Bell Harbor Participating Yachts

In the early 60s, an Egg Harbor dealer invited George Stadel to design a 36-footer. After a year of production, the 36 morphed into the now-famous Egg Harbor 37. As Stadel’s son Bill recalls, “My father designed a lot of lobster boats. The Egg Harbor 37 is essentially a beamy lobster boat.” He remembers his father designing the 37 in four long days, modifying the 36 to make it a bit finer in the bow and removing the tumblehome back aft, thereby adding beam at the sheerline. The 37 is widely recognized as “the boat that created the Egg Harbor brand.” Egg Harbor started building 50 of the 37's per year and increased production to 100 per year. The final count was somewhere between 800 and 850 hulls over a period of about 10 years.

Previous names Kaprice, Gramersea and current name is Capella. This luxury cruising yacht for a family of four and crew of 2, is a Bill Garden design, built by Vic Franck and launched in 1961. Alaska yellow cedar over oak frames on 10-inch centers. Powered by a single 350 hp Caterpillar D-337T.

Delivered new to Palm Beach Chris Craft in West Palm Beach, Florida in 1951, Cinnamon Girl was originally named Pri Mer Go after the owner’s three daughters. She made her way to Seattle in the fifties or sixties, and was repowered by Doc Freeman's with twin OMC 305 V8 engines in 1977. Other former names include Vivace, Jolly Six and Josey II. Current owners purchased her in 1999 and repowered again in 2001, along with much refastening and main system upgrades.

Compadre is a 43 foot bridge-deck cruiser designed and built by Stephens Brothers Boat Builders in Stockton, California.  Launched in 1929, she was the second of three cruisers built by Stephens Bros. to a 42-foot design.  Compadre is unique, however, because her original owner, Leland Adams of San Francisco, specified that the wheelhouse be lengthened by18 inches, making her 43-1/2 ft overall.  A sister ship, Classique, currently is berthed in Seattle.  The third boat, originally named Alys, has apparently has been lost.  Compadre's interior layout is unusual for a bridge deck cruiser of this era.  The galley and saloon are forward of the wheelhouse; aft is the owner's stateroom.  Later 43-foot Stephens cruisers had the more common layout, with the stateroom forward and the galley/saloon aft.  That designed proved more popular, and Stephens ultimately built at least seven of those boats during the early 1930s (surviving examples include Seven Bells, Allure, and Cielito.) 

Designed by H.C. Hanson and built by Franck & McCrary in 1930 on Seattle's Lake Union, Comrade was first owned by H. W. Davis, Jr. The third owner, the Birdseye family, bought the Comrade in 1949 and cruised on her for almost 70 years. Now owned by the great-granddaughter of the original owner! Kathy Weber and Bill Shain have enjoyed cruising Puget Sound since acquiring Comrade in 2017. 

Faun is a 36’ Blanchard Standardized Cruiser, launched on Lake Union in June, 1926 by the N.J. Blanchard Boat Company for W.N. Winter of Medina, Washington. Her designer is Leigh H. Coolidge. Her 1926 purchase price was $6000. She is one of 25 Standardized Cruisers built by Blanchard, most of which were 36’, and one of the most luxurious. She is powered by a 1947 Chrysler Crown 6-cylinder gas engine, and cruises at 8.5 knots. Her hull is Alaska red & yellow cedar, her frames are white oak and her bright work and house are Burmese teak. She has her original cast iron stove, a Neptune. A major restoration of her planks, frames & ribs- everything from the waterline down- was completed in 2013-14. She was awarded Best Classic Power Under 40 Ft at Seattle Yacht Club’s Opening Day in 2018; Best Overall Power at the Victoria Classic Boat Festival in 2014; Best Dinghy in 2015. Faun is featured in several books, notably Classic Wooden Yachts of the Northwest by Ron McClure (2000). She was featured as Miss October in Benjamin Mendlowitz’s 2010 Calendar of Wooden Boats, and has graced the cover of Northwest Yachting Magazine. She is also the subject of a series of pastels by San Juan Island artist Nancy McDonnell Spaulding.

A 36' custom built canoe stern yacht created by Taylor & Grandy on Vashon Island in 1914, Glorybe is one of the oldest boats in the CYA and the oldest member of the Seattle Yacht Club. Owned by Betsy Davis. Glorybe was severely damaged in the SYC fire, but was rebuilt at Seattle Community College.

