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| The 40-foot “admiral’s gig” will enable
the Sea Scouts Ship to take overnight excursions
on the Columbia River, according to group skipper
Toby Dyal. TOM BENNETT — The Daily
Astorian |
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| The former sheriff’s marine boat was
donated to the local Sea Scouts Ship and will be
used as a floating classroom. TOM BENNETT — The
Daily
Astorian | | Classroom surfaces for Sea
Scouts
Clatsop County Sheriff’s Office
donates boat to local Boy Scouts
By TOM
BENNETT
The
Daily Astorian
It
looks sort of forlorn now. But a former U.S. Coast Guard
cutter and sheriff's marine patrol boat will find new life as
a floating classroom for local Boy Scouts.
The Clatsop
County Sheriff's Office recently donated one of its
decommissioned boats to the Sea Scouts, a local Ship that
teaches the basics of seamanship to area youth.
The
40-foot former "admiral's gig" will expand the horizon for the
group, allowing for longer cruises than are possible now on
its two current vessels.
But first will come plenty of
elbow grease to get the 46-year-old boat back in sailing
trim.
"I see all my free time eaten up," joked Toby
Dyal, skipper of Sea Scouts Ship 635 Flying
Cloud.
New mooring base needed
The boat
was donated to the county in the 1970s and used as a patrol
boat on the Columbia and other local rivers until recently.
It's sat idle for the past two years or so, and will need
considerable work on the engine, not to mention painting and
work on the galley, Dyal said.
The group will also have
to find the boat a new home. Dyal said he can moor it
temporarily at his home on the John Day River, but that won't
be a permanent solution given the boat's size. The group
already pays $700 a year to dock its sailboat.
"I see a
lot of fundraisers in our future," he said.
Donating
the boat to the Sea Scouts was "the right thing to do,"
according to Marine Deputy Jim O'Connor.
The old cutter
was already retired when he joined the marine patrol division,
O'Connor said. It was replaced by a 21-foot safe boat the
department recently obtained from Coos County. The new vessel
is self-bailing, more maneuverable than the old cutter and
comes with large foam bumpers that make it much easier to pull
alongside other vessels, he said.
Ship dates back to
1930s
The local Sea Scouts Ship dates back to the
1930s, when a group of scouts and their mentors rigged an old
Navy lifeboat into a two-masted sailing ketch they christened
the Flying Cloud.
The little vessel served the group
for years, but by the 1970s, when Dyal moved to Astoria, the
Flying Cloud was out of service and the Sea Scouts were no
longer active. A few years later at a dinner party he met some
other locals interested in starting up the Ship again, and
offered his mechanical skills - he works for Napa Auto Parts -
to the project.
Today there are eight teens in the
group, with four or five who regularly turn out for
excursions. They maintain and sail an open 25-foot former
Coast Guard surf boat and a 26-foot sailboat, but they're
mostly limited to short voyages of a few hours' duration, Dyal
said.
"Right now we're limited to how far we can go
between potty breaks," he said.
The former county boat,
however, has room for bunks and a galley in the front
compartment, and once it's in sailing condition will be able
to handle week-long journeys upriver to Portland and even
beyond, Dyal said.
Skipper trains the
kids
Though Dyal was never in the Scouts, and took
up sailing only after moving to Astoria, he said being a part
of Sea Scouts, which he's lead for the past 10 years, and
sharing life on the water has been a rewarding experience.
Despite Astoria's strong connection to the river and the sea,
most kids don't have many chances to actually experience them,
he said.
"How many kids who are 14 get to run a big
boat?" he said. "Most of the kids I have, in their own life
don't have an opportunity to go boating."
Dyal and
assistant skipper Hal Nauman have the group navigate a course
between Tongue Point and Svensen Island, charting their way
around the buoys and even taking depth soundings to pick their
way through the shallows. Even kids with little or no
experience on the water are able to pick up the necessary
skills and sail with confidence after a few months, Dyal
said.
"Usually by the end of the summer, me and Hal can
just sit and watch and drink our coffee - that's the fun part
of it," he said.
In the powerboat, Dyal usually sits
close to the throttle control in the event of an emergency,
but otherwise the youngsters are able to navigate that vessel
on their own too.
"It's a fun thing to do, seeing the
world through a kid's eyes," he said. "It's keeping me a
little bit young."
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