At your service

Sailing at its finest

Schooners North is dedicated to making your sailing voyage unforgettable. Our classic wooden vessels are beautiful to behold and we invite you to experience sailing the way it's meant to be. Our friendly crew is comprised of experienced people dedicated to serving you. We treat you like family from the moment we get to know you. Plan your next sailing trip with us and prepare for an experience of a lifetime. Welcome aboard!

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We welcome you to read on and learn about our beautiful classic wooden boats.

The spirit of Spike Africa

There's a bit of history in every voyage

Welcome aboard Spike Africa. She was built in 1977 by Bob Sloan of Newport Beach, California. Bob was known and respected throughout the world for his lifetime of experience on sailing vessels. His goal in building Spike Africa was to create the ultimate schooner. Since her launching, Spike Africa has worked as a freighting and charter schooner on the west coast, Mexico and Hawaii. She has been featured in major articles in every important yachting publication, and universally praised as one of the most beautiful schooners built in modern times.

She combines the functional elegance of the 19th century coastal schooners with unobtrusive touches of modern luxury. Bob named the boat for Spike Africa, a seaman renowned as a living legend of the sea. Spike, the man, was known up and down the West Coast as President of the Pacific Ocean.

Bob built Spike Africa as not only a yacht but a true working schooner, which in every detail combines beauty and grace with sturdy seaworthiness. It is this harmony of form and function that gives Spike Africa her timeless elegance.

Spike Africa has served as support boat for some of the most important yacht races, has won honors in her own racing career, and has starred in films such as "Joe vs. the Volcano" with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, TV shows including Baywatch and Hotel, and numerous national advertising campaigns.

In 2009 Spike Africa's current owners took her through a complete refit. Many long time admirers of Bob and Spike participated with world-class skills in wooden boat building, rigging, finishing, and mechanical systems. From keel to topmast, every part of the boat was renewed, replaced, or upgraded as required to bring her into Bristol condition. The goal of the restoration was to maintain the traditional character of every detail just as Bob Sloan envisioned.

The Magnificent Sea Witch

A graciously beautiful ship

The Sea Witch is an amazing work of art. Designed in 1921 by Hugh Angleman as a sea kindly traditional gaff rig. This famous design has sailed the oceans of the world with confidence and grace. She was built nearly 50 years ago by the premier wooden boat craftsmen of our age. She is the culmination of thousands of years of invention.

Since the Stone Age, every age made incremental advances in the art of wooden boat building. In our lifetime we have reached the end of the wooden boat era. Without our care, the skills developed over millennia will not be maintained, advanced or passed on as they were in a world when men spent careers working on wooden boats and in the yards. Our wooden boats are important. These boats and the art and skills that they represent must be saved.

Links

travel; Washington State Ferry Schedule
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries/Schedule/ScheduleDetail.aspx?departingterm=1&arrivingterm=10&roundtrip=true

local information; San Juan Island Chamber of Commerce
http://www.sanjuanisland.org/

local information; San Juan Island Visitor's Bureau
http://www.visitsanjuans.com/

related sites;  Northwest Schooner Society
http://www.nwschooner.org/

local information; NOAA local weather
http://forecast.weather.gov/shmrn.php?mz=pzz133&syn=pzz100

travel; Bob's Taxi
http://members.sanjuanisland.org/list/Member/bob-weimer-owner.htm

travel; San Juan Transit
http://www.sanjuantransit.com/

things to do; San Juan Safaris
http://www.sanjuansafaris.com/

things to do; Dan Levin Originals
http://www.sanjuanartistcommunity.com/index.shtml

things to do; San Juan Artist Community
http://www.sanjuanartistcommunity.com/index.shtml

things to do; San Juan Excursions
http://www.watchwhales.com/

lodging; San Juan Island Bed & Breakfast Assoc.
http://www.san-juan-island.net/

things to do; Port of Friday Harbor
http://www.portfridayharbor.org/

travel; Westwind Aviation
http://www.westwindaviation.com/