A Grand Banks 36 Classic. The boat was nearly sold for parts after deteriorating on the hard for several years. Current owners are the third to make progress in bringing her back to her previous glory, balancing restoration with cruising.

In the mid-1930's, the U.S. War Department became convinced that a war with Japan was inevitable. The need for accurate charting of the coast of Alaska once again became important. H.C. Hanson, a noted naval architect in Bellingham, WA. furnished the plans and the government funded the building of two ships. One, the E. Lester Jones, was built in Astoria, OR, while our ship, the Patton (named for Raymond Stanton Patton, the recently deceased Superindent of the C&GS) was built by Sagstad Marine of Ballard. The winning bid was $149,995. After WWII, until their decommissioning in 1967, both vessels, E. Lester Jones and Patton, continued to survey for the C&GS in the Aleutians, Southeast Alaska, and along the BC coast (in conjunction with Canadian surveys).

"Halcyon" was purpose designed as a working salmon troller by Naval Architect Bill Garden and built for a member of the Prothero family. She fished the Northwest coast from Alaska to Oregon for over 20 years. In 1984 master shipwright Sam Fry acquired her and spent 10 years converting her into a comfortable and seaworthy cruising troller. The original interior, decks and houses were removed down to the frames and planks and so began the project. Bill Garden's original drawings were used to replicate the forepeak and wheelhouse. The fish hold and the working deck were converted into a single cabin following the shearline of the original hull, housing a galley, vanity, shower, alcove and settee. The design goal was to replicate the original Bill Garden lines to look like a working troller until you step aboard and realize that she is newly built on an original hull. Halcyon was generously donated to The Center for Wooden Boats in 2021 by her longtime owner and caretaker, Ned Johnson. She is used by CWB as a teaching platform for maritime education programs involving participants of all ages.

Holiday has been family owned since launched in July 1946.

Constructed in Algonac, Michigan by Chris-Craft Corporation. Previous owners extensively cruised New England, and after being transported to Seattle in 1979, throughout the Pacific Northwest to include at least five Alaskan excursions. Itineras' custodian happily lives aboard full-time with his canine companion.

Maranee was launched in Algonac, MIchigan on June 28, 1940, and spent her first 19 years cruising the Great Lakes, Georgian Bay and the St Lawrence River. She started a new life on the west coast when she was shipped to Seattle via railcar in 1959. She is still powered by her original Hercules M-130 gas engines. On her spreader flies the burgee of the Vermilion Yacht club in Ohio, a gift from that club's bridge in honor of Maranee's time as flagship there in 1946.

Marian II is a classic Lake Union Dreamboat. She was the first flagship of the PNW Fleet of the Classic Yacht Association. The first boat to start the tradition of boating to UW Husky Football games. Current owner since 2014 extensive upgrades including new keel, bottom planks and horn timber. Interior upgrades new starboard bench, refrigerator, and subway tiled shower. New diesel heater. Ready for another 90+ years of cruising.

Classic "Puget Trawler" design

From 1947 to 1968, Messenger III served as a missionary vessel for the Shantymens Christian Association, a non-denominational Christian society, bringing medical and spiritual comfort to the British Columbia coast. Messenger supported one of the first hospitals on Vancouver Island's West Coast. She is featured in several books, "Splendor from the Sea" by R. Keller, and "Looking Astern" by Earl Johnson. She was also featured in a 1954 Life Magazine article.  Messenger has served as a pleasure vessel since 1968.  Her history involves the development of Scotty fishing products, including the SCOTTY Downrigger through to the 1990s.   Messenger has undergone a slow but steady rebuild since 2001 by well-known and respected shipwrights Ted Knowles of Victoria and Chris Earl of Vancouver's Gronlunds boatyard.  Her propulsion is a Gardner 6LW, giving 7 knots at 1.5 Gallons per hour. 

Launched origionally as Thea Foss the corporate yacht of the Foss Tugboat Company in 1933. Like many vessels of her time she was conscripted by the U.S. Coast Guard to serve as a patrol vessel. She patrolled the Bremerton Naval Yard for the duration of the War. Afterwards she was returned to the Foss Corporation. In 1949 Foss acquired a large fantail yacht named "Infanta" which replaced this vessel as the corporate flagship, earning the name "Thea Foss". For the next 4 years there were 2 vessels bearing Thea's name, and this being the smaller of the two began to be referred to as "the little one" or "Mit Lit" in Norwegian. The name was officially changed in 1953, with the vessel's change in ownership.

