In the spring of 1890, the boating public around Port Townsend Bay rallied to the call from Frank Ralph Perrott for the formation of a boat club ... the very beginnings of organized pleasure boating on the Quimper Peninsula.
Perrott, a young man born near the waters edge in California, migrated to Jefferson County in 1889 as a talented boat worker. He built a two-story, 30-foot by 60-foot boathouse in 1890 with the bottom floor dedicated to housing small rental boats that he built out of native woods The top floor held the boat shop.
Our photo shows a small group of friends heading out for a sail, very likely from Perrott's boathouse, around 1890.
In 1890 he had 15 small boats in his possession and saw the opportunity to create a boat club for the local population. Perrott advertised himself as a boat factory from which steam launches, yachts, and "every description of yacht and boat work" was done. By the time he opened his shop in Jefferson County, he had already built five vessels. Twenty-one-year-old Ollie Willoughby began working with Perrott to organize the club by gathering a list of interested people while Perrott added the finishing touches to the new boathouse. The plan was to have 100 members paying $2.50 each. Members could use the boats as often as they wished for the monthly fee.
The boathouse was moved from its original location down the beach to rest between the Taylor Street and Tyler Street wharves along the downtown waterfront. Perrott, as an experienced oarsman, acted as instructor for those new to rowing.
Within two weeks, 30 people had signed up for the club and were able to use a variety of vessels including Whitehalls, outriggers, striding boats, four-oared and double sculling shells and canoes. During the summer months, Perrott's Key City Boathouse was the place to be, with both men and women finding their way out on water. On a few moonlit nights, several people sailed the boats to Port Hadlock and back just for fun. Scow Bay became a favorite place for boating parties and as more small-centerboard sailing craft were built, people spent the summer months enjoying the waterways around Port Townsend, Port Hadlock and Marrowstone Island.
Perrott encouraged the many up-and-coming oarsmen to participate in a three-mile race, with a trophy to be awarded to the winner. He felt that crews in his rowing shells would be in fine form for an amateur race, and it wasnt long before several people among the new boating enthusiasts began to emerge as first-class single-scullers, with Ollie Willoughby considered the Port Townsend amateur champ in a sliding seat boat.
How long this boat club enjoyed its heyday is unknown. Frank Perrott and his wife, Margarite, continued to live and thrive in Port Townsend until at least 1895.
There have been other boat clubs in Port Townsend over the years since Perrott brought forth the Key City Boat Club in 1890. In recent years, a passion for rowing wooden racing shells has developed into the establishment of the Port Townsend Rowing Club. Club members, the Wooden Boat Foundation and the Port of Port Townsend have made it possible to have the shells available for racing teams and teaching new people to row the popular boats, carrying on the tradition begun over 115 years ago by people just like us who loved the sea and all it has to offer.
* Article written by Pam McCollum Clise and published by the Peninsula Daily News, March 31st 2005.