Boat work: Do it right or risk 'big ol' can of worms'

Luke Whittaker, Chinook Observer | Last updated Jul 13, 2023 2:23pm

Luke Whittaker, Chinook Observer count

Shipwright Rachel Kuhn, pictured near the gunwale, has been busy in recent weeks helping restore a 1967 mahogany-hulled Chris-Craft for a customer at the Ilwaco boatyard.

ILWACO - Under a high July sun, shipwright Rachel Kuhn sanded the mahogany hull of a 1967 Chris-Craft next to Westport commercial fisherman Chris Cain, who was busy re-painting the bottom of his 46-foot Gulf Craft ahead of the albacore tuna season, now only days away.

(Fishermen in Westport and Garibaldi began seeing some albacore relatively near shore last week.)

Nearby, Brian Cutting worked to replace the propeller on his 50-foot vessel, the F/V Cutting Edge, a necessary step before the commercial fisherman can return to sea to catch halibut.

It was a typical early-summer day in one of Washington's busiest boatyards, one of the few remaining year-round haul-out facilities on the Washington coast that cater to hundreds of commercial and recreational boaters each year.

You might be interested in:

Roar Online Publication Software and content management solution. Lions Light offers cutting edge software for newspaper and magazine websites.