❖ CAPTAIN BARNEY JOHNSON ❖ TAKES YACHT TO SEATTLE ❖ 22 June 1937

   

WESTWARD HO (ex-WHITE WINGS II)
Home waters, Vancouver, B. C.
WESTWARD HO was designed by Edson B. Schock,
and built in 1927 by George Askew, for Walter Cline.
Cline traded her to Barney Johnson for the famous ALEXANDRA in 1930.
"I suspect it was Barney who changed her gaff rig.
He added the first genoa to be seen in these waters.
 He won a lot of races with her during the years he owned her.
It seems he borrowed her on occasion; he won the Beaver Cup with her in 1939."
Photo and quote courtesy of David Williams, Vancouver, B. C.

      

"At approximately 8:30 this morning, in the swirling narrows and under an overcast sky, Captain Barney Johnson, popular skipper of the WESTWARD HO, dipped his ensign and officially said goodbye for his WESTWARD HO to the Royal Vancouver Yacht club. Ushered out by Tom Ramsey's ARMITA, carrying Skipper Ramsay, Art Jefferd, and Fred Holland, the WESTWARD HO, under power, circled around in the swirling tide, while the representatives on the ARMITA gave three hasty cheers and blew loudly on a foghorn.

      The WESTWARD HO has been sold to a girls' school outside of Seattle. Johnson was delivering her this morning. She was built in Vancouver and has been the property of Barney Johnson for the past eight years during which time she has been the commodore's ship on two occasions. She has always been regarded as the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club's number one sailing vessel, sort of one of the pillars of the sailing craft.

      'She's a beautiful boat,' sadly murmured Johnson. 'I'll hate to lose her. But I have made up my mind. Come on, boys, have another drink with the sun, you have to have a mizzen now you have your topsail set. Can't sail on one wing, you know.'

      Another toast, a few hearty choruses of 'Blow the Man Down,' and the WESTWARD HO was on her way.

      Over the weekend she sailed her last race, the Ballenas Islands race for the Beaver Cup, and was an easy win.

      'We really sailed her on her last race,' said Barney. 'I'll hate to see her go... but maybe we can get her up here for the ladies' race with some of the girls handling her.'

      According to reports Barney Johnson will not be off the sea. The famous old salt plans to get a small boat and do some racing."

News article by Hal Straight 

The Vancouver Sun

Tuesday 22 June 1937.

From the archives of the

Saltwater People Historical Society

Below notes from Miles McCoy, West Sound, Orcas Island. 

McCoy was the skipper of WESTWARD HO in the summer of 1950 when he was 19-years old. The West Sound sailing scene hooked him on settling in the area.

WESTWARD HO (O. N. 236434)
West Sound, WA., then sailing with Camp Four Winds-Westward Ho campers.
"Turtleback" land formation in background.
Undated photo courtesy of Nick Exton, Orcas Island.

 "The yawl WESTWARD HO was associated with Four Winds-Westward Ho Camps from the late 1930s through the mid 1950s. The camp being named after the vessel; Westward-Ho camp became the boy's camp when Four Winds-Westward Ho became co-ed. The yawl served the camps for many years longer than any other vessel. Hundreds of children sailed and sang camp songs aboard while learning the ropes and the ways of the sea. After WW II ended, Jack and Bill Helsell prepared WESTWARD HO for the 1949 Trans Pacific Yacht Race. The race was a windy one with above average winds over a majority of the course.  [Miles McCoy was crewing.]

      While in Hawaii WESTWARD HO was met and sailed by a bevy of senior campers from Four Winds. They sailed several day sails in Molokai channel and learned about sailing in brisk conditions.

      Later in August after a pleasant voyage from Hawaii to the coast, WESTWARD HO arrived at the Orcas Island camp to a jolly welcome by some of the Hawaii contingent and camp staff. There was much music, singing, and regaling of sea stories.

      WESTWARD HO sailed for the camps for several more years before being sold in the 1950s to sail off to Hawaii and points south. She has not been spotted in the Pacific Northwest since."

❖ 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.

Classic Boats Visiting Deer Harbor ~~~~~ Summer 2010

John Gorton, Deer Harbor sailor, historian, and master photographer, has shared some fine shots of the classic woodies passing through his territory on Orcas Island. 
The photos are from September 2010, for your viewing pleasure, and not for commercial use.

Deer Harbor, September 2010.
Photograph courtesy of John Gorton©

Schooner MARTHA
Deer Harbor, September 2010
Photograph courtesy of John Gorton©

Deer Harbor, September 2010.
Photograph courtesy of John Gorton©

Deer Harbor, September 2010.
Photograph courtesy of John Gorton©

Deer Harbor, September 2010.
Photograph courtesy of John Gorton©

JOSHUA, Deer Harbor, September 2010
Photograph courtesy of John Gorton©

   

❖ A DAY ON A CANNERY TENDER ❖ by Gordon Jones

Tender PETREL, 
76-ft, built in 1918. 
Photo by author.

