Liberty Bay Purse-Seiner Regatta

[Excerpted from The Spirit of Poulsbo]

Ya sure, you betcha’ Commercial Fishermen in Poulsbo were a competitive group, and it wasn’t just in the number of fish they could catch. Give them an excuse and they’d make up some competition for it. In 1938 they must have been sitting around bragging about their boats when someone dreamed up a race, and the competition was on! As far as we’ve been able to determine, this was the first race of its kind on the bay. Perhaps without steamers racing from dock to dock, they just needed a little excitement in their lives. Whatever the case, the Liberty Bay Purse-Seine Boat Speed Regatta was born. We’ve not been able to find more instances of this race, other than these two accounts. But we offer them here as a peek at the kinds of entertainment one could cook up when times are hard and you haven’t got anything better to do. “Sadie K” Leads Fishing Fleet to Finish, to Capture Speed Honors Four Thousand Crowd Beaches Some 4,000 spectators lined the beaches, docks and vantage points of Liberty bay on Sunday afternoon, and witnessed L. Knutson drive his fleet purse-seine boat, the Sadie K., to a 600-foot lead in the 6 ½ miles speed race staged here, to cop the honor of having the speediest boat in the bay. A late and unexpected entry was Skipper Severin Olson’s Summit. Arriving Saturday evening with a load of 17,000 pounds of halibut, she was not in the pink of condition for a speed trial. Jorgen Almos, local theater owner, pointed his gun skyward at 1:35 for the state of the race. The Barney simply leaped to the front at the bark of the gun, and forced to a full length lead before the race was thirty seconds old. Black smoke was pouring from the six entries as they got under way. The Dean, a pre-race favorite, developed engine trouble in the very starting seconds and was lagging behind the leaders, the Barney and the Sadie K. Rounding the Pacific Coast Cod Fish plant, the Sadie K. had pulled up abreast of Barney, with Twin, Chum, Dean and the Summit following. Watland’s trolling boat, the Ipswich, had entered the race at this point for the purpose of testing its new engine. Entering the Keyport narrows, the Sadie K. was leading Barney by an estimated 500 feet. The Twin followed 700 feet behind the Barney, with Summit and Dean 800 behind the leaders. Engine trouble forced the Dean to drop out of the race at this point. Timed from the Clipper, Sadie K. rounded the marker outside the Keyport torpedo station dock in 21 minutes flat. Having bucked tide and wind on the outrun, it was evident that a faster inrun was in prospect. The last mile of the outrun had developed a fight for second place between the Barney and the Twin. Open water between the two had been cut to an estimated 100 feet when the Twin rounded the marker. Unfortunately, a broken rudder line at this point cost the Twin precious time and definitely removed its spirited challenge other incidents barred. Going through the narrows on the return, the boats were pretty well strung along. A line of automobiles from Poulsbo to Lemolo was following the race and docks along the bay were crowded with people. A roar went skyward as the Sadie K. crossed the finish line at the floating docks at Poulsbo, having completed the 6 ½ miles run in 38 minutes and 16 ½ seconds. 600 feet behind followed the Barney, with Twin, Chum and Summit in respective order. (KCH 5/6/1938)

The race was so entertaining the HERALD announced a second race in September of the same year. Skippers might have taken this one a little more seriously because cash prizes were at stake rather than the merchandise offered for the first race: 1st $30, 2nd $17.50, 3rd $15, 4th $10, 5th $7.50, 6th $5.00. Following that pattern, and given the fact that there were to be seven entrants, perhaps 7th place received $2.50. The newspaper comments that some lively wagering on the outcome was taking place. Entrants for the second race repeated some from the spring with a few newcomers: Albion skipper Karl Peterson, Twin skipper Oscar Ryen, Sadie K skipper L. Knutson, Barney skipper Johnny Antonson, Carlon skipper Axel Enquist, Dean skipper Henry Antonson, and Chum skipper George Gunderson. The race would begin immediately after the North Kitsap Viking-Sequim football game in the afternoon. Following the race, prizes were to be awarded at Grieg Hall, where refreshments and dancing to the beat of Mildred Hansen and her orchestra were to top off the entertainment. The results of the race didn’t make the next issue of the newspaper, perhaps because the whole town knew the outcome. Considering the amount of pre-race hype the regatta received, it must have been a doozey.