Stories originally published by the HOMER NEWS
September 1, 2010
Boat of the week: Bristol Bay double-ender
How better to wrap up this year's "Boat of the Week" feature than with a page out of Alaska's history? The 29-foot Bristol Bay double-ender currently being refinished for the Pratt Museum by Dave Seaman, president of the Kachemak Bay Wooden Boat Society, fits the bill.
August 25, 2010
Boat of the week: Blue Too
The last thing you can do when driving a boat with an electric blue hull and yellow cabin that's recognizable from an extreme distance is speed.
August 18, 2010
Boat of the Week: F/V Bear
In the 34 years Pat and Barbara McBride have lived in Kachemak Bay, they've kicked around in a lot of boats. Pat McBride almost died in their first boat, a 18-foot Opheim skiff he rolled coming out of China Poot Bay. Not sure he would be rescued, he carved "I love you Barb and Pat" to his wife and son on the bottom of the overturned boat. Help came hours later.
August 11, 2010
Boat of the Week: Pandalus
Named after a species of shrimp found in the cooler waters of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, there's nothing "shrimpy" about the Pandalus, a 66-foot research vessel owned by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and homeported in Homer.
August 4, 2010
Boat of the Week: Waters
You may know the name John Rogers or recognize his face within the Homer community. Perhaps you know him as the captain of few words, the owner of the original Time Bandit, the contemplative elder, a father, a brother, a nature conservationist, a bear enthusiast, an understated hard-laborer, the half-cup coffee drinker, the first in a group to offer a favor and the last to deny one, the man that is impossible to get a photo of and even more difficult to get to talk about himself, and this week's featured boat owner of the M/V Waters, a tugboat/research vessel/floating hotel with as many lives and incarnations as Rogers himself.
July 28, 2010
Boat of the Week: Her Majesty's Turtler
Not every boat that pulls into Homer is a 147-foot superyacht. About 4 p.m. Sunday, Conor Flannery, 30, of Santa Monica, Calif., paddled up to Bishop's Beach in Her Majesty's Turtle, a 17-foot British sea kayak, after finishing a 2,500-mile, 133-day trip solo trip from Seattle
July 21, 2010
Boat of the Week: M/V Tustumena: A LINK TO ALASKA'S FAR REACHES
The wheel in the center of the M/V Tustumena's bridge bears testimony to the number of sailors that have steered the 296-foot vessel since it joined the Alaska Marine Highway System in 1964. Specifically, it is one of the wheel's eight spokes that stands out, its curved shape worn smooth by the many hands that have kept the ship on course over the years.
July 14, 2010
Boat of the Week: Arctic Assault
When Tom Bos, Jordin Keintz, and Jon Larson decided they needed a fishing boat of their own, they didn't walk the harbor seeking "for sale" signs or peruse Craigslist or newspaper ads. Instead, they jumped headfirst into the do-it-yourself community and embarked on a year-long building process that eventually led to their own custom-designed, 25-foot Jumbo Tolman skiff.
July 7, 2010
Boat of the Week: S/Y Timoneer
If the top of its 166-foot mast isn't raising eyebrows, just a glimpse of the 147-foot S/Y Timoneer will. Currently tied up at the Homer Harbor, the superyacht is a sparkling beauty to behold. Its sleek design and size make it stand out in a harbor dominated by fishing, charter, military and research vessels — smaller sailboats.
June 30, 2010
Boat of the Week:R/V Right Whale finally sees launch
Generations of Homer residents have been born, grown up, graduated from school, married and had children during the years it took for the R/V Right Whale to finally touch the ocean. Forty-five years after the late Jack Geist laid her keel in 1965, on June 14, 2010, the 48-foot steel boat was lowered into Kachemak Bay on a 4 a.m., 20-foot high tide at the Northern Enterprises Boat Yard.
June 23, 2010
Boat of the week: The Republic
The Republic, a Sitka longliner, holds as much history within her 86-foot-long wooden hull as she does halibut and black cod in her fish hold.
June 16, 2010
Boat of the Week: M/V PŬk-Ŭk
To say the 72-foot M/V Puk-Uk is a charter boat is only part of the picture. To say the Homer-based vessel is a film studio, science lab, floating home-away-from-home for avid birders from across the country, well, that's a little more accurate.
June 9, 2010
Baylink II reflects work of local builder
Throughout all of time, civilizations have learned the critical importance of planting communities near bodies of water. That certainly holds true for life at the end-of-the-road societies in Alaska, for waterways are necessary for the hauling of humans and products across vast space. Life on and around the Kenai Peninsula especially is fundamentally connected to the water. For example, you can't throw a stone in the Homer Boat Harbor without nailing a water taxi.
June 2, 2010
Boat of the week: Heather's Dance
When you've owned at least four sailboats in your life and find yourself without a boat, what's a longtime sailor to do?
May 27, 2010
Boat of the week: Safe Boat
It isn't just fisherman and charter operators polishing up their mariner skills for the season.
May 20, 2010
Boat of the week: F/V Sea River
Old boats don't die, they justwell, in the case of the F/V Sea River, sitting high and dry beside Ninilchik River, they just turn into seafarers' memorials. On Friday, the 28-foot gillnetter was fitted with a sign declaring it the "Bob Chenier Fishermen's Memorial -- A Tribute to Our Fishing Community and Our Children Who Play Here."
May 13, 2010
Boat of the week: Sea Flight
Before Sea Flight Charters bought the old Islamorada Lady and brought the Hatteras 41 convertible yacht up to Alaska 15 years ago, she had a shady past. The previous owner bought the Islamorada Lady at a government auction. The feds confiscated the boat after it had ran been run up on the beach.
May 6, 2010
Boat of the Week: M/V Rolfy
At the moment, the M/V Rolfy is getting a break from fish-tendering. With the season just around the corner, it is receiving attention from some of the area's most talented boatwrights.
