in 1948, hosted by the Chamber 
of Commerce. Supportive local canneries and fishermen
donated the fish. In 1953, an estimated 3,000
people were served 2,500 pounds of free salmon, salad,
rolls, and hot coffee. An unusually large number 
of yachts were present, including Bob Schoen and his 
loaded ferry Nordland, a big hit upon arrival from Orcas.
The Tacoma Outboard Association came up 18 strong
in small boats with Anacortes Outboard group
organizing scheduled races. Jack Fairweather led a
very successful dance with live music by the
"Harmony Boys" to wind down a perfect day.
Photo by Bob and Ira Spring of Seattle, WA.
from the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

"Yes, well, there you are, eight full days of vacation ahead of you. Should you spend it in the Cascades or on the beaches in the San Juans?
      Figure it takes the other guy about two days to wind down from the pressures of the fast lane. So give yourself two hours on the ferry, from Anacortes to Friday Harbor [1984.] You'll be there in plenty of time to grab some groceries and find your little sailboat.
      Stoke your boilers at any of the local eateries, and head out. Early afternoon ought to find you bucking the flood from Turn Island––so go with it instead and drift to Jones Island. Either of these marine parks is all you need for a couple of days' cruising (close by), good hiking and scenery, rocky bluffs and gravelly beaches, birds galore, and good fishing around the kelp and rock piles. Deer, too––some calico––native and exotic crosses from those that used to be on Safari (Spieden) Island only a two-hour swim away.

Sucia Island Group, 1940s.
Photograph by Clyde Banks Studio
Click to enlarge.
Original photo from the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

      Well, that about does it as far as where to spend the first couple of nights. Now, if your sailboat had a motor you could stretch your range as tight as a drumhead; see more but enjoy less, having to be more organized with your time. Forget it. Stay on one island for a couple of days and get to know the place, and save the rest for another trip.      
      While you're lying in the moss you're wondering where those other boats out there are going. Well, unlike you, they're late, making up for lost time, maybe headed for Sucia for the night and then over to Sidney or Bedwell Harbour, and then to Nanaimo or Telegraph Harbour. Tighter than a drumhead. Hurry, hurry.
      Meantime, you begin wondering what kind of moss you're lying in. Kind of spongy and aromatic; close up it looks like a tiny jungle. The more you gaze into it the more you see––about a dozen different kinds in this one little spot. And mushrooms, lichens, and algae, the place is alive with stuff you never noticed before. There must be books about this that you can read to find out more. You resolve then and there to learn more about this natural world around you.
      The sun goes behind the clouds. A breeze makes the firs sigh, and it gets cooler. It makes you hungry, so go check the boat, gather some firewood, and cook up some soup.
      The boat's okay, high enough up on the beach to be there when you want it tomorrow. The high tide will just wet the transom, judging from the last high tide's line of drift. Not that you're in a hurry to leave. You might just figure on staying put for a few days. Besides, there's more to see and do right here underfoot than you really ever imagined. Amazing, what you miss when you're not in tune with where you are.
      You begin to wonder if with a little help from books and experience you could learn to live out here in the open. Off the land, so to speak. Maybe try it for a few weeks in the summer, just for openers.

Cruising in the San Juan Islands, WA.
Click image to enlarge.
Undated original from the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

      Maybe get a boat of your own. How big? Someone once said, "well, you either want one big enough to ride out our storms or small enough to beach it." Hmm, possibilities. Low cost, low maintenance, low stress. Protected water, quiet coves, mossy outcrops, grassy flats, kelp beds and bottom fish, fair currents, clear water, clean air, and freedom.
       If the wind dies how far could you go with the tide? Now you're getting into it. Maybe to Turn Island, six miles away; six hours with a knot of current, even sooner with a little tail wind.
      How about that? Turn Island in time for sunset!" 
 Dustrude, John, happy mariner of the San Juan Island Archipelago, with home port of Friday Harbor.
 The Art of Winding Down. San Juan Islands Almanac. Vol. 11, 1984.

❖ SHAW ISLAND CLASSIC SAIL RACE ❖ Clips from the Past 40 years

✪  ✪ 1971 ✪  ✪

In the beginning...
20 May 1971

Friday Harbor Journal

"The San Juan Island Yacht Club will sponsor a new sailboat race to be known as the Shaw Island Classic, for a perpetual trophy, the gift of Myrn and Dick Philbrick of Friday Island.

      19 June is the date for this challenge to the sailing and navigational ability of our sailors.

      The course and objective of the race is to circumnavigate Shaw Island, to port or starboard, and direction may be reversed at any time, but Shaw Island must be circumnavigated. [Some] particulars follow:

      Race Committee: Bob Condon, Chairman, Fred Cookman, Everett Johnson, Dick Philbrick, Ed Kennell.