"My story deals with only one small facet of reaping the silver horde of sockeye salmon, that of accompanying a cannery tender to the fishing grounds on two different occasions to buy freshly-caught salmon from the fishing seiners during the later summer months. The tender was the PETREL, Captain Ellsworth Trafton, fish-buying for the A. & P. Cannery in Anacortes, WA. Ellsworth known as "Taffy" to his friends, had been associated with fishing much of his working life. He, his brother Ted, and their father, Jack Trafton had operated the schooners ALICE, AZALEA, and WAWONA under the Robinson Fisheries Company banner. A friend of theirs, E. Harry Anderson, a first-tripper in WAWONA in 1940, had been invited to join the PETREL and to ask a friend; that's how I found myself aboard during the '65 and '66 seasons.
      Purchasing the fish directly from the boats on the grounds obviated trips to-market by the fishermen. Boats fishing for A. & P. stationed themselves in the path of the Sockeye returning from their sojourn at sea to spawn in the freshwater streams of their birth. The "grounds" were along the west side of San Juan Island where the runs turned northward from the Strait of Juan de Fuca toward the mouth of the Fraser River and other streams. 
      After taking on supplies from the cannery just west of Anacortes, Taffy headed the PETREL toward the grounds about eight A.M. each day. During the run, a good breakfast was served up by Cliff, the cook, in the ample galley of the 76-footer, a wooden vessel of eighty-gross tons built in 1918 and still going strong. Norman Hansen, deckhand, and engineer, spelled Ellsworth at the wheel while he ate and discussed prospects for a good season. Fishing had become so "spotty" in recent years that predictions were difficult, guesses at best. 

A purse seiner on the Salmon Banks, 
San Juan County, 1979.
Photo by Josef Scaylea
Original photo from the archives of the S. P. H. S.©

      Proceeding northerly from Cattle Point, the first boats we spotted were off Limekiln Light. Three or four seiners had already made their sets but none was hauling a net. No action yet. As we proceeded farther north, however, a couple had hauled their nets and showed promise of some fish. Our ice was down and Taffy decided to go after some more should the fleet have a good day. This required a run over to Bellingham, about forty miles away. After taking on ice, we returned in the afternoon and a check into Mitchell Bay showed half-a-dozen seiners anchored and ready to sell. We were soon at anchor and receiving fish from the GLADIATOR. The catch had been poor and the seiner had decided to quit for the day. Soon the PETREL was flanked by two more boats wanting to discharge and it was getting dark by the time the GEORGIA entered the bay about seven-thirty P.M.
      The procedure was to lower one of PETREL'S baskets into the fish hold of the vessel, standby while the fishermen pewed it full of salmon, hoist it out, and discharge the fish into a hopper which rested upon a weighing scale. Each load was weighed and tallied; when the fishboat had discharged, her skipper came aboard to receive a receipt for the catch. Each catch was put on ice in the tender's hold for delivery to the cannery the next morning. These sockeye at spawning season run about twenty-four inches in length and weigh about seven pounds.

      Cliff had dinner on the table by the time we had washed down the decks and were headed through Mosquito Pass on our way back to the cannery at Anacortes. Taffy knew the islands as well as his own name and he put the PETREL through her paces. But our scheduled return was interrupted by orders via the radiotelephone from the cannery: pick up a load from another tender anchored off Green Point. So it was haul-out-the-gear once again, moor alongside, receive several tons of fish with illumination provided by the masthead lights and .... finally, run the last leg of our course.
     It was after one-clock in the morning before we were again moored at the A. & P. dock. Ellsworth was dog-tired, but sent both Harry and me home with a nice salmon for breakfast."
Gordon Jones for The Sea Chest, September 1976
The Journal of the Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society

❖ Captain E. G. Baughman ❖ of the Gold Ship HUMBOLDT

The HUMBOLDT
In 1897, Seattle mayor W. D. Wood and associates,
chartered the new wooden steamer HUMBOLDT,
laid down at Eureka, CA, as a lumber-carrying steam schooner,
but completed as a passenger and freight steamer.
The mayor deserted city hall to enter the Alaska steamship and
mining business, departing for St. Michael aboard the HUMBOLDT.
A large number of the city's fire and police personnel also joined
the gold rush, leaving the municipal government in a
somewhat more chaotic state than usual.

"The death of Capt. Elijah G. Baughman in 1935 was accompanied by a most remarkable (and well documented) happening. He was never master of any ship except the HUMBOLDT. He was her pilot at the time of her first voyage to Alaska in 1897 and was appointed the master in 1900, remaining in charge throughout his entire career. By 1915 he and the HUMBOLDT had already completed 500 voyages to south-eastern Alaska. In 1919 the steamer was withdrawn from Alaska service and operated on California coastal routes. When she was laid up at San Diego Capt. Baughman retired. The HUMBOLDT lay quietly rotting away in the boneyard for more than two years... until the night of 8 August. That was the night Capt. Baughman died--slipped his cable, as the old sailors used to say--and it was the night the HUMBOLDT slipped her cable, too, and sailed again for the last time. Toward night a Coast Guard cutter hailed an unlighted ship moving silently through the harbor toward the open sea. The Coast Guardsmen boarded her and found her warped decks and dusty cabins deserted; no living hand on her wheel. She was towed back to her boneyard mooring and in 1936 was reported still there, her house and smokestack were gone and her hull rotting away. Her eerie sailing on the night of her old master's death was no doubt a mere coincidence, but on the other hand, the bond between a man and ship can grow very strong in thirty years. The reader is left to draw his own conclusions".
Text from: 
The H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest. Gordon Newell, editor; Seattle, WA. Superior Publishing, 1966.