Restoring the Commencement

One of Gig Harbor’s classic boats to get a facelift

Susan Schell

of the Gateway

The Commencement has had many lives. For 70 years, it made the waters around Washington and Alaska its home, navigated and worked by Croatian fishermen.

In 1996, Capt. Mike Vlahovich converted the boat into a unique floating heritage education vessel. It took tours to the San Juan islands to give non-fishermen a real taste of life on the water. Passengers got a taste of traditional fish-boat meals, like octopus salad and pasta brigole.

“We followed the fishing fleet and invited fishermen aboard to talk about their experiences,” Vlahovich said of the tours. “This appeals to a lot of people, and clients said it was life-changing. It’s getting more and more difficult to access the fishing culture.”

Vlahovich wants to start the tours once again, but the boat will have to undergo some restoration before that’s feasible. A state grant is in place to fund a series of upgrades.

Vlahovich is looking for skilled volunteers to do some of the woodworking and welding work aboard the vessel. The work will start in September and likely continue for two years.

“We’ll be putting together some work parties and volunteer projects,” Vlahovich said. “We’ll build up a support group and get them ready for the charters. We’ll let them know there is a prize at the end.”

Vlahovich’s son, Anthony, will be adding his skills to the job.

“I’ll be doing most of the labor,” Anthony said. “There’s quite a laundry list of different tasks. We need to replace a lot of rotted wood — that’s the lion’s share of the work.”

Vlahovich hopes to have the boat up and running as a tour vessel by 2011.

“The commercial fishing industry has greatly diminished,” he said. “But museums can only do so much. We put the people on board, cook the meals and tell the stories. We put them at the helm.”

The salmon purse seiner Commencement was built in 1926 in Gig Harbor by the Skansie Ship Building & Transportation Co. and was originally christened “La Touche.” It’s the only Skansie-built boat still afloat today.

Its sister ship, the Shenandoah, resides at the Harbor History Museum.

In 2006, the Vlahovich family donated the Commencement to the Coastal Heritage Alliance, a non-profit preservation organization that Vlahovich founded.

“I got into preservation work in the 1980s and ’90s, when I was involved with a business owner on Thea Foss Waterway,” he said. “At the time, the waterway was going through some big changes and nobody was doing anything to preserve it. So I stepped in.”

Vlahovich created the Alliance and co-founded the Commencement Bay Maritime Center with Phyllis Harrison as a working waterfront museum.

“My focus was primarily boat building and commercial fishing,” Vlahovich said. “The alliance attempts to team up with other non-profits and groups that don’t have those skills on hand and attempt to get funding.

“We’re not really a museum. We’re on the road, on the water — we go beyond what museums can do.”

The alliance participates in numerous festivals, like Seattle’s Wooden Boat Festival and the local Maritime Gig, where Vlahovich offers live demonstrations on boat caulking and other skills.

The group will have a photo display of fishing heritage at the Gig Harbor Civic Center after the quilt festival.

The alliance also had a hand in creating an inventory of all the objects in the Skansie brothers’ net shed along the Gig Harbor waterfront.

“There were some things in there that went back to the 1930s, right up to when the Skansies stopped fishing in the 1980s,” Vlahovich said. “We got a very nice series of videotapes. Hopefully some day it will be put together and brought to the public.”

Vlahovich remembers that, as a child, he could walk on the shore of Gig Harbor all the way from the old ferry dock, where Suzanne’s Bakery now stands.

“You could walk all along the marina on the beach,” he said. “I’m very fond of where I grew up.”

Volunteers needed for restoration work

Those interested in improving their carpentry skills are invited to join in restoring the Commencement. For more information, e-mail Capt. Mike Vlahovich at mikev@coastalheritage.org.

Reach reporter Susan Schell at 253-853-9240 or by e-mail at susan.schell@gateline.com.