Some Cool Wooden Boats of the Pacific Northwest
Wooden boat rockstars Maynard Bray and Ben Mendlowitz flew to the west coast in the late summer of 1993 in search of premiere specimens for the Calendar of Wooden Boats. They aptly timed the visit to coincide with the Classic Boat Festival in Victoria, BC, and the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival, which provided them with a pleasingly diverse fleet of candidates. The trip was punctuated by some unforgettable sailing and a visit with Maynard and Anne Bray’s longtime pal Bill Garden, a designer/builder who at the time was based in Sidney, British Columbia.
This group of images wonderfully documents Maynard’s adventures and captures the thorough enjoyment of time, place, craftsmanship, and camaraderie.
At 73' and 54 gross tons, the seaworthy Argonaut II served for three decades as a mission boat for the UC of Canada beginning in 1937. During this time, she was rarely idle; she provided medical, postal, funeral, and spiritual services to remote settlements along the rugged BC coast. By the time this photo was taken in 1993, she had long since been purchased and converted to a private yacht. Here, she's docked in front of the chateau-inspired Clairmont Empress hotel on the Victoria waterfront. Construction of the Empress was financed by deep railroad pockets at the turn of the 20th century.
In light air, Bill Garden tends the helm of his schooner Toadstool, which he designed and built; she was launched in 1975. Garden was a Canadian and American naval architect and marine engineer. For six decades, he designed watercraft ranging from commercial fishing vessels and tugboats to motor and sailing yachts. He and the Brays enjoyed a long friendship.
Veteran Pacific Northwest builder/sailor Bill Garden makes headway in light air with sails hoisted and engine running aboard his schooner Toadstool.
“This is the English-built cutter Anne Marie II sailing near Sidney, BC. Ben Mendlowitz and I had been invited to join her for a short cruise through the San Juan Islands as she made her way to Port Townsend’s Wooden Boat Festival. Despite her rig having been reduced, she retained the lovely features common to Edwardian yachts of her era.”
Maynard and Ben Mendlowitz were invited to cruise for a few days aboard the cutter Anne Marie II. Here they're powering out of Deer Harbor in the San Juan Islands toward Port Townsend, Washington on a still day.
Photographer Ben Mendlowitz eyes distant features aboard the cutter Anne Marie II in September 1993. Bray and Mendlowitz were invited along on this circuitous cruise in the waters between Vancouver Island and the coast of Washington, winding up in Port Townsend for the Wooden Boat Festival.
Calendar of Wooden Boats photographer Ben Mendlowitz, writer photographer Maynard Bray, and owner/captain Robert Lawson lounge near the deck house aboard cutter Anne Marie II during an unforgettable cruise in the Pacific Northwest. They're bound for the Wooden Boat Festival in Port Townsend, WA.
Maynard's discerning eye picked out Spidsgatter sloop Pia's elegant stern details where she lay at the dock in Port Townsend, WA, during the 1993 Wooden Boat Festival.
An anonymous boat nut sculls along behind a diverse flotilla docked at the Port Townsend waterfront for the Wooden Boat Festival, September 1993.
During a scorching reach aboard Rage, a Sunrise 70' Ocean Racer designed by Tom Wylie, Maynard crouches with camera at the rear of the cockpit to survey the action and the evidently cool-headed crew. Steve Rander built Rage at his Schooner Creek Boatworks and had already campaigned her with great success.
Danish-built Spidsgatters are always head turners whether sailing or dockside. Port Townsend is home to several.
The schooner Alcyone is one of Port Townsend’s icons, having been owned and sailed for many years by Sugar and Leslie, who keep her well maintained and actively chartered. As of 2022, she’s still going strong.