Built as the mission boat ‘Ave Maria’ at Meares Island in Clayoquot Sound in 1957. The last of four boats built for the mission school by the eye and hand of Barney Williams, Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka) fisherman and shipwright of the Tula-o-qui-aht First Nation with students from the residential school. With the closing of the school in 1983 the boat was found derelict at Tofino, rescued and rebuilt into this classic Pacific Northwest cruiser. Barney Williams was a Chief of the Sea Otter Clan, and had visited the boat during her rebuild. Much later, when aboard, he presented a carved plaque of the sea otter, carved by his son of yellow cedar - now mounted in NOOTKA’s pilot house.

Owl was originally named the "Louise Idaho" when she was originally launched by the McKenzie Barge and Derrick Company in North Vancouver, BC in 1942. She worked as an inland tug until 1964, and was then sold to Nelson Pomeroy of Bainbridge Island, who renamed the boat "Owl" and oversaw the tug's two-year conversion to a pleasure yacht at the Weldcraft Steel and Marine Boatyard in Bellingham. PNW naval architect Edwin Monk designed her conversion, which included an entirely new house with a flybridge along with a redesigned lower deck with three cabins and two heads. The Pomeroy family cruised Owl to Canada and sometimes as far as Alaska every summer for the next 19 years. In 1985, Pomeroy sold Owl to Frank and Carol Didier of Bellevue, WA and Ketchikan, AK. In 1990 she was sold to Harriett Stimson Bullitt, who moved her to her current berth in Seattle's Lake Union. Harriett Bullitt and her husband Alex Voronin cruised the Salish Sea with their family on Owl for the next 18 years, continuing Owl's tradition of being a family boat that explores the Pacific Northwest. Under their care, Owl became somewhat of an institution on Seattle's waterfront, used by rowers and sailors alike as a mark for their courses across Lake Union. In 2021, the current owners Jenna Miller and James Utzschneider spotted a "For Sale by Owner" sign in Owl's window while kayaking in Lake Union one month after completing a nine-year circumnavigation on their catamaran Sophie. Experienced sailors, Miller and Utzschneider currently live on Owl with their family and look forward to cruising Owl to Alaska on her 100th birthday in 2042. They view themselves as stewards of a Pacific Northwest institution and will continue to honor and preserve her past while actively cruising her up and down the Salish Sea.

This is a home built wooden boat built by a Boeing engineer from plans from Jake Farrell. It has always been maintained and not restored. I am the 5th owner.

Apart from several years in Alaska in the mid-1960's, RIPTIDE has been active on the Puget Sound since her launching in 1927. She's hosted three weddings, dozens of family cruises, and moonlight cruises beyond number. She is extremely fortunate to have been owned and maintained by sensitive and caring owners over her long and very active life. She has been repaired and upgraded since 2015 by the Port Townsend Shipwright's Co-Op, and most recently, Compass Boatworks of Port Townsend. Her paint and varnish is maintained by Salguero Marine Services and her owners. RIPTIDE is a great example of the boats produced in the Seattle area during the "Roaring Twenties" !

Savona is a 39' Ed Monk Sr. Bridgedeck Cruiser. She was built in 1942 by Bud Forder of Forder Boatworks in Kenmore, WA on north Lake Washington for Russell Rathbone. She has had many owners through the decades. She was berthed at Bremerton Yacht Club under the ownership of Dr. Kenneth Jackson from1946-1952. She has always been a Puget Sound boat and we believe she has stayed mostly in the Seattle area. 9 years ago, Savona returned to the Bremerton Yacht Club and is currently owned by Chris and Emily Russell.

Purchased Scandalon in 1993 and spent 5 years restoring her. Serial number 2 for this model, and came with Deluxe Sun Deck option with dual stations. The current engines installed in 1965 and now have 5000 hours on them with new identical engines going in this fall. It also has the very rare Chris O Matic electric shifters (sometimes referred to as Crash O matics).

Built in Canoe Cove, BC, as a tug-yacht, Sea Puss went to San Diego after WWII where she was purchased by author Ernest Gann who brought her to the San Juan’s. Restored by Northwest Marine Propulsion Museum.

Sea Witch was originally used as a lifeboat in the early 1900s in the San Francisco Bay. She later moved to Washington state in the 1950s and was refurbished into the cabin cruiser you see today.

Imported into San Diego. Used extensively down into Mexico. Brought up to the Pacific Northwest in the late nineties.

