Circe: The Resurrection of a Legend

Circe
The Resurrection of a Legend
“Circe” sits quietly tied to the
dock in Lake Union, rocking gently
in the waves. Varnish gleams on her
pilothouse, and lines are coiled neatly
on her deck. But if you look carefully,
you’ll see more than a classic wooden
sloop. This racer has a clean, bold
design, longer and narrower than
most modern boats. She has been
beautifully restored to a historically
accurate condition, but if you
know to look beneath her classic
exterior, you’ll see a fast, hungry,
untamed spirit. If boats could tell
stories, “Circe” would whisper an
unrelenting siren’s song.
By Charlotte Austin
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September 2014
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Today, “Circe” is moored
in Lake Union, at the dock
where she was built in 1932.
The boat continues to be
updated to maintain current
Coast Guard certification for
charters on Lake Union and
Puget Sound.
Circe was imagined in the early
twentieth century by the late Ben
Seaborn, who was an 18-year-old
senior at Seattle’s Broadway High
School when he sketched the designs
for Circe. Seaborn’s stepfather, the
renowned shipwright Ray Cooke, had
the boat built in 1932. According to local
legend, when the boat was lowered
into the water for the first time, the
waterline was precisely where Seaborn
had calculated it would be, earning the
young designer immediate respect.
Cooke and Seaborn raced the boat
throughout the 1930s, logging more
than 30,000 miles of ocean racing in
19 offshore voyages. Accounts vary,
but it is agreed upon that Circe placed
very highly in races from Victoria to
Maui and Santa Barbara to Honolulu.
During one of these races, she was
recorded averaging more than 14
knots during a 24-hour period. As
one crewmember wrote in his journal,
“Canvas sails, wooden spars, and few
winches […] made for hard work for
the crew. But when Circe heeled to the
mounting westerly and shouldered
her magnificent way through the
Strait of Juan de Fuca, we knew that
we were aboard a truly sea-going
thoroughbred.”
The boat raced until the
Second World War, when she was
commandeered by the Coast Guard
to serve as a pilot vessel. Her hull
was painted blue, and she was used
to officially escort visiting vessels
in unfamiliar navigational waters,
patrolling from Neah Bay to the mouth
of the Columbia River. After the war,
Cooke continued to race the boat until
he died of cancer – in a bunk aboard
Circe, if legend is to be believed – in
1964. Ben Seaborn had committed
suicide in 1960, so the boat was left to
his brother Jack.
Jack Seaborn sailed the boat until
1967, when he moved to Portland. Circe
remained on Lake Union, and due to
neglect and improper maintenance,
she fell into terrible disrepair. In
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September 2014
1968, Stan Keck – a Seattle-based
businessman who had crewed aboard
the boat during races in the early 1960s
– happened upon Circe at her dock. “It
broke my heart,” he says. “The boat had
been crashed and partially flooded. All
of the varnish was bad. I remembered
a beautiful trans-Pacific racing boat,
but when I saw her in 1968 she was
uninsurable and barely afloat.”
Keck immediately drove to
Portland, where he bought a half
interest in the boat for $10,000.
(According to their agreement, Jack
Seaborn and his wife Norah could use
the boat only under the supervision of a
qualified skipper, having lost their own
insurability when Seaborn crashed
Circe into a floating barge.) Keck
immediately began to make repairs, but
soon realized that the boat needed more
than superficial maintenance. “The
wood was so rotten that chunks would
come off in your hands,” he says. There
were holes in the deck and the moss on
her hull was six inches thick. Moorage
43
payments were overdue, and the boat
was moved to dry storage in Bellevue.
But Keck saw the beauty in her clean
lines and prestigious racing heritage,
and he immediately embarked on a full
restoration of the classic vessel.
More than 40 years later, Keck has
invested between a quarter and a half
million dollars in the restoration. All
repairs have been designed to be as
historically accurate as possible. The
decks are teak salvaged from naval
cruisers that served in the SpanishAmerican war in the mid-nineteenth
century, and Keck air-dried the
thousands of board feet of vertical
grain fir in the hull. Circe earned Coast
Guard certification during the repairs
in the mid-1980s, which she still holds
“The wood was so rotten that
chunks would come off in
your hands,”
— Stan Keck
When Stan Keck found the “Circe”
she was sinking. Holes were gouged in
her sides and she wore a ‘hula skirt’ of
moss six inches long. “Circe” was so
badly worn, that when Keck completed
the restoration, a new marine survey
showed that 85 percent of the hull
planking and 45 percent of her ribs were
brand new.
today. When she was built, she was
63’; somewhere in her history, she
was extended to a full 67’. She weighs
40 tons, including 14 tons of steel
shot ballast, and her engine boasts 80
horsepower.
