Local boat builder makes donation to Search and Rescue

Local boat builder makes donation to Search and Rescue

Recently, local boat builder Michael Baccellieri generously donated a beautiful handcrafted wooden boat as a fundraising item for the Wahkiakum County Search and Rescue Team.

From his boat shop on Puget Island, Welcome Slough Boatworks, Baccellieri spent many hours crafting the boat from logs he had salvaged from the Columbia River in the area around Cathlamet and Puget Island. After milling the logs into useable building stock, he performed his magic and the lovely little boat was born.

The boat was built from the Ladybug design of Harry Bryan of New Brunswick, Canada. It is a flat bottom pram and measures seven feet long and is just under four feet in width. The boat weighs approximately 75 pounds. The boat is unique in that it has a wheel built into the bow and the oars can be fitted as handles, essentially making the boat a wheelbarrow for transport on dry land. With its light weight and smaller size, it can be easily transported in the back of a pick-up truck.

This wonderful design, with its light weight, stability and capacity for two adults and some gear, could be used very effectively as a sneak boat for duck and other waterfowl hunting (just add your own camouflage netting), as a fly fishing pram in protected waters, or just as a simple way to get out on the water to that secret destination for a Sunday afternoon picnic.

Members of the Wahkiakum County Search and Rescue Team would like to thank Baccellieri for his very generous donation. They will be selling raffle tickets for a chance to own this boat as a means of fundraising for their team.

Tickets will be on sale for one dollar beginning in mid- to late March and will be available from any Search and Rescue Team member and local businesses. Watch for this boat at upcoming community events including Bald Eagle Days, the Wahkiakum County Fair, the Wooden Boat Festival and other locations and dates. The raffle drawing is planned for the Wooden Boat Festival over the Labor Day weekend at the Elochoman Marina.

Baccellieri shows the boat to Search and Rescue Team Members. Photo provided by Allen Bennett.