      Start: Between flag at Friday Island dock on Friday Island and flag on Friday Island dock on San Juan Island side.

       Course: From the starting line circumnavigate Shaw Island in either direction to the finish line. The starting line and finish line may be crossed in either direction.

      Finish: same as starting line.

      When: Saturday, 19 June 1971. Ten-minute gun 10:50 am PDT; Five-minute gun 10:55; Start 11:00 and Finish 1800.

      Time Limit: The finish line will not be manned after 1300 hours, and no boat finishing after that time will be counted.

      Race Rules: Boat on a starboard tack and ferry have the right of way. No free-flying sails (such as spinnakers, etc). No handicaps--first boat to finish wins.

      In case of emergency--engine may be started--provided the clutch is disengaged. If necessary to use power, the boat is disqualified.

      Rendezvous: At the conclusion of the race (1800 hrs) rendezvous on Friday Island dock. Potluck dinner at the poolside for Shaw Island Classic participants. The swimming pool and dock facilities are courtesy of the Friday Island Community Club. Participants are requested to bring contributions to the potluck and tableware, dishes, etc. Coffee will be served courtesy of the SIYC."

This is a work-in-progress. We hope to fill in with reports from all past years; if you can help from your scrapbook, please contact us through email to this site, thank you.

1978

      

6-meter OSLO
Hans Otto Giese
Shaw Island Classic 1979
First in Hot Shot Racers Division
viewed here on Opening Day, Seattle, 1942.
11" x 14" original photo from S.P.H.S.©

"The Shaw Island Classic gets more popular each year, and this year drew 139 entries, most of which finished the race despite intermittent light winds.
      For the first half hour, it didn't look as if the boats were going anywhere, and the simultaneous rowboat racers got way out ahead. In fact, the fastest rowboats came in 45 minutes ahead of the first sailboat. Both races started at 11:30 in Friday Harbor and allowed boats to go either way around Shaw and back.
      Sailboat trophies were awarded to seven classes, as follows, according to race chairman Karl Loveland:
      Cruising boats: KINA, Bob Thurston; VALHALLA; STELLA MARIS.
      Modern racing-cruising boats: GEMINI, Jack van Ommen; POISSON SOLUBLE; FREE STYLE.
      Big buckets: SCARAMOUCHE, R. M. Alexander; MARIA; WYANG.
      Hot-shot racers: OSLO, Hans-Otto Giese; MARS; TESS.
      Classic cruising boats: KENAI, Steve Mason; RAIN BIRD; HORNY TOAD.
      Multihulls: PUMA, Gary Boothman; TACHYON; PALACIO.
      The sailors finished out their day with the traditional Rendezvous put on by the Lions Club, and the rowers ended with a salmon bake at South Beach on Shaw."
The Island Record, 15 August 1979
      [The above columnist mentioned seven classes but only six were listed.]

1984

...The most recent incursion of the islands drifted in on the wind. Sleek sailing craft they were, each commanded by a modern-day Odysseus, picking up berths in the concrete rows of Friday Harbor's new docks:

      Some from the big city, some from suburbia, some from the coastal environs. Three million dollars worth of racing machines they were, voyaging in the land of the lotus with equipment not dreamed of by Ulysses.

      Topsides waxed and shining, bottoms scrubbed, sails and rigging ready for the fray, outnumbering local contestants four to one, they were here for the 14th Annual Shaw Classic. They came with a prayer for the favorable wind of Aeolus to strike down the Law of Shaw: "Wind before and after the classic, but seldom during."

       The prayers of the faithful were answered: For my crew, it was the first finish in five classics.

       In 1983, 34 percent finished; this year the record shows 61 percent. Many others finished but none were recorded in the last hour. (Our estimate is 80 percent finished.)

       The right way around Shaw this year was east.

       The unfortunate 25 percent sailing north on the tide found wind problems at Wasp and, on a foul tide, dropped into a bigger hold in Harney Channel. Only a skillful few managed to finish. 

       Our pre-race analysis of the Riddle of Shaw was quickly changed after observing the first start.

      The decision to sail east, and the expertise of crew-member Schwedler, enabled us to place fourth in the blue class.

      In the lee of Lopez, winds were languid in Upright Channel. The smart skippers worked the tidal current close to Shaw to gain Harney.

      By West Sound, the current was strengthening, but the fickle breeze left dozens of boats drifting near Broken Point waiting for a lift.

      Finally, at Bell Island, it came in an exhilarating uplift of spirits long depressed in a stagnant drift.

