Pacific Northwest Fishing Vessel at the Knacker

Old woodenboats eventually must disappear. The "lucky" ones sink at sea joining maritime lore with 100,000's of ships over the millenia. Others experience a somewhat less dignified end when they are chopped to pieces. My local boat yard is a place where slaughtering goes on almost weekly. A beautiful Pacific Northwest Fishing Boat was on the chopping block in July '08.


With the failing economy, the frequency with which the local "knacker" is wrecking old boats seems to have moved up a notch. At least one a week now, where it was about half that rate 2 years ago. I've witnessed the beheading and gutting of 4 different boats in 4 different visits to the yard over the last 6 weeks. The last is a real beauty, a double ended trawler about 50' long, canoe stern, "tugboat" bow and rubrails. All doug fir, stoutly built in the 20's. A real fishboat, she was still working 'til the end according to one of the 'yard rats' who once crewed her fishing... I'll try and snap some photos tomorrow morning if there is anything left of her.. I'm sure there will be as her hull is clad in 1 1/2" Fir. The story is the owner climbed aboard her where she was impounded, and made a run for it... ramming a pursuing police boat.. I'm guessing he may be a local San Rafael resident now adays, over in the "San Quentin" neighborhood. Sad Stuff..

What I've been up to since 2003

I only recently decided to start blogging about woodenboats, but have been logging my "project" in a dedicated website. My Google page on "Spray" is pretty graphically intensive, but it gives you come background on who you are "dealing" with.