Avalon, constructed at Skansie Ship Building Company in 1929, is one of the most recognizable boats designed and built in the South Sound. In 2015, after many decades of commercial fishing, Avalon sank in Hood Canal.
Declared a derelict vessel, she was destined for demolition when Gig Harbor BoatShop and the Department of Natural Resources partnered to save her from the wrecking ball. Instead of being crushed, Avalon was thoughtfully deconstructed, which allowed the BoatShop to recover artifacts that will be featured in the exhibit, “Salmon, Seiners, & Life on the Sound.”
Dismantling Avalon piece by piece also allowed the BoatShop to develop accurate construction plans detailed enough to build a Skansie purse seiner — significant because there are no known plans for this vessel.
The 66-foot wooden purse seiner was one in a long line of the Skansie family’s boat-building tradition. It was first fished by Andrew Skansie, then later by his sons Antone and Vince Skansie. The Skansies fished the boat for more than six decades, traveling from Gig Harbor to the salmon fisheries along the Northwest coast.
The museum exhibit will not only feature the story of the Avalon as typical of many early purse seiners in the area, it will also explore the past and present of Puget Sound’s salmon fisheries and generations of fishing families and fishing towns along Northwest shores.
Moored for many years at the Skansie’s net shed, located in the center of town, the boat was a Gig Harbor icon along with other well-known seiners such as the Genius, Victory, Veteran, and Shenandoah.