Willard Rendezvous PA Wash

Some of the 24 Willard boats present at the 2013 Rendezvous in Anacortes Wa.
They are all built by Willard.

I am just sick not to be there. My "new" 1999 Willard PH is on blocks in the yard at North Harbor Diesel in Anacortes. I will be there the end of next week to prep for the trip North to Whittier. Pictures?

Looking fwd to your arrival.
Is your Willard the boat that went to the bahama's in PMM?
Willie ?

No. I wish That is a really nicely fitted out boat, love the stabilizers... It is an unused one from the same yard the bahama's boat was fitted out in, but only has a pilothouse door on the starboard side and a window port.

AKDoug said:

I am just sick not to be there. My "new" 1999 Willard PH is on blocks in the yard at North Harbor Diesel in Anacortes. I will be there the end of next week to prep for the trip North to Whittier. Pictures?

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OK please do tell.

Which Willard did you buy? When are you bringing it to Whittier?

I love all Willards, and am super in love with the pilothouse models.

BTW, my boat is in Seward

It was one on the East coast I had to truck over from Virginia. It sat on the hard for most of it's life, never was registered to be in the water. Less than 50 hours on the original Yanmar engine, the seat cushions literally have never been set upon. It needs lots of little things replaced from sitting, and has nothing but a VHF and a depth finder. I get to make all the holes myself

I plan to leave Anacortes around the 22nd, hope to be in the Sound just after the first week of June. I hate to hurry through, but I haven't made the adjustments to be able to be gone longer yet. I still have pets... The trip North will be a good "get acquainted" cruise with the new boat, I'll have lots of new ideas by the time I get home.

AKDoug said:

I plan to leave Anacortes around the 22nd, hope to be in the Sound just after the first week of June. I hate to hurry through, but I haven't made the adjustments to be able to be gone longer yet. I still have pets... The trip North will be a good "get acquainted" cruise with the new boat, I'll have lots of new ideas by the time I get home.

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Very cool Doug!

One question, having made that trip twice...

If you're leaving the 22nd, and plan on being in Whittier by the end of the first week in June, you are on a very agressive schedule.

1500 NM is a very long ways


I wish you all the luck. If you are having work done to your boat, please say hello to Justin and Dianna for me.

Please send photos of your boat, we'd all love to see them.

More Photos from 2013 Rendezvous

Nice shots Eric! A collection of more photo galleries from the Rendezvous is on the Willard Boats site here: Galleries | Willard Boats

I would agree it's a pretty aggressive schedule, having done it once before in a boat that cruised at 24 mph, took 1o days to Seward, not counting the week spent sitting out weather in Juneau. I ran over 200 miles a day on that trip, this one I am planning on around 80 until we hit the Gulf, then running 24 hours a day until we hit Kayak Island. I would call it the "optimistic" schedule, knowing how it really works Planning a little diving along the way for abalone, Achilles air floor inflatable to get to shore for some beach combing. I am bringing the gold pans but not the metal detector, time for that later in the summer in the Sound in Driers Bay. I am getting excited!

I saw this ad on Craigslist for a 50ft Willard hull. It seemed interesting but at my age this is too big a project. I have built two 35 and 36 foot boats from bare fiberglass hull and deck in my lifetime and it is a lot of work. I think this boat is what Willard calls a utility hull.

http://seattle.craigslist.org/oly/boa/3790572472.html

In researching that boat hull I came across this plan for a 50ft pilothouse that Willard may have built. Does anyone know if Willard actually built one before they got out of the pleasure boat business? It looks like she would have been a great boat.

http://pacificmotorboat.com/willardboats/docs/w50-pmm04-2000.pdf

Ron

windmist said:

I saw this ad on Craigslist for a 50ft Willard hull. It seemed interesting but at my age this is too big a project. I have built two 35 and 36 foot boats from bare fiberglass hull and deck in my lifetime and it is a lot of work. I think this boat is what Willard calls a utility hull.

http://seattle.craigslist.org/oly/boa/3790572472.html

In researching that boat hull I came across this plan for a 50ft pilothouse that Willard may have built. Does anyone know if Willard actually built one before they got out of the pleasure boat business? It looks like she would have been a great boat.

http://pacificmotorboat.com/willardboats/docs/w50-pmm04-2000.pdf

Ron

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Unfortunately Willard did not get to build their proposed 50' pilothouse; as you say Ron, it had the potential to be a great boat.

Wind,
Your first link is a Personnel Boat that Willard and Uniflite made. The second is of the proposed 50ft Passagemaker/Trawler that Willard intended to build and market but it was scrapped and none were made I'm quite sure.

Interestingly the 50 looks more like the W30 designed by Rod Swift and I suspect the reason is that the 50 was also a product of Mr Swift.

50'Willard is a UTILITY boat. The Personnel boats had cabins, think capts gigs. The utility boats make great conversions as well. Fast Fred has one and there are a few on
Waterfall II . Bill is building a coastal cruiser for the Loop and east coast cruising. This is his 2nd Utility boat, the first was in Alaska.
One of the weak points on the Utility boats is that the deck is supposed to leak and become spongy. Many conversions raise the deck anyway, so it isn't too much of a concern. These are basically New England style Lobster boat hulls with the exception of the keel being cut away in a taper.

Oh yes S of F. I stand corrected. Always wanted one. 33 to 50' unless my 73 yr old memory is faulty again.

