Kilochan II

I don't always highlight a particular brokerage, but a recent email twigged some warm nostalgia.


It was the Summer of 1986, July 11th to be exact, that I took ownership and command of the 1962 37' ChrisCraft Tri-cabin, the "Angel Witch". I had bought it from a young broker (who rushed his check to the bank, probably to make a first payment on his new house!) The vessel had been moored in Eagle Harbor, Bainbridge Island as a live- aboard for 1-1/2 years.


The name didn't appeal, and we soon renamed her after my grandparents' British Columbia coastal homestead and my grandfather's work boat, "Kilochan". The original Kilochan (c. 1911-12) puttered from North Vancouver, BC, up the BC coast servicing and repairing the many lumber camps' equipment. No one was ever sure of the exact spelling of Kilochan, derived from a coastal Indian name. Anyway, I recall my Dad's stories of Kilochan heading out from NorthVancouver to head North, having to time the First Narrows current off Stanley Park so that at maximum throttle the stout vessel would go forward, not backward, with the flood current.


The day after gaining her new owner, the newly named Kilochan II made her first new-owner voyage from Lake Union to Jackson Cove on Hood Canal, home of the BSA Camp Parsons, with the intrepid crew son David Jackson and good-friend Mike Evans (avid scouter and Group Health doc). That was the start of many glorious cruises and a whole rediscovered life for me.


One of my favorite yarns was a three-generational cruise with David and my Dad (aged 87). We had spent a delightful, quiet evening at anchor in a deserted bay just off Port Ludlow. No one around, nothing but primitive shoreline, supping good single-malt scotch, not saying a word, gently watching a sea otter, a kingfish and a heron working the shore line. Of course there was the friendly seagull hovering in hopes of another helping of cheese-wiz. He was there, patiently waiting, the next morning. Tide was low so we eked out with Dave at the bow with a lead line. Today that quiet bay is wall-to-wall homes noisily cluttering the whole shoreline.


Sometime later, leaving Shaw's Blind Bay and then Friday Harbor, we made for Cattle Pass and a return home. Weather clear, minimum wind, going with the current, right at the narrow we passed an incoming tug going full bore. Our first "rock 'n roll" experience on the Kilochan and stuff went everywhere. I had the helm, Dave at my side hanging on, Dad with his perpetual lit pipe standing in the companionway to the wheel house exclaiming, "Marvelous! Marvelous!", probably bringing back memories of WWII days on tankers sailing the North Atlantic. The galley sole was covered with Grape-nut-Flakes, Dad's favorite, and which he'd forgotten to stow when we left.


On that same run I made like a seasoned navigator. We were to close on a buoy just off Smith Island. I make it easily, feeling quite smug, only as we closed on it to have it turn, look haughtily at me, and then gently submerge. So, no longer relying on very large sea lions as a way points, we quickly replotted our way home.


Kilochan II was a marvelous vessel. Not only was she my live-aboard home for many years, she also brought back many, many boating memories. I loved her, and she taught me a lot. 


So, back to July '86.


The broker was a Bruce Ramon, now president of Wolfe Marine. Bruce just announced that Wolfe Marine was moving April 1st (no April Fool's joke implied, I assume) a few yards west into the Bob Picot building.  The move doesn't mean Wolfe is closing shop. Far from it. The new look will no longer have on-site brokerage-moorage. Boats for sale will be at the boat's own moorage. A wise, perhaps risky, move in these tight times? But then, boats always look better in their own slips rather than huddled together in a broker's corral. As Bruce puts it, "a greater focus on listing and selling, rather than the catch and release of marina operation."


Take a visit to Wolfe Marine.