SUMMER WIND
Photos by Jerry Ellefson
After 35 years as a commercial fisherman, Jerry Ellefson of Tacoma, Washington, retired and found himself boatless and missing the water. He decided to build a boat and after studying many designs, settled on Iain Oughtred’s Caledonia Yawl II, which has seven strakes rather than the four in the original version. The 19′6″ double ender carries a balance-lug main and a leg-o’-mutton mizzen. Jerry got a jump start on construction by ordering a kit from Hewes & Company of Blue Hill, Maine. It included CNC-cut planks, molds, centerboard, and parts for the kick-up rudder. Jerry made the mainmast from spruce in bird’s-mouth fashion; the resulting hollow spar is lighter and easier to step than a solid-wood one. He spent 18 months on the project and launched SUMMER WIND in June 2025. He sails her mainly on Puget Sound.
PERSEA
Photo by Risa Olekshy
Few people would have the patience and persistence to spend 18 years building a boat and then have to haul it 1,200 miles overland to get it afloat. PJ Marchyshyn and Risa Olekshy of Dauphin, Manitoba, Canada, did just that to launch PERSEA, their 49′×12' sharpie schooner. PJ, who is 6′8″, couldn’t find plans for a boat that would fit him, so he designed one himself with accommodations that Risa, at 5′4″, would find “palatial.” PJ picked up woodworking skills from his carpenter father and had several other boats before PERSEA. He built her hull with strip-planked spruce sheathed with carbon fiber and fiberglass. Risa helped with the boat when she could and kept the household running. What they had envisaged in 2008 as a five-year endeavor concluded with the launching in Richmond, British Columbia, in the spring of 2026.