We've lived in a great boating era.

[Hawgwash]

Reading of Tad Roberts well earned recognition, I got to thinking;

Many people on TF have grown up among some of the most notable boat people, whose names we know and whose vessels we instantly recognize.

Many on here have been on the boats or visited the yards famous for the named boats. Some, lucky enough to have owned a piece of marine history and others who have been on trawlers. Right Ted?

We are lucky to have been a part of the amazing transition from commercial to recreational boating and along with Tad, these are just a few of the very familiar names, especially on the West Coast;

Alden Allen Benford Benson Boeing Crealock De Fever Devlin Farrell Fleming Garden Geary Menchion Monk(s) Tolifson Wahl

I wonder, how many of the current lot starting out will be remembered or have their boats stand out 50 or more years from now? Not many, I suspect.

I have been fortunate to have waved at some of the special ladies who quietly slipped by.

The Thea Foss is one such classic;
I first saw her in the 50s as a child in a coastal logging camp and today, as I write this, she is sitting in the Octopus Islands not far from where she began her life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKVyvyDO370

 

[Phil Fill]

I grew up with Tollycraft mfg in Longview Kelso where I grew up. Originally start in a small shop on the cowlitze river as a young lad rode my bike down to his shop. Later a larger mfg plant at the airport.

The Thea Foss was moored in the marina next to us. The first time I heard her start her engine I was in the engine room and scared the heck out of me. At the time she was still direct drive. The start the engine in reverse so the prop is turning. She ran thru many docks, and boats they finally installed a transmission.

There are a lot of known boats not built any more.

 

[FF]

The past 150 years has been fantastic for Std of living , boating or not.

Central heat , refrigeration , indoor plumbing are just a few that the kings for the past 5,000 years almost never enjoyed.

 

[GoneFarrell]

Hawg,
Totally agree, we are lucky dudes to have crossed paths with those names.

I remember the first big Delvin boat I saw, it just floored me in the Kingdome at the Seattle boat show years ago: Czarinna. Man, that boat gave me the bug bad! Then went over to his shop, I was amazed at the quality and control going on there that generated the best stitch and glue boats I've ever been on. I talked to him about it at the wood boat show last fall, he's looking at me like "who are you?" Just another wood boat nut!

Then last year crossed paths with the Farrell 34 that owns me now. Hope to show it to the man, not sure if it will be this season or next, but would sure like to do that. That darned boat is one of the best things I ever did with a pile of $$.

 

[TDunn]

You people are indeed fortunate to live and boat in the Pacific Northwest. I grew up there, but now do my boating in Maine. One thing that has changed during my lifetime, short as it has been, is the cost of waterfront property. When I was a kid we had a waterfront house in Olympia and a waterfront cottage on Hood Canal. We had boats at both places. We were not rich, my dad worked for the state as a librarian in the state law library. Someone in similar circumstances now certainly couldn't afford either the cottage or the no bank waterfront house we had back in the 50s.

 

[Northern Spy]

I remember the first big Delvin boat I saw, it just floored me in the Kingdome at the Seattle boat show years ago: Czarinna. Man, that boat gave me the bug bad! Then went over to his shop, I was amazed at the quality and control going on there that generated the best stitch and glue boats I've ever been on.

I went to that boat show and chatted with Sam Devlin aboard Czarina too. 1991 (I think). I visited his shop later that year, as well.

 

[Hawgwash]

You people are indeed fortunate to live and boat in the Pacific Northwest. I grew up there, but now do my boating in Maine. One thing that has changed during my lifetime, short as it has been, is the cost of waterfront property. When I was a kid we had a waterfront house in Olympia and a waterfront cottage on Hood Canal. We had boats at both places. We were not rich, my dad worked for the state as a librarian in the state law library. Someone in similar circumstances now certainly couldn't afford either the cottage or the no bank waterfront house we had back in the 50s.

Here's the price of waterfront on the sunshine coast in 1922. 10 bucks an acre waterfront, 5 bucks up the hill.

This property at Myrtle Point was settled by two families in the 1880s. Mine and another arrived by row boat.

They staked the land by natural landmarks; trees, creeks, plateaus and points of shoreline.

In 1922 the "crown" organized the land and sold title to the settlers.

The unique part of this deal was that the two families were long term friends who had come west together and there was no hesitation in putting the entire piece in only one name. After everything was registered, the crown paid off and official surveying started happening, the property was split in two with no dispute over who got which half.

How's that for a solid trusting friendship.

Both families sold off parcels over time and the last 5.5 acres of our old 61 acre homestead was sold in the 1970s for 70k. I understand it was subdivided in recent years, each piece fetching in the millions.

I'd wager the current owners have zero idea of the history.