The Western Flyer is a boat loosely associated with the author John Steinbeck, as in “John Steinbeck Slept Here”. Dragged off the bottom the ocean, it was put in Port Townsend for “restoration” and eventual display in California. I’ve written about this a lot, so do the search thing.
The barnacles got blown off by a new owner who paid $1 million for it, and who plans on putting $2 million into it’s restoration. Then, he moved it into a pole building (steel shed) and closed the doors.
It took me a while to find it when I happened on the shed when the doors were opened. It’s looking much better, but I still wonder why anyone would bother.
I recently learned that it was built in Tacoma, at the Petrich Boat Yard in the 1930’s I think. My wife roomed with Alta Petrich in college, her family having the boat yard.
So I married a lady that roomed with a member of a boat building family that built a boat that was rented by a scientist in California and took John Steinbeck on a cruise that turned into a book.