BetsyDavisNW: The Story of GloryBe

GLORYBE has survived a century of adventures. Her first was reported in Pacific Motorboat in 1917. “Pounding on the beach several hours in the January storm in which several Tacoma boats were damaged or destroyed, “Glory B” suffered seriously. Six planks were pounded through, the skeg was torn off, the rudder and propeller twisted, and the companion door was carried away. Two tugs towed her five miles with only the funnel and flag pole showing. But now she doesn’t show a scratch, and the damage is only a memory.”  Later that same year, Pacific Motorboat reported, “The pleasure yacht “Glory B,” owned by R. A. Paterson, a Spokane capitalist, which broke from her moorings near the Orcas Island summer home of the owner, has been found and returned to her berth. When the “Glory B” turned up missing, it was believed that she had been stolen, but the watchman of a fish trap near Point Roberts spied her adrift and recovered the craft…She was found unharmed and was returned to her moorings under her own power.” GLORYBE was nearly lost once again in a tragic marina fire at Seattle Yacht Club in 2002, where she burned and sank. She was rebuilt by students in the Marine Carpentry program at Seattle Central Community College, where the owner was enrolled. GLORYBE was relaunched in June 2005 with great celebration, including over 100 students who had worked on her, many previous owners, and a flotilla of the region’s classic yachts. (GLORYBE’s restoration story was published in Wooden Boat Magazine issue 187.)