An excerpt from Tugs at the Capital II, a book published by the South Sound Maritime Press and the SSMHA. Compiled by Chuck and Karla Fowler.
Bee and two other tugs tied up at the Port for the 1975 Harbor Day, which was the first year of tug racing in Olympia. Photo courtesy of the late Port Commissioner (1978-83) Cort Skinner.
Now a major Puget Sound maritime festival, Olympia Harbor Days began in 1974 as a small, one-day gathering of historic vessels at the Port of Olympia marine terminal. The snagboat W.T. Preston, tall ship Explorer, and classic 19th century motor yacht El Primero were the main vessels at the inaugural event. The Explorer was the State of Washington’s tall ship representative to the the U.S. Bicentennial celebration on the East Coast.
The informal, end-of-summer event was organized by the newly-formed Olympia-South Sound Maritime Chapter (OSSMC) of the State Capital Historical Association, which operated the State Capital Museum. The OSSMC’s founders were Olympia resident and regionally-known maritime historian Gordon Newell, local boat builder Albert Giles, and State Capitol Museum curator Patrick Haskett. A year later, in 1975, the OSSMC’s Harbor Day event focused on vintage tugboats with addition of the first tugboat race in the South Sound. This marked a return of traditional tug racing in Puget Sound that had ended 20 years earlier in Seattle.
The informal, end-of-summer event was organized by the newly-formed Olympia-South Sound Maritime Chapter (OSSMC) of the State Capital Historical Association, which operated the State Capital Museum. The OSSMC’s founders were Olympia resident and regionally-known maritime historian Gordon Newell, local boat builder Albert Giles, and State Capitol Museum curator Patrick Haskett. A year later, in 1975, the OSSMC’s Harbor Day event focused on vintage tugboats with addition of the first tugboat race in the South Sound. This marked a return of traditional tug racing in Puget Sound that had ended 20 years earlier in Seattle.
The exciting finish of the first Olympia tugboat race in 1975, as the Sunset outran the Bee and Lil Louie to the finish line marked by the yacht El Primero.
Photo Credit: Patrick Haskett collection, courtesy Scott Schoch.
Photo Credit: Patrick Haskett collection, courtesy Scott Schoch.
The historic roots of tugboat racing stemmed from the last half of the 1800s, when sailing ships arrived in the Sound from ports throughout the world. Because of the lack of wind on the inland waters, steam-powered tugboats were required to tow them to the docks for cargo unloading. By tradition, the first of the tugs that raced out to meet the arriving ships got the towing work. In the late 1930s, Seattle restauranteur and promoter Ivar Hagland popularized this tradition by staging annual workboat races in Elliott Bay on the downtown waterfront, to help publicize the first of his well-known chain of seafood restaurants. Public interest in the annual Seattle races grew, but then waned and they were discontinued in 1955, with a brief resurrection in 1979, then beginning again in 1985 as a feature of Seattle Maritime Week. The Seattle races have since been discontinued.
Olympia’s 1975 tugboat race was limited to tugs that were 25 years old or more. The race drew six entries, Bee, Sand Man, Anne W, Sunset, Lil Louie, and Donnie D. Skippered by local tug company owner Gordon Willlie, Sunset won the race. Two other tugs, Bayburn and the Washington National Guard tug LT-2076, participated in the event but didn’t race. The yacht El Primero carried race officials, as she had for the first Puget Sound tugboat race in Tacoma back in 1933, during the premiere of the movie “Tugboat Annie.”
Olympia’s 1975 tugboat race was limited to tugs that were 25 years old or more. The race drew six entries, Bee, Sand Man, Anne W, Sunset, Lil Louie, and Donnie D. Skippered by local tug company owner Gordon Willlie, Sunset won the race. Two other tugs, Bayburn and the Washington National Guard tug LT-2076, participated in the event but didn’t race. The yacht El Primero carried race officials, as she had for the first Puget Sound tugboat race in Tacoma back in 1933, during the premiere of the movie “Tugboat Annie.”
In 1976, the second year of racing, 16 tugs came to Olympia and raced in a dramatic single heat.
