Wooden boat enthusiasts have their day

A busy week at the Elochoman Slough Marina was capped off on Saturday with the 2015 Wooden Boat Show.

Without the coinciding Chili Cookoff, the event seemed a little quieter this year, but everyone who attended the classes, checked out the boats or heard the Skamokawa Swamp Opera seemed to be having a good time.

Organizers focused on smaller boats this year and several were set up along the road. There were a few more tied up along B dock.

"We've got a lot of smaller boats, a lot of static displays," Allan Bennett said. "We've got folks here from as far away as Salem, Ore. It's nice to have the bigger boats, but with the smaller boats, being able to stand around them and talk about them has been more intimate."

Organizer Bob Kizziar agreed.

"The boat show was great," he said. "The boats were beautiful. I really enjoyed all the boats on the land, it gave it a home town, small town feeling."

Chuck Sarin, of Astoria, showed off the Tollycraft which he purchased and began restoring in 1984.

"There were only 28 of these made," he said, "and they were made from 1961-63. The problem was that there was so much labor involved, they couldn't make any money on them. They discontinued them."

"They're hard to find," he added, noting that he had tried unsuccessfully in the past to locate another.

He switched gears as it began to rain.

"The weather hasn't been very cooperative," Sarin laughed.

The number of people multiplied quickly under the covered area at the marina as the rain began to come down harder. Luckily, the Skamokawa Swamp Opera, made up of Kyleen Austin, Andrew Emlen, Erik Friend and Jillian Raye were doing an hour long set of river songs, including one selection from an opera.

"Everybody had a good time," Kizziar said, "and we had the usual Pacific Northwest weather."

The rain moved on and still no one wanted to move, charmed by the music. The group finished their set with a Bob Dylan song, All Along the Watchtower.

Back outside, Bennett talked about his boat, a Pelican sailboat, built in 1962.

"This was a $100 derelict when I found it," he said. "It was just a piece of junk. Gilbert Vik, Julius Dalzell and I spent about a year and a half restoring it. It was a lot of fun. You could see through the transom, everything was rotted. All the mast and the boom and the gaff were delaminated. We polished it up and cleaned it up and painted it. This is the kind of thing we want at the boat show. We want people to bring boats in that they've built or restored."

Michael Baccellieri, who had several boats that he had built at the show and had given a few presentations that day on the different boats, was excited about the event. He had advice for anyone who talked to him about building a boat.

"You just take fear and you pitch fear and you go for it," he said. "If you make a mistake, who gives a rip, just fix it!"

"The event was not as big as last year," Bennett said, "but I think it has been a success so far. In the future, we hope to turn this into a mini Port Townsend boat show. We want to try to get more speakers in, make the event a couple days. We will reevaluate based on this experience and see where we need to go with it."

"I really want to praise the port and marina staff," added Kizziar. "They handled this week flawlessly, with all the fishermen, the Wounded Warrior event and the Wooden Boat Show. It is what I've learned to expect from them."