Thought about buying one (50') in eastern Canada that had been converted to a nice heavy cruiser.

Oh yea the Capt Gigs. Kind of a nice hull but requires a lot of power unlike the Utilities. Like a Uniflite only more so.

I worked at Uniflite and had plans for a 33' Utility hull.

Greetings,
Mr. SoF. "...the deck is supposed to leak and become spongy" Why?

I've posted this shot before, but the boat on the left is a 60' Willard. The previous owner is an acquaintance of ours-- he and his wife lived on the boat in our marina for a short period of time. The boat on the right is a 50' Nordhavn. I took this shot a few years ago. The Willard still winters in Bellingham and then goes to Alaska for the summer.

Eric has me on his ignore list, which is fine, but someone might want to bring this picture to his attention.

Marin said:

I've posted this shot before, but the boat on the left is a 60' Willard. The previous owner is an acquaintance of ours-- he and his wife lived on the boat in our marina for a short period of time. The boat on the right is a 50' Nordhavn. I took this shot a few years ago. The Willard still winters in Bellingham and then goes to Alaska for the summer.

Eric has me on his ignore list, which is fine, but someone might want to bring this picture to his attention.

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Marin, I think that's a 57' Nordhavn.

N4712 said:

Marin, I think that's a 57' Nordhavn.

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It could be. I'm not a Nordhavn fan aesthetically so they all look the same to me. There was a 50' Nordhavn in our basin on the next dock over from ours named Prime Time for years and years and I was assuming it was this boat in the picture. I took the shot a number of years ago when Prime Time was still around, so I just assumed it was the same boat. So if you know your Nordhavn models you're probably correct. Actually I was wondering about that because not long after we got our new anchor Prime Time got a Rocna, too. The boat in the photo doesn't have one.

Actually it could be either, they are the only two models with windows acceptable to you Marin.

Actually, it looks like the 57 has a wannabe window option which the 50 doesn't have.

Nordhavn 50

Nordhavn 57

Curious about the Willard -- I have an extensive database of the yachts built by Willard, which originally came from the Willard company, but there are no 60-foot hulls on it. There were a few 65-footers though. Could you provide me with more info -- documentation number, name, year, etc. If it is a Willard I'd like to include it on the willardboats.org website. Thx, -Rick

Peter B said:

Actually it could be either, they are the only two models with windows acceptable to you Marin.

Actually, it looks like the 57 has a wannabe window option which the 50 doesn't have.

Nordhavn 50

Nordhavn 57

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Yes, they were only offered with only the 57 model. The way i can tell its a 57 is if you notice the curved windows on the fifty that are on the corners. The 57 doesn't have those.

Sunshine Rick said:

Curious about the Willard -- I have an extensive database of the yachts built by Willard, which originally came from the Willard company, but there are no 60-foot hulls on it. There were a few 65-footers though. Could you provide me with more info -- documentation number, name, year, etc. If it is a Willard I'd like to include it on the willardboats.org website. Thx, -Rick

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It could be a 65. I'm just going on what I remember being told by the previous owner. It definitely is a Willard. I'm remember being totally surprised when I learned this because I'd always thought Willard just made little boats.

The boat was still in the harbor a couple of weekends ago. We're going up to our boat this weekend. If the Willard is there, or if I see someone I know who knows about the boat, I'll try to remember to ask about the length. It's a massive huge thing and it very well could be 65'. If it's there and I don't see anyone who would know, I'll pace it off.

Oliver I love those curved windows. Some Willard's had them.

Sunshine Rick--- Talked to the owners of the big Willard in our harbor today. It is indeed 65'. The current name is Irish Mist (it's had several names over the last few years as it's changed owners). Attached are a couple of iPhone photos I took.

Thanks Marin -- the database shows 2 65-footers built. One is accounted for, the other was named Poseidon built in 1971. I looked up Irish Mist in the Coast Guard database, but there are tons of them, and none from 1971 that match the length. So I still can't confirm where this one belongs in the database. There's also a 69-footer named Hawkeye II, built in 1975. She is home ported in Juneau and I believe is still there and still named Hawkeye II.

Unfortuanately I can't remember the boat's previous name(s). The previous owner returned to our harbor after living in Alaska for awhile (he and his wife had sold the Willard prior to Alaska). For a year or so after his return he lived on a 36' Soundowner Tug on our dock. He's since moved with his boat to a marina on the Olympic Peninsula.

The boat he and his wife lived on prior to buying the Willard was named Calypso but I don't think they transferred that name to the Willard. The Willard's owner took Calypso and money for the Willard.

The Willard has been kicking around here ever since. I don't know if the current owners bought it from our friend or if they are the second owners since he sold it. It goes away in the summer, I believe to Alaska. It so far always winters here, either in the water or in the yard.

Dosn't look much like a Willard. Not even attractive.

As a Willardite I refuse to claim it.

RT Firefly said:

Greetings,
Mr. SoF. "...the deck is supposed to leak and become spongy" Why?

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I should have said prone to leaking. Many of the ones that I have researched, have reported leaking/spongy decks on the older boats.

Yes, what we know and love Willard most for is their round-stern, full displacement hulls. There are so few examples around from production builders, but plenty of the flat transom, semi-displacement hulls. Willard only built a few of the later, and some are very nice, like Nereid and Klatawa, but I still like to fill in the blanks in the database where I can.