Photo credit: Patrick Haskett collection, courtesy Scott Schoch.
Photo credit: Patrick Haskett collection, courtesy Scott Schoch.
Skippered by Erik Freeman, the Barf won the mini-tug heat in 1980. Photo courtesy of Mark and Margie Freeman.
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Word of the 1975 race spread throughout Puget Sound and the next year, in 1976, 16 tugboats came to Olympia to compete. They all raced in a single heat from Olympia Shoal south to the entrance of Olympia Harbor. Unfortunately, some didn’t stop there and they caused wake damage to marinas and docks in the inner harbor. As a result, the U.S. Coast Guard stepped in and reversed the course so that the tugs raced out of the harbor in future years, north to the finish line at Olympia Shoal, thus avoiding the wake and wave damage.
The 1976 and 1977 races were won by the 100-foot tug Odin, skippered by Al Wolover. In 1978, Odin and the Simmons Towboat Company’s Beaver shared first place honors. Les Cooper’s Chickamauga, the first diesel-powered tug built in the United States, won the 1979 race, followed by a 1980 win by Stan Longaker’s Palomar. In 1980, because of the increasing number of tugs racing, and for fairness, it was decided to assign entrants in separate heats. Larger tugs were placed in the “Ocean Going Class” heat, and smaller tugs in the “Inland Class” heat. The number and names of the heats have changed over the years, partly depending on how many and what tugs will be racing each year. In some years, a “Demonstration” heat was added to allow tugs that couldn’t or chose not to race to still make a run down the course. In 1978, a separate downtown arts and crafts event, Harborfair, was inaugurated as a companion shore-side event. Organized by downtown merchant Marti Galbreath, Harborfair included arts, crafts and food vendors, and entertainment acts. Harbor Days and Harborfair continued as coordinated but separately-organized events through 1983 when they were co-sponsored by the OSSMC, City of Olympia, Port of Olympia, and the Olympia Downtown Development Association. The two events merged under the Olympia Harbor Days name starting in 1984, with the same primary co-sponsors. Two big tugs, Arthur Foss and retriever raced in an unlimited heat in 1981, with the Retriever winning by a narrow margin. Photo credit: Scott Schoch.
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Pat Haskett served as chairman of the races for the first ten years, through 1984, and with the assistance of his wife Debbie, has been credited with its early successes. Pat later formed his own business, the Haskett Tugboat Company, and owned and raced two tugs, the Sally S and Mystery. Olympia businessman and OSSMC President Orv Parrott was also a big help, and donated all the participant plaques. Delta V. Smyth had donated the perpetual trophies for the race winners. George Warren, of Warren’s Quick Print, produced the posters and programs at no cost. Scott Schoch, now a tug captain for Dunlap Towing of LaConner, was the timer for the 1976 race and photographer for the early races.
A big factor in the success of Harbor Days through the years stems from its publically-accessible waterfront site at Percival Landing in downtown Olympia. The first phase of the city’s Percival Landing Park was opened in 1978, providing close-up public access to the tugs and a venue for the waterfront fair booths. The Landing was further expanded in 1985 and 1988. Percival Landing Park was named after the old commercial steamship wharf, a well-known maritime landmark in the Pacific Northwest. The original dock, built by Sam Percival in 1860, was operated by the Percival Family. It provides a very appropriate heritage waterfront site for the historic vessels that visit each year.
Harbor Days grew substantially during the 1980s. At its peak, more than 40 retired and active tugs filled Percival Landing harbor in 1987 and 1989.
A big factor in the success of Harbor Days through the years stems from its publically-accessible waterfront site at Percival Landing in downtown Olympia. The first phase of the city’s Percival Landing Park was opened in 1978, providing close-up public access to the tugs and a venue for the waterfront fair booths. The Landing was further expanded in 1985 and 1988. Percival Landing Park was named after the old commercial steamship wharf, a well-known maritime landmark in the Pacific Northwest. The original dock, built by Sam Percival in 1860, was operated by the Percival Family. It provides a very appropriate heritage waterfront site for the historic vessels that visit each year.
