Seattle CL Tugboat

[goodbasil]

http://seattle.craigslist.org/kit/boa/1448365243.html

I like this.

[Bob Triggs]

http://excaliber1908.homestead.com

I am really sorry to hear that she has to sell this boat, it is her dream boat, and she has poured her heart and soul into the project.

[Captain Blight]

HOLY CRAP!! I know that chick!

Or at least I met her in Pike Place about ten years ago, and chatted briefly.

And, DAMN, I wish I had the money for that vessel right now. Really, really a lot.

[mirage6678]

Hi,
I am that " chick" and you didnt meet me 10 years ago as I have never been to Pike place and I lived in Spokane back then.
I am Capt. McDonald and I own the Excaliber.
She is a fine ship and I hate to part with her.
No work, equals no money and as any of you will know...
Huge wood ships take lots of money. Her moorage alone is pretty bad to keep up with even when I had work.
I also own a few other boats as well. Boat addict.
I am forced to turn down offers for great Captains jobs due to my kids and no family to watch them. Local work is non exsistant.
I am also a yacht painter. No one is paying to paint yachts either in these hard times. Its all they can do to keep them on the docks.
When your whole life if trying to sell off what ever you have left, and nothing IS selling I might add.. just to keep paying yet one more month of moorage it becomes a misery.
Every day, first thing I wake up to is.. Crap.. how the hell do pay the moorage this month? I sold a 3000 dollar trialer that goes to my small powerboat for 500. Now I dont have a trailer !!
This month I am selling off my brand new triple racor worth about 2500 for 500 bucks. I never could figure how to install the damn thing anyway. Hey, I can paint em, and pilot em, but I suck at fixing them ! Always need a engineer with me to go anywhere.
Sooner or later I wont have anything left TO sell off. Then what?
Let my ship be auctioned off to god knows who?
I can only hope to find someone who can afford her better than I can cause no one will ever love her more, that is a positive fact !
When you REALLY love something with all your heart... You do what is best for them, not for your own selfish needs.
I love her enough to give her to someone who can give her what SHE needs. I very sadly can not. She cant live on my love forever.
Capt. " Tugboat" Andie and Excaliber
(At least for now I can still sign all my emails that way anyway)

[mirage6678]

By the way, here is her website....

www.excaliber1908.com The best poem I ever wrote is on there. Called... I am married to a tugboat. It will crack you guys up for sure. Wow, never thought about that. She has been my only partner for a long time now. Im sure going to be totally lost without her now. Breaking up a perfect pair.
I wont settle for any lame brain new owner, she needs a real Captain. Unlike the boneheads I rescued her from. She didnt have a single pensil zinc left in that engine or heat exchangers !
I run my systems up once a week. keeps old grandmas blood flowing. Important at 102 years of age ya know.
I want this ship to have salt water moving under her old keel.
Most everyone I met is scared to pilot her. With GOOD reason too ! Just read the poem !! You will see ....
Andie and Excaliber

[BrianW]

Andie,

Great looking boat, and great history too!!!

Loved your website. The part about docking big wood, single screw boats, sure struck a chord.

Moorage is fairly cheap in Sitka, if the your boat has fuel in the tanks to get here.

[Lew Barrett]

I was in Port Orchard last week with the Classic Yacht fleet (for the "Pumpkin Cruise) and saw the boat tied up down the pier from Olympus. I contemplated walking the few steps over to her, but got busy kibbitzing and schmoozing with all my friends.

I wish you good luck in finding an appropriate new home for her. Taking on large boats like this is a major commitment even in the best of times, so I know all of us here feel your distress and share in the irony of your situation.

A new owner will want to have good working skills and strong drive but (at least from a distance) Excaliber looked like she had a lot of potential and would indeed make somebody(s) a fine home.

This economy is going to play hell on the Classics and old wooden boat (working craft) fleet; there can be no doubt of that now. It's a real shame, because we were just starting to make serious headway in saving some of these fine old boats. With money so tight, I fear we will see and hear more and more of these stories. Even the greatest of the boats will suffer, not to mention the people who maintain them or simply just admire them.

