Northwest Dive Club

Curious if anyone knows what the boat looked like, how it sunk, and why it was there? Someone on NWDC must have some info...

Whenever I think of the honey bear I think of Floyd from True Romance and his honey bear bong.

That's all I got... less than helpful.. and random... as always

....but appreciated. Since we are sharing I will say this, when we were suiting up or changing back into street clothes my instructor was talking to a couple of guys who were getting ready for a second dive or something and they reported that the GPO that people had been talking about was still under the Honey Bear, or whatever reason I heard Honey Bucket and thought it weird that there was a San-i-can in the water, but figured it would make a pretty good home for a GPO with no concern for it's image.


So we have pretty much all dove to the 'Bear but nobody knows anything about it? Mr. Boyd?

I have been told it was a sailboat of that name and when I first dived it it still had a few pieces that send to fit so I accepted that story. How it got there or whether it was intentional I have no idea.

The Honey Bear was a well-known local icon, actually. It was built by a shipyard in Anacortes to test some new hull designs to be used in the America's Cup. Unfortunately, it broke loose from its moorings during a really strong north wind (it was anchored in the northern part of Elliott Bay).

The wind carried it across Elliott Bay where it eventually was cast upon the rocks at the south end of Cove 2. It was battered against those rocks for a few hours, then the wind and the tide carried it to its present position--where it got caught up in the pilings in the area as it sunk.

(and if you believe this . . . )

Thanks DSteding, much appreciated. I had been curious about this for a bit but had no luck using the google.

Jake, thanks for asking about this. I've always wondered myself but never expected the answer to be so interesting. Wow. A would-be America's Cup racing yacht.... I always assumed it was just some old bucket someone decided to dump there.

When did this happen? I've only been diving since 2002 and didn't dive Cove 2 until 03, I think. It certainly wasn't in as bad of shape as it is now, of course, but was already pretty much in pieces.

I was talking with Sounder about it earlier, mentioned that on a dive where I basically ran into he and Lundy (I looked up and they were right there, took me a minute to realize they were not my buddies) under water at the Honey Bear where he showed me my first (and second, and they were HUGE) GPO's that I didn't realize that the Honey Bear even remotely resembled a boat. All I remember is a pile of white boards, but we decided that that was likely due to task loading as well as being Octo-Struck. Next time I go back there I will be interested to see how different it will appear in real life than it does in my memory. Ever since that dive (Oct 7th) I have wondered about the story of the S.S. Honey Bear...


Thanks again guys.

Ben, anytime....

I don't know how long it's been there but when I first dove at Cove 2 in 1991 it was there and (to me anyway) it seemed like a big boat. I didn't go back there for many years and by 2003 it didn't look like such a big deal!

Doug, are you sure it was built to test the hull design for the America's Cup? I seem to recall it wasn't the hull design they were testing, but the hull integrity using some new super-duper material -- maybe BuckyBall's?

I tried to Google this but, as I had forgotten, the designers and builders made all this top secret/trade secret stuff and threatened to sue Google if they put a word of it out in public!

Doug, thanks for reminding me of this little piece of herstory.

Doug's got it all messed up. It was actually a floating brothel that did a booming business during prohibition- the Seattle Police department didn't have any boats until the latter part of the 1930's. Many raucus parties took place on the "Honey Bear", just beyond the reach of the "long arm of the law." One night, a patron from the East Coast introduced the crew to a new invention: The Long Island Iced Tea. Noone's sure how it happened, but the "Honey Bear" ran aground off of Alki that night- miraculously, the entire crew and all the customers made it to shore......

I believe that is almost word for word the story of Luna Park, and how it caused West Seattle to become a part of Seattle....

Joshua Smith wrote:Doug's got it all messed up. It was actually a floating brothel that did a booming business during prohibition- the Seattle Police department didn't have any boats until the latter part of the 1930's. Many raucus parties took place on the "Honey Bear", just beyond the reach of the "long arm of the law." One night, a patron from the East Coast introduced the crew to a new invention: The Long Island Iced Tea. Noone's sure how it happened, but the "Honey Bear" ran aground off of Alki that night- miraculously, the entire crew and all the customers made it to shore......

True story - the Seattle Public School District was started from a donation from a Madam who ran the huge Seattle brothel during the time of the Gold Rush.

Everyone should take the "Seattle Underground" tour at least once... other fun facts include the origins of the "Crapper" and the stories of how people we actually "blown off their Crapper" when the tide was in.

Sounder wrote:Everyone should take the "Seattle Underground" tour at least once... other fun facts include the origins of the "Crapper" and the stories of how people we actually "blown off their Crapper" when the tide was in.

...and if you have any doubts it's true, just look at the viz a few weeks ago at Alki. Crap everywhere

Fortunately, today was much better out on Bainbridge...

Joshua Smith wrote:Doug's got it all messed up. It was actually a floating brothel that did a booming business during prohibition- the Seattle Police department didn't have any boats until the latter part of the 1930's. Many raucus parties took place on the "Honey Bear", just beyond the reach of the "long arm of the law." One night, a patron from the East Coast introduced the crew to a new invention: The Long Island Iced Tea. Noone's sure how it happened, but the "Honey Bear" ran aground off of Alki that night- miraculously, the entire crew and all the customers made it to shore......

Yeah, that is it. I had the America's Cup wreck confused with that one around the corner no one knows about--I love the way the masts still stick up off the bottom and it is in relatively pristine condition. Buckyball hulls survive the ravages of the sea rather well.

Of the few times I've dove the Honeybear it has never looked much like a boat to me. Just a pile of boards,arranged in a few different directions. But I have only seen it as a night dive. So maybe it looks like a boat during the day.
A floating Brothel, huh? Is there any truth to that?

I dove the Bear in 1987 and pulled 3 of the circle windows out of it, I don't remember much else.
I spent more time picking up all the danforth anchors scattered around from all the parked sail boats.
The windows had fallen out on their own, they were tinted concaved glass. I do remember the boat was cheap looking piece of junk which is why it's there.