The American Vintage Yacht Arro

This picture was sent to me by Melodie and Grant Blundell (Cowichan Shipyard) They met this boat and her owners on their summer trip up north to Bute inlet.

The Blundells reported that "Keith Benson journeyed to Port Angeles from his home on Vashon Island aboard his vintage yacht Arro. She was hauled out of the water on a Monday morning and set on the hard at the Port Angeles Boat Yard, where Keith painted the hull from the gunwales to the boot stripe over a couple of days.

The Arro is a 50–foot wooden yacht that was built in 1922 by Barbare Brothers of Tacoma WA, which shared ownership in the fantail yacht with Herbert Hoover (the future US President) who at the time was a major investor in the Arro Oil Refinery in Lewiston, Montana.

On March 20, 1933, the Arro was moored at the Tacoma Yacht Club when a nearby vessel, the Argosy, exploded shortly after taking on nearly 1,000 gallons of gasoline. In addition to destroying the 54–foot Argosy and killing her owner, Dr. Edward A. Rich. The blast blew off Arro’s wheelhouse. Keith Benson said it was at this time that the original engine was removed and replaced with an Atlas Imperial diesel that had been previously used by the City of Auburn to generate electricity. Keith Benson makes an annual voyage through the Broughton Archipelago, where he has spent a month or more each summer since he acquired the historical Arro in 2001."