Tag Archives: double ender sailboat
“Sailing Back To the Bay” trip gets closer to launch
The launch of No. 76, a 29-foot restored Libby, McNeil and Libby double-ender sailboat once used for commercial fishing in Bristol Bay, and its journey in the decades-old wake of fishing boats traveling from Homer to the bay have been rescheduled for 2022. The delay was fortuitous, allowing time for Frank Schattauer Sails of Seattle to complete a new sail that was hoisted on the vessel’s single mast by Dave Seaman and friends on July 3, in the NOMAR parking lot. Seaman oversaw the restoration work and will captain No. 76 when it makes its voyage a year from now. “(The vessels) had keels and ribs of white oak, planking of Port Orford, Oregon’s yellow cedar, and were sprit-rigged with a wing-shaped sail,” said Seaman. “Belying their sweet lines, these boats were built for work.” photos, >click to read< 14:44
Frontiers 190: Iron Men of Bristol Bay
Alaska is a place where much of its history is still fresh, yet with so many stories on the verge of disappearing forever. Such is the case with the double ender sailboat, pushed by the wind and the tides across Bristol Bay in pursuit of salmon. For more than 60 years, they were the workhorses of the canneries that brought in fishermen from all over the world in big sailing ships to work the boats and pull in nets, heavy with sockeyes, all by hand. The sailboats may have been beautiful, but they were dangerous. And although motorized boats appeared on the market in the 1920s, Bristol Bay fishermen weren’t allowed to use them for commercial catches until the 1950s. Video, >click to read< 11:22