This 43 ft. Stephens Brothers boat was built in Stockton, CA, one of eight or nine boats using the same blueprints. Purchased by the United States War Shipping Administration in 1942, the boat served as an anti-submarine net tender in San Francisco Bay during WW2. The boat was fully restored in 1947 and then again in 1998 after purchase by its current owner. The hull is of Port Orford Cedar, the house is teak, and the soles are fir. The fourth-generation engines are Yanmar diesels. The lace curtains were a gift made by a friend’s elderly mother in Milan, Italy. Between September of 1998 and April of 2000, Seven Bells underwent a complete restoration, including structural hull work, new or reconditioned decks, new plumbing, electrical and electronics systems, refinishing of exterior and interior teak, new cabinetry, upholstery, soles and overheads, hard dodger added over aft cockpit, and engine refitting.

Sonata is a 52’ Chris Craft built in Pompanio Beach , Florida in 1963. She was the 18th of 23 hulls built that year. Chris Craft moved their company after closing the plant in Michigan. Jerry Bryant’s Seattle Chris Craft Dealership on Boat Street in Seattle sold her new to Bill Blume, a member of one of Seattle’s iconic auto dealership families who had commissioned her from the Chris-Craft factory. Bill Blume named her Squatsie from a family story about his grandmother. There have been three other owners before us who named the boat; Salt Chuck, Handy 1, and Serious Delirium. We renamed her Sonata to keep the musical theme from our last two wooden boats. Sonata is 55 years old!

The Steamer Virginia V is the last of the steam-powered "Mosquito Fleet" vessels that serviced Puget Sound ports. In 1921 Anderson & Company of Maplewood, Washington, began her construction, built of local old-growth fir. She was launched March 9, 1922, and towed to downtown Seattle for the installation of her engine and steam plant. In Seattle the engine was removed from Virginia IV and installed in Virginia V. On June 11, 1922, Virginia V made her maiden voyage from Elliott Bay in Seattle to Tacoma down the West Pass. She continued to make this voyage nearly every day until 1938.

Brought to Seattle in 1972 from the Great Lakes, she’s had her yellow stripe and name since then. Easily recognized, we’ve been cruising her in the San Juans and Gulf Islands since 2006. Her home port has been Anacortes since 2012.

Built in 1940 to be the personal boat for Bernard Smith then VP of Chris Craft and son of Christopher Smith the founder of Chris Craft. Bernard never took delivery; instead it went to a dealer in Spokane. The boat was launched in an inland lake to keep her from being used in the war effort and was named TABU due to war era fuel rationing. According to Bernard's son who was aboard a couple of years ago she was also the first Chris Craft to have a 110V AC system on board.

Commissioned and constructed in 1927 for the US Bureau of Fisheries to be a coastal patrol vessel in the territory of Alaska; Teal became the first Alaska Dept. of Fish & Game enforcement vessel when Alaska statehood occurred in 1959. Following that service Teal was "long in the tooth", and was sold into private ownership in 1966. In 1980 she was towed to Port Hadlock, WA where she further languished until being hauled ashore to await next steps... In 1997 a massive renovation began; completed in 1999, Teal was re-floated having been completely replanked, her original Washington-Estep 300 direct-reversible having been replaced (and re-located aft) with a Cummins 855 NTA of 335 hp, with 6:1 Twin-Disc 514 reverse gear. Her original (1955) Coolidge 5 blade bronze propellor is still in use today. Additional upgrades include a pair of 9kw generators + batteries and inverters for 110 v house service. New steel fuel tanks and stainless steel FW tanks.

Thelonius was custom-built in 1953 for a Portland, Oregon dentist who wanted a "traditional style" boat, so Ed Monk, Sr. revised a 1928 plan. Built by Admiral Marine, Lake Union, Seattle. Originally powered by a Chrysler Majestic engine plus a small "get-home" engine, both located beneath the rear cockpit. Now powered by a 150-hp Hino turbo diesel. Yellow cedar hull planking is glue-wedged, rather than caulked. Cabins, decks, transom are teak; interior details are mahogany.

Williwaw was built and launched in Algonac, MI in 1958. Her hull number is 42-217. She was originally delivered to the Cooper Boat Works in St. Clair, WI. She is classified as a Constellation, Flush Deck Motor Yacht and has always been a documented vessel. She is believed to have been christened the "Miss Exide" and owned by the Exide Battery Company of Detroit. In the early 1960's she was shipped to Seattle and purchased by Tom Kipper of Kipper & Sons Engineering. She was renamed the Williwaw at that time and flew the Meydenbauer Bay Yacht Club burgee.