Harbor Days grew substantially during the 1980s. At its peak, more than 40 retired and active tugs filled Percival Landing harbor in 1987 and 1989.
More than 40 tugs filled the harbor in 1987. Photo ©Karla Fowler, 1987.
By 1988, more than 100 arts and crafts booths, and 20 food booths were set up on the Park’s boardwalk overlooking the workboats below. Through the years, tens of thousands of people annually have visited the Park’s moorage during Harbor Days to see and appreciate the well-maintained tugboats, talk to their owners and crews, and to learn more about the colorful history of tugboating on Puget Sound.
As part of the event’s overall marketing plan and strategy, a new branding system was created in 1983 by event volunteers Chuck and Karla Fowler, owners of a local marketing firm, CM3 Associates. A distinctive, graphically appropriate logo was created, which has been used for the festival ever since. To reflect the event’s maritime heritage origins, and to honor the participating vintage tugs, a different vintage tugboat was selected and illustrated in the logo each year. The first of 37 tugs chosen, as of 2019, to receive this recognition was the Sand Man, Olympia’s host tug and a working waterfront icon owned and operated at the time by marine facilities contractor Franz Schlottman. The tug selected annually is usually the oldest tug that participated the prior year and hasn’t already been the “logo tug.” The logo is widely used on the Harbor Days posters and buttons; shirts, vests, and hats; website and social media; and other promotional items each year. Over the years, many of the participating tugs have been members of the International Retired Tugboat Association (IRTA). In the late 1980s, the Association had about 90 members representing more than 70 vintage tugs in Puget Sound, British Columbia, and Alaskan waters. The IRTA held informal tug “meets” each year at different ports on Puget Sound and in British Columbia. Olympia Harbor Days was always the Labor Day, end-of-cruising season destination. The longtime informal president of the IRTA was Robin Paterson of Gig Harbor who, with his wife Kae, owned multiple tugs - including Bayburn, Sound, Winamac, and Joe - throughout their participation in the annual Harbor Days event, from 1975 through 2011. A competitive spirit is alive and well among tug owners each year, although many of them will deny it. Fuel loads are lightened, some install “racing” propellers, and hull bottoms are cleaned and painted in preparation for the races. Through the years, several of the tugboats that participated in Harbor Days have reached the 100-year-old milestone, including Rustler (1887), Arthur Foss (1889), Wallace Foss (1897), Elmore (1890), Katahdin (1899), Elf (1902), Irene (1902), Lorna Foss (1903), Parthia (1906), Marlin II (1906), Gleaner (1908), Excaliber (1908), Reliance (1909), and Sand Man (1910). Some of the tug owners prominently display their competitive spirit.
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Sand Man owner Franz Schlottman in 1983 receiving one of the first jackets
displaying the new event logo. |
Rustler’s 100th birthday was celebrated at the 1987 Harbor Days Captains
and Crews Dinner by her owner and captain Buzz Henderson. |
In the early 2000s, Tacoma established annual tugboat races in conjunction with its Commencement Bay Maritime Fest for a few years, however they did not continue.
