The Maggie B finally earns Harbor Days honor

For decades, Mike Buse brought his 1961 wooden tug Maggie B to Harbor Days, rarely missing a year. He raced the small tug, often winning its class, with great seriousness. And he dreamed of the day his beloved boat would be featured on the Harbor Days logo.

This year, the Maggie B is the logo tug at the festival, happening Friday (Sept. 4) through Sunday at the Port of Olympia.

Last year, Buse learned this would be Maggie B’s turn, but he did not live to see his beloved boat on the logo.

As he piloted Maggie B down to the 2014 Harbor Days, Buse suffered a stroke onboard. He was hospitalized in Tacoma and died a few days later.

“I’m very sorry that my dad didn’t live to see Maggie B as the logo boat,” said Michael “Tug” Buse of Port Townsend. He will serve as captain of the boat this year.

“For my entire life, that’s what he wanted, for Maggie B to be all over the T-shirts and the hats, on the posters, all that stuff.”

Mike and Penny Buse of Warm Beach bought the Maggie B in 1974 as a pleasure boat. Designed by naval architect William Garden, the small boom tug was one of the last working wooden-hulled tugs.

For the first few years of its life, it herded logs for transport to sawmills. Then the Buses, who were shopping for a boat with a cabin, saw an ad for a tug for sale.

“They went to look at it, but they both said, ‘OK, we’re not going to buy it; we’re just going to look at it so we can get an idea of what kind of boat we might be thinking of buying,’” Tug Buse said. “And then they both took a look at her, and they decided instantly they were going to buy her.

“And the rest is history.”

Tug Buse, who was born in 1978, thinks of Maggie B his older sister. He grew up on the boat, first coming to Harbor Days with her and his parents when he was just 1-year-old.

No wonder, then, that he’s had the nickname Tug for as long as he can remember.

“When I was born, people gave my parents a lot of toy tugboats to give me,” he said. “People started calling me ‘Tugboat Boy,’ and eventually the name just got shortened to Tug.

“Tug is my name,” he added. “Aside from my bank and official documents, no one calls me Michael.”

This will be Buse’s first time captaining the boat in the Harbor Days races.

“Under normal circumstances, I piloted the tugboat all the time, but in the race, never,” he said. “My dad wouldn’t let anybody else touch the controls or the wheel.

“He took the races so seriously. He would ration the fuel to make sure that the tanks were almost empty so there wouldn’t be much weight. He’d get everything off the boat. He got a brand new propeller a while back.”

Mike Buse also liked to have very few people on the boat during races, again to keep the boat light and fast.

This year, Tug Buse isn’t so worried about speed. He has invited lots of friends and family to be on the boat. Penny Buse will be aboard, too, as she has been at Maggie B’s many races over the decades.

But Harbor Days means just as much to the younger Buse as it did to his dad.

“The ground is probably going to rumble when I say this, because my dad’s going to be spinning in his grave, but for me, winning the race isn’t the important thing,” he said. “For me, the real thing about Harbor Days is that it’s just so much fun. It was always so much fun to go down to Olympia, to welcome people on board and show them the tugboat. We would always go to the Spar Cafe and have breakfast.

“It was a wonderful childhood thing. I’ve always had fond memories of Harbor Days, and I always will.”

And in some way, Mike Buse will be there, too, said maritime historian Chuck Fowler, who with wife Karla has volunteered at Harbor Days since 1983.

“Karla and I went to the memorial service,” Fowler said. “And Tug told me, ‘I’ll be in the wheelhouse of Maggie B next year, but my dad’s hand will be on the wheel.’”

This story was originally published September 2, 2015 at 8:00 PM with the headline "The Maggie B finally earns Harbor Days honor."