Grays Harbor Historical Seaport adds new boat to fleet; not a tall ship

The Grays Harbor Historical Seaport has added a boat to the fleet, although one much smaller than the tall ships.

In the latest issue of their Currents newsletter, the local nonprofit organization says that they were gifted a sailing boat.

The donation of the boat comes from the family of Charlotte Ehresmann and her husband, and is a boat built by Charlotte’s father. 

Because of the donation, the seaport says that they are able to launch a new small boat sailing program. 

“The best part is that the boat is small enough that we can bring it to your community.”

Sharing ideas for what the program may feature, they say that new Program Director Richard will be the one to help pilot the program and get it up and running. 

The hope is to have a full program with sailing camps, and at least one more instructor, by 2023.

“This has been a dream of ours since John and Mary Ann Duffey donated $5,000 to get us started in 2018. We had a slow start and then COVID happened, so it was hard to pull together the funding to get the program up and running.”

Starting this year, the seaport plans to get started with an After School Program with Grays Harbor schools in July using the small boat and Lady Washington. Following that, other areas of Western Washington that do not have access to sailing will be identified as locations to take the boat and conduct a local sailing program working with students.

If your community is interested in having this program, please email Richard at [email protected].