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HOME

Ready on the Mark

(Photo courtesy of Jack and Nancy Carver)

 

The Laurelhurst Fleet

welcomes you!

 

The Fleet has been catching

the wind for over 65 years.

Laurelhurst Beach Club, 1950

(Photo courtesy of Pat Osborne Wright)

This website includes over 40 slide shows - the beginning of our efforts to document the history of the Fleet. We are interviewing people, collecting photographs, and gathering information from local archives. Each slide show presents a one-to-three minute audio clip from an interview, with photographs.

The variety of stories gleaned from the interviews is quite remarkable; we think there is something here for people of all ages possessing a range of interests. So turn on your speakers, sit back, and enjoy the show!


About the technology

The Macromedia icon These icons link to slideshows indicates a slide show. The slide shows open in their own window, so you can explore the site while they download. Use just a single click to open them.

Macromedia Flash Player is required to view the shows. CLICK HERE to get Flash Player or go to the link in the left-hand menu on this page.


Navigating the site

The menu at the top of each page indicates the major subdivisions (pages) of the site. The pages are introduced below.

On each page the left-hand menu provides a list of the slide shows featured. Other links are listed as well. This provides quick access to the content on a page.

The left-hand menu on this page (HOME) provides a complete list of the slide shows.

Laurelhurst Beach Club

(Photo courtesy of Jack and Nancy Carver)

CLICK HERE to find out what Jack Carver has to say about LBC sailing opportunities. Click to hear Carver on LBC

The ABOUT page provides some background on the Fleet and features recollections of some of its members. The Fleet sails out of the Laurelhurst Beach Club, located in Seattle on Lake Washington, just north of Union Bay and Webster Point. The "LBC" has been a source of much fun over the years; sailing has been a significant part of the fun from the beginning.

The FLATTIES page introduces the Geary 18, a one-design boat designed and built in Seattle. The "Flattie," as the boat is affectionately called, anchors the Fleet and remains popular for many reasons. You will learn about the Flattie from past Fleet members who built and sailed the boat.

Ken Kraft and friends

(Photo courtesy of Ken and Marilyn Kraft)

CLICK HERE to listen to Ken Kraft on Flatties. Click to hear Kraft on Flatties

 

The RACING page is filled with tales about Fleet members competing locally and elsewhere on the West Coast. The picture below is worth a thousand words, but visit the Racing page to hear what past Fleet members have to say about competition from the 1940s to the 1970s.

Harvey Davis photo from the Seattle P-I, 1958

(Photo from the Post-Intelligencer Collection, Museum of History and Industry, Seattle, WA)

This Harvey Davis photo appeared in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on August 4, 1958, marking the opening day of the World Flattie Championships on Lake Washington.

The ADVENTURES page collects tales of risk and narrow escape, as told by Fleet members who ventured "further and farther," as Pat Goodfellow says, when they were young.

Sidney Spit, Sidney Island, B.C.

(Photo courtesy of Carrie Bowman)

The PEOPLE page provides pictures of the people interviewed so far, a bit of information about them, and a list of the slide shows created from each interview.

The RESOURCES page collects links to information in one place. Our site features a Blog and a Photo Gallery. Links to both are in the left-hand menu on each page, as well as on the Resources page.


Photographs and drawings

Most of the photographs used in the slide shows come from the narrators and are directly relevant to the shows. However, some pictures - especially those taken in the San Juan archipelago in Washington State and the Canadian Gulf Islands in British Columbia - do not necessarily depict the events or places being described.

Eventually, all photos and drawings on the site (including those in the slide shows) will be linked to the Photo Gallery, where additional information about the images will be provided. At this time, several mouseover photographs are included (a second photo is revealed by moving the mouse over the first photo). These photos are linked to slide shows or comments.


About the interviews

We believe the interviews conducted for this project are most valuable when heard in their entirety. Thus, we attempted to preserve the context of the short audio clips in the slide shows by presenting them with minimal editing, and by occasionally including the interviewer's questions and comments.

Complete interviews are available at Seattle's Museum of History and Industry, where they are housed with the Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society.

We don't claim to tell the entire story on this website. Many people remain to be interviewed, and the stories gathered so far reflect the unique perspectives of the narrators.


The project is evolving and we want it to grow, so...

Contact us if you have pictures to share, or stories to tell. Comments are welcome.

The CONTACT US link is at the bottom of the left-hand menu on each page.

LBC now, and...

...in 1945...

Enjoy the site! We hope it stirs fond memories.