      Two dozen boats accelerated swiftly through Wasp, picking up the southerly to disgorge through the Cliff Island constriction and shoot out into the channel.

       Beating into a fresh wind on a foul tide skippers selected their shoreline tactic. At Shirt-Tail Reef they were already tacking, some crossing the current line to the San Juan shore, some favoring Shaw.

      Close in, the current was weaker but so was the wind. Boats standing further outgained the harbor faster, some getting the horn in a satisfying sweep across the line.

      For others the wind (so good in the channel), had its last hurrah, dying off in the lee of Brown.

      The last few hundred yards were drifted, sail limp, in a frustrating vignette of slow motion, tossed by the arresting wakes of power boats headlessly intruding on the course.

      It was wonderful. It was the Shaw Classic.

Above column: Up Anchor, Friday Harbor Journal

by Bill Matheson, 22 August 1984.

   1989

Catboat SHARON L. 
Miles and Louellen McCoy,
West Sound, Orcas Island.
Photo by Joanne Fraser, Shaw Island.©

      

Heavy morning fog and light mid-day winds may have been a factor in keeping the number of participants so low, for the annual event that some years attracts over 150 competitors.

      In fact, the wind itself almost didn't show up for the start of the race, with only a few of the boats making it out of the harbor in the opening half hour of the race.

"It took us an hour and 20 minutes to cross the starting line," Louellen McCoy said. "That was when we were thinking about calling it quits."

      Eventually, however, Louellen and her husband Miles, sailing their 1933 catboat SHARON L, were glad they stayed in the race, finishing first in their category of classic sailboats. 

      Stan Miller, also from Orcas, won first place in the classic cruiser/racers.

      Of all participants sailing this year, one name stands out: Bentzen. This sailing San Juan Island family dominated the day, with two firsts and two thirds.

      In his Hobie 21, VELOCITY, Dan Bentzen was the first boat to cross the finish line this year, in just over 4 hours.

      Dan's father, John Bentzen, was the first of the racing class to finish, in his Etchell 22, THOR."

Report by Tom Hook for the Journal.
August 1989 

      

2010

TIR NA NOG

LOCAL BOAT WINS SHAW CLASSIC

TIR NA NOG,
Sole finisher and WINNER 
the 40th Shaw Island Classic,
7 August 2010.
L-R Back: Kirk Fraser, Marlin Sevy,
Steve Hendricks.
L-R Front: Bill Fraser,
Joanne Fraser, Liz Sevy
The race was marred by rain,
backward winds, and negative currents.
This crew toughed it out!
Photo contributed by Marc Forlenza 
for the Journal of the San Juans

By Fred Hoeppner (1918-2011)


Journal of the San Juans 
12 
August 2010 

The 40th Shaw Island Classic hosted by the San Juan Island Yacht Club on 7 August had the potential of being one of the most challenging in the event’s history, with forecasted winds of 17 knots and a nearly 10-foot tidal range creating a flooding current of over 2-knots at Reid Rock.

      However, with no wind developing, the fleet was basically hove to. A rumble could be heard as far uptown as Vic’s as the skippers alternately cursed Thor or pleaded for wind. Of 68 starters, only one boat technically finished the race. Bill Fraser in TIR NA NOG out of Shaw Island got the checkered flag.

      The Shaw Island Classic is unique in that there is no fixed course. The Sailing Instructions are quite simple: Start from Friday Harbor, around Shaw Island either way, and back to Friday Harbor. Shaw Island is the only mark and the Sailing Instructions caution against hitting it. If one does hit the island a 360° penalty turn is not required.

      The mass start of 60-70 boats of past years was modified this year by SJIYC Fleet Captain, Peg Gerlock, to provide a start for slower boats followed 15 minutes later by the faster boats. This lessened the near collisions of former years as the boats merged for the start in usually light wind conditions. The paperwork consisting of the Notice of Race and Entry and the Sailing Instructions were very good with an added touch of humor.

      The weather however was a disappointment. Some boats did not get more than a couple of hundred yards from the start. Most with local knowledge chose to go counterclockwise, figuring on riding the counter current on the north side of Turn Island and then catch some breeze coming up San Juan Channel to take them to Upright Channel. Most of those boats hit the flood off Turn Rock—and that was all she wrote.

      Bill Fraser, the winner, said, “I could see early on that this would be a mid-course race.” (Race Instructions provided that if no boat completed the course by 1800, finishes would be taken at mid-course, at 1700). He could see the trouble others were having with the light wind going counterclockwise, so he decided to go clockwise with the flood current and take his chances bucking the current in Wasp Passage. Fraser crossed the midpoint line at 1644, just 16 minutes before the time limit.