Shipwright Anchor Jensen, hydroplane legend, dies

By Danny O'Neil
Reprinted from The Seattle Times, August 16, 2000.

The Jensen boatyard in Portage Bay is a piece of living history.

The marina where the Slo-mo-shun IV was built is still open and still staffed by craftsman who can work on classic wooden boats as well as their fiberglass contemporaries.

The marina is a Seattle institution.

So was its owner, Anchor Jensen, the master shipwright who built the Slo-mo-shun IV.

Mr. Jensen died Sunday at age 82. He suffered a stroke and heart attack Saturday while at the boatyard that his father, Tony, established in 1927. Mr. Jensen was taken to a hospital, where he died the next day.

"Here was an incredible individual, an honest man. . . . He just happens to be my father, too," said son Anchor DeWitt Jensen, 48, who goes by DeWitt. "I was a very lucky man to have him as a father. You're never ready. I was definitely not ready to have him go."

As a craftsman, Mr. Jensen was a perfectionist. As a mechanic, he was a natural. On the lakefront, he was immovable, refusing to let go of his marina despite repeated attempts by the University of Washington to expand.

"He's known because of the hydroplanes," said Dick Carroll, who has constructed a timeline history of the Jensen boatyard. "but we know him because he was an intuitive genius and a principled individual."

Mr. Jensen will be buried on Lopez Island on Saturday in a private ceremony. The date of a public memorial will be announced later.

Mr. Jensen is also survived by daughter-in-law Deborah Jensen and grandchildren Matt and Erik.

He was part of a family legacy of 180 consecutive years of shipbuilding that began in Denmark. The lineage of the family trade is carried on by his son, who is now president and owner of Jensen Motor Boat.

Mr. Jensen's most globally heralded accomplishment was the building of the Slo-mo-shun IV, the boat that brought unlimited-hydroplane racing to Seattle. The boat was owned by Stan Sayres and won the Gold Cup in Detroit in 1950, earning Seattle the right to host the regatta in 1951.

Ted Jones has been credited with designing the Slo-mo-shun IV, a claim that has been disputed by those at the Jensen boatyard. DeWitt Jensen said he has seen the blueprints for the boat, drawn up and signed by his father.

Mr. Jensen built the Slo-mo-shun V, and he worked on the Hawaii Kai, which was owned by Edward Kaiser. Mr. Jensen modified the boat, reducing its weight by more than 1,000 pounds, and it won the Gold Cup and national championship.

"He could understand engines perfectly," his son said. "He just had the knack."

But the work with hydroplanes is only a small part of Mr. Jensen's legacy. He was a remarkable boat builder, considered one of the foremost master ship wrights on the West Coast.

Mr. Jensen graduated No. 1 in his class at the Great Lakes Naval Training Academy, and he worked alongside some of the top naval architects in the world during his time at the boat shop.

Mr. Jensen fought to preserve his boatyard, too, refusing to sell the marina when proposals were made that the UW be expanded to the south.

He fought the first encroachment attempts in 1977, and the battle was renewed in the early '90s.

During the fight with the university, Mr. Jensen flew a flag with a revolutionary message from Colonial times that read, "Don't tread on me." Carroll said the flag remains downstairs in the boat shop.

"He paid an awful lot of money to stay in business," DeWitt Jensen said, adding that the marina will remain open.

A civil engineer, he said someone else will run day-to-day operations in the near future while he contemplates whether to assume daily control.

"We deserve to stay, and that's my plan," he said. "It's something that I owe to my dad."