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PETREL is one of the most beautiful and best maintained conversions I’ve er seen. She has solid troller roots, and I know two others of her design still fishing. I hope they are lucky enough to retire to an owner like Petrel’s! Chris, her owner, wrote me saying:” Petrel was designed and built by Mat Tolonen at Columbia Boat Works in Astoria. He built a lot of boats there and is documented with photos at the Astoria museum. His son, in his seventies, lives in Sequim and says he has a half model of Petrel that his father made.” Tolomen was a member of the large Finnish community that settled around around Astoria, Oregon. Apparently this boat’s distinctive sheer is traditional Finn, because several Finnish builders in Astoria built trollers with this general look. Petrel and her sisters are the biggest, and the prettiest, of the Finn built boats I’ve seen. But the others ain’t bad either, and from what I’ve read, all shared heavy construction and a reputation for being good seaboats. |
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The Cape Disappointment is a fine conversion. She’s owned by the man who owns the halibut schooner GRANT, and both are kept at Seattle’s Fisherman’s Terminal. |
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This boat was for sale in British Columbia in 2010 for $45,000 Canadian. She was supposedly owned by a shipwright, and had been completely gone over. At the time I was still hung up on double enders or I would have made an offer. I’m still kicking myself…. |
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I saw this boat in Bandon and thought somebody was doing a very good job on this conversion. Several years later (2012) Jim Rogers in Friday Harbor sent me the pics above of the boat. Her owners, Gayle & Jeff Palmer, had finished the conversion, drove her up the coast to Washington, then sold her. I heard she is in Alaska now. At the risk of sounding like a sexist pig, there’s lesson here. If you restore an old troller not only do you get a first class ticket to heaven, but you attract great lookin’ women! Or men of course, depending on your perspective…. |
Gayle & Jeff are the people who saved her! |
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I’m not a big fan of most fiberglass production boats (which has nothing to do with the fact that I’ve never been asked to design one…), but this is an original Ranger, a very cute 18′ production boat built near Seattle , designed by the great Ray Richards. That happy big boy in it is Jim Rogers, who sent me the pics above. |
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My friend Brad found this photo in a book. This is a very practical cruising boat concept, other than perhaps the gaff sail. There’s nothing like being becalmed in a swell and having that gaff swing around. It can be dangerous! |
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Roger & Alie, an Australian couple, bought this old lobster boat and converted her. Half way, that is. Her middle 25% is live well! These guys cruised her from Australia, through the south Pacific, up to Alaska, then back down to the Seattle area where I met them. She’s powered with 6 banger Cummins. Oh, they use the sail both for stabilization and increasing the MPGs |
 Sean Ryan was just finishing this beautiful conversion in 2013. He’s planning on hitting the NW wooden boat shows with her. |