I was in Seattle for business last week, which allowed me to make a pilgrimage to the Center for Wooden Boats, a place so cool I cannot contain it to a single post, nor even two. In fact, friends, a roughly two-and-a half-hour visit gave me four interesting posts to lay out for you. This place is everything I expected and then a bunch more.
Here's the overview, for those not familiar. The Center for Wooden Boats is, on the surface, a museum of small, classic boats that happens, unlike others of its type, to be set smack in the middle of a major American city. Right away, that gives it some cache. The thing that first drew me to the place, however, and I have known of it for a couple years, was the fact that this museum has a livery service. In short, for many of the boats, you can not only touch them, you can use them. At a very reasonable cost, too. Brilliant concept, and I have been itching to check it out. Thursday, 6/12, was the big day.
After looking around a bit, I found my way to the livery shack, where the manager, Zach, gave me a going-over on my sailing chops before letting me free on Lake Union. There were some nice options: a few Beetle cats (never actually sailed one), some small prams (seemed a bit tame), some knockabouts (a bit much for single-handing, first time out). Then something a little different caught my eye: the boat I was to come to know as the Cape Ann dory Q-ONA. Now she was the ticket.