Here is a list of highlights from the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival.
- 5 Bartenders all of different models were there: Paul F. with his 20’-4” Swizzle Stick, Dave B’s 26’ Cruising Kala Lua, Bo N’s 26’ Sportfishing Glencannon, and I brought my 19’ and 22’. So many people mentioned how well Bartenders were represented. Thank you Paul, Dave and Bo.
- All the other boats. The festival gets an amazing collection. The big, massive work boats were impressive. There was the BC Forest Boat, and 2 Halibut schooners and….
- The media was there… I was contacted right before the festival started by Chris Cunningham who is the editor of Small Boat Monthly which is part of WoodenBoat Magazine. He wants to do a review of the 19’ Bartender. We met during the festival. He wants a 19’ Bartender builder/owner to write the review. Don Froese was kind enough to take this on, please read his review in the November 2017 issue.
- And more media… Off Center Harbor Video interviewed Bo and filmed him cruising Glencannon during the Victoria Wooden Boat Festival. They are doing a video on the Bartender, which reference to the plans and some history on George Calkins. They came by my booth on Friday and Saturday for informal interviews.
- Larry G. came up for the Festival on Saturday and spent the afternoon with me at the booth. The Off Center Harbor guys were very interested to hear Larry worked for George Calkins at the DLake shop and at Winchester Bay Marina. Thanks Larry!
- Carl Chamberlin who is a boat designer in Port Townsend stopped by. I have wanted to meet him because George Calkins hired him to draw up the plans for the 26’ Cruising Bartender. George did the hull lines, but his eye sight was too bad to draw the rest. Carl added a tremendous amount of detail to the Cruising plan which none of the others have. George also had Carl draw a 35’ sailboat called Rapture. George had it built for his own use. It’s currently up for sale. (UPDATE: just talked with a gentleman interested in buying it. As a kid, he was a neighbor of George and Wilma).
- I met the current owners of Rainy Day when they stopped by. Several other Bartender owners and current builders introduced themselves too.
- I heard many stories about Bartenders, or how someone knew the Calkins or how someone always wanted to build a Bartender. Love to hear these stories. The sailboat moored next to my 22’ was from Portland, OR. The owner recognized it as a Bartender and came by to tell me how he grew up neighbors to the Calkins on DLake and that his father was friends with George.
- Several guys who use to work for Kvichak Marine told me how the USCG MSB Bartender was doing. They said, it passed the CG testing, is now in service on the CGC Eagle and they requested a second built. Also got a couple new stories from them. The CG was lowering the Bartender MSB into the water from the Eagle. A davit line got tangled in the prop and they dump the Bartender on its side into the water. It righted itself, and there was no damage. The CG was very impressed and said the old MSB would have sunk. Second story… One of the required CG tests was to plug the free ports and fill the MSB with 16” of water above the cockpit sole. They couldn’t fully complete this test. The MSB has the bilge filled with flotation foam, another CG requirement. Before they could get 16” of water into the boat, it would tip on its side, spill most of the water, and right itself. Again, the CG was very happy with the results.
I’m sure there are more things to list, but that’s all I can think of right now. I will post some photos on the Bartender Facebook page. If you don’t have a FB account, you can still go and see them.