Keck raced Circe locally during the
1980s and 1990s, and in 1994 the boat
started working with Reserve Officers’
Training Corps (ROTC) students at
the University of Washington. With
the help of the Seattle Yacht Club, he
created the Circe Foundation, a 501(c)3
nonprofit that has been instrumental in
acquiring two surplused yawls for the
ROTC program. Circe herself no longer
acts as a training vessel, but the Sea
Cadet and Sea Scout programs now
enjoy racing the two identical training
ships to practice their seamanship.
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September 2014
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“CIRCE was brand new and without question the finest yacht
on Puget Sound. On this, my first ocean race abroad a true offshore
racer, I was amazed to feel how light she was on the helm, and how
easily she responded to the slightest touch. Canvas sails, wooden
spars and few winches by today’s standards made for hard work for
the crew. But when CIRCE heeled to the mounting westerly and
shouldered her magnificent way through the Strait of Juan de Fuca,
we knew that we were aboard a true, sea-going thoroughbred.”
CIRCE crew diary entry,
1935 Trans-Pacific Race from Santa Barbara to Honolulu
Circe is maintained and operated
by Michael Gifford, Seattle-based
captain and shipwright, and his wife
Cornelia. She is available for charter on
Lake Union and Puget Sound through
the Circe Foundation and Lake Union
Charters & Adventures, and current
rates (with Coast Guard-certified
skipper and crew) are quite reasonable.
All proceeds support nonprofit work
– namely, maintenance for the historic
vessel.
As with any wooden boat, Circe’s
restoration is an ongoing process.
Parts are being replaced as they break,
and the boat continues to be updated
to maintain current Coast Guard
certification. There are plans to rebuild
her hull, complete with new chain
plates to accommodate mizzen mast
rigging. She annually visits the Classic
Boat Festival in Victoria and the Port
Townsend Wooden Boat Festival, and
she is a regular participant in the Seattle
Yacht Club Opening Day Ceremony.
“She’s quite the legend,” says Gifford.
“If you keep your eyes peeled, you’ll
see her out catching the wind on a
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sunny day. If you wave at us,
we’ll always wave back.”
There are other Seaborndesigned boats in the area,
including the Thunderbird class
sailboat, which was designed
in response to a request from
the Douglas Fir Plywood
Association in Tacoma for a boat
that would “[…] be both a racing
and a cruising boat; provide
sleeping accommodations for
four crew; be capable of being
built by reasonably skilled
amateurs; provide auxiliary
power by an outboard motor
that could easily be removed
and stowed; and out-perform
other sailboats in its class.” All
Seaborn boats are regarded
highly, but Circe will always be
his first.
Today, Circe is moored at the
dock where she was built. For
all her local history, one mystery
remains: how she was given her
name. The mythical goddess
Circe, daughter of a sun god and an
ocean nymph, is best remembered
for her encounter with Odysseus in
Cooke and Seaborn raced the boat
throughout the 1930s, logging more
than 30,000 miles of ocean racing in
19 offshore voyages.
Homer’s Odyssey. As Odysseus
and his men were returning from
the Trojan War, they sailed by the
island of Aeaea and ventured
ashore. The men stumbled
upon Circe’s palace, which was
surrounded by beasts. While
Odysseus waited on the ship, his
men were invited inside. After
eating Circe’s enchanted food,
they were transformed into pigs.
Odysseus went to Circe
to demand the release of his
men, meeting the disguised god
Hermes on his way. Hermes gave
Odysseus an herb that would
protect him from the simplest
of Circe’s spells, and he wisely
refused the enchanted food that
she offered him. Surprised when
her enchantments failed to affect
Odysseus, the sorceress fell to
her knees and pleaded for her
life. He agreed to spare her in
exchange for his men, and Circe
lifted her spells and welcomed
Odysseus and his men into her
home. They bore a child together, and
when Odysseus took his leave a year
later, Circe offered words of guidance
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September 2014
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clean
T h e f u t u r e i s n ow.
for his journey into the unknown. The
story can be interpreted in many ways,
but some classicists suggest that it’s a
lesson in understanding the different
kinds of seduction. While banal desires
enchant and transfix, gaining the
respect of a sorceress has long earned
sailors a different kind of satisfaction.
It’s not a perfect metaphor, but
it’s easy to imagine some of Circe’s
mythical magic when walking across
repurposed teak decks that are more
than 160 years old. “My first wife
almost divorced me over this boat,”
Keck reminisces, shaking his head
with a smile. “Had I known what we’d
go through together, I wouldn’t have
started the process of restoring this
boat. But Circe is a grand old lady, and
if I hadn’t fallen in love with her, she’d
be at the bottom of the sea.”
For more information, visit:
www.circefoundation.org and
www.lakeunioncharters.com.
Read more of Charlotte Austin’s
work at www.charlotteaustin.com.
Owner Stan Keck, who first crewed on “Circe” in 1964,” at the helm during
Seattle Yacht Club Opening Day Parade. “Circe” has participated in the Opening Day
Ceremonies since the completion of her restoration in 1992, winning the classic boat
prize numerous times.
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