OSSMC’s organizational structure changed in 1993 when the State Capital Museum was merged with the Washington State Historical Society and State History Museum based in Tacoma. The former Olympia-South Sound Maritime Chapter then became a stand-alone non-profit renamed the South Sound Maritime Heritage Association (SSMHA), whose mission statement is to: “Preserve the maritime history, strengthen the maritime traditions and promote the maritime culture of the Olympia and south Puget Sound area through beneficial, cooperative projects, programs and activities.” Continued operation of Harbor Days was seamless and the name change didn’t result in any changes to the event. The original Harbor Days Sand Man logo was adapted to serve as the Association’s logo, helping to show the long-time link between the organization and the event. The SSMHA’s role as the ongoing sponsor of Harbor Days continued through 2011, when primary sponsorship of the event was transferred to the Olympia Kiwanis Club beginning with the 2012 event. The club, its members, and event contractor have successfully managed Harbor Days since then. The SSMHA continues to provide maritime history-related research and related support. Beginning in 1977, six books have specifically chronicled Olympia Harbor Days as a significant community maritime heritage event in Washington State and the Pacific Northwest: The first race in 1975 was recorded by Gordon Newell in the “H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest: 1966 to 1976.” An overall pictorial history titled “Tugboats on Puget Sound,” by Chuck Fowler and Captain Mark Freeman, owner of Fremont Tugboat Co. in Seattle, was published in 2007, and included coverage of the Harbor Days festival and the races. SSMHA Past President Les Eldridge and John Hough co-authored “Maritime Olympia and South Puget Sound,” released in 2017. Eldridge also authored two volumes of “Tugboats in the Capital City,” one in 2018 and the other in 2019, both of which featured many of the tugboats that participated in Harbor Days over the years. Bob Peck, builder of four mini-tugs that have appeared at Harbor Days, authored an illustrated memoir titled “Tugboats and the Sea” in 2017, which included information and photos of Olympia Harbor Days. After 46 years, the Harbor Days festival and tugboat races in Olympia have become the longest-running workboat heritage event of its type on the Pacific Coast and, it is believed, in the United States and even the world. The event attracts up to an estimated 60,000 visitors over Labor Day weekend each year. Official logo of the South Sound Maritime Heritage Association.
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The community’s commitment to its tugboat heritage doesn’t stop with the annual Harbor Days festival. The venerable local tug Sand Man is now owned by the non-profit Sand Man Foundation, which was chartered in 1997. The Sand Man has been on year-round public display at Percival Landing since 2005 under a long-term agreement with the City of Olympia. Based on historical photographs, her moorage at Percival Landing, just north of the Olympia Oyster House restaurant, is the exact site where the boat was moored about 1910.
Sand Man is open to the public free of charge, principally on weekends, as a floating museum and interpretive center. She also remains the local host tug for the annual Olympia Harbor Days event.
In late 2017, the South Sound Maritime Heritage Association took on the major challenge to restore and exhibit another of its long-time local heritage tugs – Parthia. As of July, 2019, only two years after she was sunk in 25 feet of water in Hood Canal, the 113-year-old tug was 95 percent restored in the Port of Olympia’s Swantown Boatworks yard. She was awaiting final action by the Port Commission to designate a permanent site for her as an historic and educational public exhibit on the Port Peninsula.
During its 46 years, Olympia Harbor Days has benefitted from strong organizational and volunteer commitment from the OSSMC-SSMHA, Olympia Kiwanis Club, tugboat owners, and countless individuals who help put on the festival and races each year. This family-friendly event has grown and continues to attract enthusiastic visitors and tugboat fans. We expect that very positive legacy to continue for many years to come.
Sources: Harbor Days programs and tabloids, file news stories, personal remembrances.
Editor’s Note: This history includes earlier historical recollections written by the late Patrick Haskett for past Harbor Days programs.
Sand Man is open to the public free of charge, principally on weekends, as a floating museum and interpretive center. She also remains the local host tug for the annual Olympia Harbor Days event.
In late 2017, the South Sound Maritime Heritage Association took on the major challenge to restore and exhibit another of its long-time local heritage tugs – Parthia. As of July, 2019, only two years after she was sunk in 25 feet of water in Hood Canal, the 113-year-old tug was 95 percent restored in the Port of Olympia’s Swantown Boatworks yard. She was awaiting final action by the Port Commission to designate a permanent site for her as an historic and educational public exhibit on the Port Peninsula.
During its 46 years, Olympia Harbor Days has benefitted from strong organizational and volunteer commitment from the OSSMC-SSMHA, Olympia Kiwanis Club, tugboat owners, and countless individuals who help put on the festival and races each year. This family-friendly event has grown and continues to attract enthusiastic visitors and tugboat fans. We expect that very positive legacy to continue for many years to come.
Sources: Harbor Days programs and tabloids, file news stories, personal remembrances.
Editor’s Note: This history includes earlier historical recollections written by the late Patrick Haskett for past Harbor Days programs.
Robin and Kae Paterson on their tug Joe, the former Joe Foss. Photo Credit: Chuck Fowler.