February 24, 2013. Jeff Tompkins (Balanceo) told us about this boat. He has not heard from the Defty's in a few years and will try and contact them. If confirmed this will be a "Found Dolphin".

February 25, 2013. Jeff added the following - excerpted.

Chet and Joyce started sailing West Viking on Howard Prairie Lake here in So. Oregon around 1973 and then began a great number of cruises in the San Juan Is, the Gulf Is. and also Desolation Sound. They made fairly long trips (over a month) and did many crossings of Georgia Strait. I simply must check in with them as they are both 80 plus. Chet was a most unselfish fellow as the afternoon of his very first Howard Pararie sail I was standing next to West Viking lusting after her when Chet says " hop on and we'll go for a sail". Never met the fellow in my life and here we are together on his new boat. I was hooked on Dolphins!

While we wait for a picture of WestViking we can fill the space with a geography lesson for most of us. Click on the picture above for a larger view of Howard Prairie Lake. Its about 100 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean. And the picture below shows the environment

Mt McLoughlin

August 25, 2014. We have found out that this boat is most likely Yankee #147. Stand by for more information.

*******************

October 30, 2014. We have heard from Bill Sauder whose father, Joseph, was the first owner of West Viking. He sent in some pictures and the following emails (consolidated/edited)

Hi Ron,

My name is Joseph William "Bill" Sauder Jr, and my father, Joseph Sr., was the original owner of the WestViking Dolphin #147, now in Oregon. My father bought the boat in the late 1960s and kept it in a slip in King's Harbor, Redondo Beach CA. We owned it for several years with numerous trips around the Palos Verdes Peninsula, the Dominator Wreck, and Santa Catalina Island.

By the early-mid 70's the slip fees had become too much for my folks, so they sold the boat to "a couple who intended to take it to Oregon". I'm sure the Defty's are that couple. About a year ago, the subject of our boat came up, and it was not too difficult to find your site.

My mother suggested the name after reading Farley Mowat's book "Westviking" on the Viking presence in North America. Since my Dad's mother was Norwegian (and we had lots of Viking knick-knacks) it was an easy sell.

The boat was seen at a Los Angeles Boat Show in the late 60s and purchased shortly after that. Both my folks come from boating backgrounds and both had strong ideas that any vessel purchased had to be traditional and without any of that early 70's "flash" like rust colored carpeting on the cabin overhead.

I'm attaching a few circa 1970 photos of the boat which you can put up on your website.

Yours truly

Bill Sauder
"ExWestViking"

***********************************