[Hwyl]

Originally Posted by mirage6678

Hi,
I am that " chick"

I admire your pluck

and wish you good luck.....
(just been reading your doggerel, at least that's what I call my similar poetry )

[Lew Barrett]

Originally Posted by Hwyl

I admire your pluck

and wish you good luck.....
(just been reading your doggerel, at least that's what I call my similar poetry )

Me too.

[Bob Cleek]

The "Wallace Foss" (1892?) was tied up at my yacht club dock briefly a couple of weeks ago and my buddy, who's caring for her, gave me the "surveyor's tour" of the old bucket, stem to stern.






She's been restored to yacht finish, wooden decks and all. Sadly (for those of us who appreciate such things) her steam plant was removed many, many years ago and now she's got a big hulking diesel in her, the original, reputed to be one of the first diesels in a tug on the Sound.

An incredible boat, but very clearly daunting in terms of maintenance and upkeep. She's got the main diesel, a genset, and something like three others, IIRC, one to start the main engine, one for the hydraulic winch systems and one for the bow and stern thrusters (an aftermarket "yachty" addition). I can't imagine the hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars that have gone into restoring her and the same amount it takes to keep her operational. It isn't like she's earning her keep as a working tug anymore. I hear she's owned by a group of owners, but even so, "If you have to ask `how much?', you can't afford it."

Glad to see folks are keeping these beauties alive.

[Lew Barrett]

The Wallace Foss, when I knew her, was owned by Dave Walker and sold to the next owner(s) who did a great deal of the finish work you saw. The main is a Caterpillar and she does start off of a pony motor as you indicated Bob. I had the pleasure of cruising in her company some years ago while the Walkers still owned her.

I'd have to agree that the Wallace Foss is one of the most beautiful tug boats ever and always has been. The forward companion way down from the pilot house is an absolutely stunning feature, as is the charming scuttle, and just about every other near perfect feature on this boat. The later owners are to be commended because it has been a "big pull" (so to speak).

Thanks for the photos and the reminder.

[C. Ross]

These are the threads that bring me back to the Forum.

Best wishes Capt Andie for a new home for Excaliber and thanks for the website link.

Wallace Foss is gorgeous too, thanks Bob and Lew.

[Pitsligo]

Mirage6678: Did you just hook up with Excaliber maybe a couple years ago? When she was still Le Mars? Bucephalus and I had just moved into the area, and Le Mars was at Liberty Bay Marina, where we found a berth. If you're the one who took her on after she left LBM, you've done some very nice things for the old girl --and she sure needed it. I'm sorry things aren't going easier for the two of you, and I hope she finds a worthy partner.

Alex

[BETTY-B]

After that, Le Mars went to PT for a big haulout. When Andrea got her, she changed it back Excaliber.

And if ever there is someone to aspire to when working on your old boat, let it be Capt. " Tugboat" Andie. When she says she is going to save an old wood boat, she really does it! Boat after boat. Hell, she's probably got fifteen boats right now! I'm not kidding either.

Anyways, I've got a zillion of the wrong pics, So she says I cant post any of them. I've been waiting to hear back from her all day with the pics I can post.

To be sure this is a massive vessel and a huge undertaking. But there's a helluva boat there. So much of the big cost things have already been done.

DAN

[Hwyl]

What a great boat, I do hope Captain Andie gets it together so she can keep it. I don't have Dan's restrictions about posting pictures, since I don't know her.

[Hwyl]

I'm bumping this because this is what the forum should be about.

[David G]

Agreed!

Best of luck Andie.

[mirage6678]

Hi all,
Thanks for all the nice comments.
Excaliber was logo boat at harbor days this year.
Wallace was there. I had a ball getting them all to run every slow speed engine on each tug. My favorites are the Wa. ironworks but I must say, Enterprise has the best sound. I got to drive a friends tug with 800 hp DR Enterprise ( with turbo) . The one mentioned on my site I had to go do a all night delivery mission on thanks to the damn DNR jerks.
I got cold and put my engineer on the helm, went and actually fell asleep on top of the heads. They dont get hot like on the modern engines. Well, I had a thick work suit on. But no ear covers, so for days all I could hear was the WONDERFUL music of those 8 cyliders firing away. For some reason, they always bang harder on # 8. Makes a distictive sound. I walked around almost deaf but didnt care cause I could still here that old slow turner banging away in my head. What bliss.
Made people wonder what the hell I was smiling about just wandering around.
I rode on a tug this year with another Enterprise. Bunches of people my age.. and older. I am 44.
Woman are sure odd at my age. All stuffy. I am a BIG kid !
They fired that engine up and I was literally jumping up and down.
Everyone looking at me like huh?
I said... HEY !! That is a damn Enterprise !!! Cant you hear it !!
They just stared. One asked me what that was. GEE WISS.
THE ENGINE !! She looked at me like so what, who cares.
I looked back.. I DO !! then headed right for the engine room.
They just shake thier heads. Ah, they dont get it. THANK GOD I do ! Cause anyone who doesnt appreciate the sound of a old slow speed IS nuts as far as I am concerned and I dont want to know them.
I even made a tape of it and looped it. Played in all night so I could go to sleep. A bit excessive.... but hey. Enterprise !!!!
The sound of a old tug heart beating, still running in a time when the world is in such a damn hurry. Too busy with a bunch of useless crap they play with. People are a bunch of spoiled brats with no manners or class. Its a all about me world. No thanks.
That sound takes me back to a time when the world was much more real. People were real , BOATS were real ! I wish my boat was still steam. I bought her a hand cast bronze triple chime steam whistle for her 100th birthday. So Grandma can sound like a steam boat again.( she liked it)
Hell at Harbor Days this year it rained like HELL right before the race and I had the dog bowls off the stack ( cant afford the normal covers the fancy boats have) Dog bowls.. makes me laugh.
When I fired her up tons of steam ( and lots of soot I might add)
blew everywhere. I looked up totally covered in black crap like some old black gang coal shovler....
I said... GRANDMA !! knock that shit off, you are NOT a steam boat anymore.
But she would have none of it. she was having WAY too much fun . We blew steam for quite awile. Got me worried Id blown a head gasket ! But hey, she had a good time.
Capt. Andie

[outofthenorm]

You probably get this all the time Capt. Andie, but will you marry me?

Wait ... dang, I'm already married.

[BrianW]

Back of the line norm..

[NealmCarter]

Capt Andie, Not to worry..with your "cat that ate the canary grin".. You`ll come out on top, I`m sure.

[BBSebens]

Can I borrow $50,000 from someone? This is an awesome boat. I would die to have a old girl like that.

At the Victoria Classic Boat Festival I was able to get on board the David B, who has an old Washington 3 cyl. I could have watched that old mill turn all day. what a fascinating thing. Its like a living thing. The engineer would trim the cylinders by shimming the pushrods. I love it!

Since Im fairly certain that I couldn't get someone to loan me 50k to buy an old wooden tugboat, I with everyone else that I hope she goes to a good home.

[TimH]

tugboat annie -tugboat andie..hmm.

[David Tabor (sailordave)]

Originally Posted by outofthenorm

You probably get this all the time Capt. Andie, but will you marry me?

Wait ... dang, I'm already married.

I'm NOT!!!

[Raka025]

Find that chick some work guys so she can keep that ole girl and keep from becoming an old girl herself.

There must be other options to raise money from opening her up for a bed and breakfast, chartering, an historic trust . . . I hear their might be a stimulus package available ( sarcasm) but surely their are some creative folks here?

I wish I had work in the area and need to be purred to sleep by that diesel.

My boat doesn't need painting right now.