Artist Statement Two years ago, when the Wooden Boat Festival team and I were brainstorming a concept for the 2020 Festival, little did we know that the image I created would be even more perfect for this year’s Festival. With research, we knew there were female ship captains in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and we decided to …
Feeling the love
By Bruce Bateau When I pulled up to the customs dock on San Juan Island on a sunny September afternoon, I was feeling good. Over the past six weeks, I had traveled some two hundred miles down Vancouver Island, traversed five major rapids, and used mostly paper charts to do it. Now, I had completed the final major crossing of …
Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-Op Turns 40
By Andy Gale As you walk the docks at this year’s Festival, take a look at the 83-foot schooner Destiny, the 44-foot sloop Inca, and 49-foot M/V Riptide—boats repaired or retrofitted by the Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-Op. A Unique Business Model in Marine Trades In 1981, a unique business ownership model in the marine trades arose when a few shipwrights …
If Ya Ain’t Rowin’, Ya Ain’t Goin’: Teenager Tackles SEVENTY48 Solo
By Ross Anderson Sixty miles into the SEVENTY48 race, Akeyla Behrenfeld decided she was done. The 14-year-old Port Townsend middle schooler had rowed her home-built boat solo through rain, three to five-foot seas, and 20-knot headwinds. She was soaked from the salt spray, her arms aching, hands blistered. The race had been won hours earlier by veteran mariners in high-tech …
The Purpose Behind the Project: Restoring Helma
By Robert d’Arcy For me, working on classic wooden boats is about values. Good design: these vessels are drawn for seakeeping—finely tuned to their purpose and environment, highly functional, and incredibly beautiful at the same time. Fine construction: these boats had to be well-built to survive a variety of wind conditions, sea states, and weather events, both expected and unexpected. …
2021 Wooden Boat Festival Canceled due to COVID-19
Dear friends, It’s with a heavy heart that, despite our best efforts, we are cancelling this year’s Wooden Boat Festival. It’s a big shift since last week’s announcement of our advanced safety protocols, but this is a rapidly shifting world, and we’ve decided cancelling is the only responsible way forward. We stand by the “vaccinated/negative-test-only” protocols we established which received …
Wolfhound
Written by Andy Gale. Wolfhound photos by Paul Wyeth Marine Photography. Crewed by owners Steven and Louise Dews, the 64-foot schooner Wolfhound is on a 25,000-plus mile delivery, from the shipyard where she was built in Shillingstone, UK, to her new home in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand. Wolfhound and the Dews are on an extended layover in Port …
The Story of Alcyone
By Sugar Flanagan (owner) When we think about boats, we often wonder, “Is she a keeper?” Alcyone is definitely a keeper. She was designed and built by Frank Prothero in his backyard in Seattle. He sailed her for 9 years and then sold her to the Hanke family who took care of her for 22 years. We have now owned …
Jake’s Fave Five
Before he was hired here (and helped us improve event security), Northwest Maritime Center Executive Director Jake Beattie brought boats, volunteered, and snuck into Wooden Boat Festival for the better part of a decade. “I’m a festival fanboy.” After getting him off of his soapbox (“What do you mean I only get five?”), Jake shared his top five can’t-miss activities …
The Harbormaster’s Picks
Header photo by Mitchel Osborne Harbormaster, Daniel Evans, has scoured over every boat application—learning about each vessel and filling this year’s harbor with wooden boats from near and far. Through this process, he’s compiled his five must-see boats at this year’s festival. Introducing the Harbormaster’s picks: Lady Washington Owned by Grays Harbor Historical Society, Lady Washington is the official tall …
Get inspired at the Adventure Stage!
Header photo by Thomas Hawthorne We have an epic line-up of speakers on the new Adventure Stage across the harbor in the newly renovated Pygmy building. Some of the speakers on the Adventure Stage this year include: Karl Kruger The only stand-up paddleboarder who has finished the 750-mile Race to Alaska on a paddleboard. Karl is currently attempting to become …
A Member of the Family: Wooden Boats and the Legacy of Ownership
By WBF staff As anyone with a wooden boat will tell you, owning one is like having another member of the family. A little high-maintenance, yes, but strong and beautiful, with captivating stories and the scars to go with them, not to mention the kind of charisma that would induce you to expend a nice weekend going through stacks of …
Building a batana: a symbol of Croatian heritage takes shape in Gig Harbor
Michael Vlahovich says “from design to construction, from launch to adventure, from maintenance to restoration, wooden boats are what maritime stories are made of.” A master shipwright, commercial fisherman, and Tacoma native, Mike has dedicated his career to the preservation of maritime heritage from the Chesapeake Bay to the Pacific Northwest. Now living in his father’s birth village of Sumartin, …
Announcing This Year’s Festival Headliners!
Lin Pardey A pioneer of long-distance voyaging and longtime Wooden Boat Festival icon, Lin Pardey is most certainly the real deal. Since the 1960s, Lin has accrued more than 217,000 sea miles sailing on boats ranging from 24 feet to more than 60, the majority without engines on two wooden cutters she and her husband Larry built: Serafin and Taleisin. …
Riptide
By Pete Leenhouts, owner RIPTIDE was built in 1927 by the Schertzer Brothers Boat and Machine Company, then located on the north shore of Lake Union near the foot of Stone Way in Seattle. She is planked in Port Orford cedar, copper riveted to white oak frames over an Apitong backbone with a marine plywood pilothouse and a western red …
Meet the Artist: Steven Dews
Bio Famed for his spectacular maritime paintings, Steven Dews is one of the most successful living maritime artists in the world. After graduating art school and returning to his childhood home, he turned to art to express his love for the sea. He studied photographs, reference books, model ships, and architectural drawings while producing hundreds of pencil sketches, becoming a …
Orca
The Gartside Workboat “Orca” is a Paul Gartside designed motor boat, constructed of cedar planking bronze fastened over oak frames. A heavy workboat of traditional construction, the Gartside is ideal as a yard launch or small towboat. Built with carvel plank-on-frame cedar over oak with a locust backbone, this functional 18’ boat, powered by a 20 HP Beta Diesel, gave …
Sockeye
Sockeye is an Ed Monk Sr. design, built by Jacobson Brothers in Ballard, WA. She started a long trolling career in 1944. Known back then as Nestor, she retired from fishing in the early 2000s when Port Townsend’s Les and Libby Schnick started her long conversion to a recreational boat. Her aft cabin emerged in 2008 from what was once …
The Future of Maritime Tent
Sponsored in part by Northwest Maritime Center and Dovetail Workwear, the Future of Maritime tent at this year’s Wooden Boat Festival will showcase the inspiring movements taking place to connect and transform the lives of people connected to the blue parts of our planet. Capturing the essence of regionalization and transformative efforts of humans and their relationship to water and …
The Harbormaster’s Picks
Harbormaster Daniel Evans has scoured over every boat application to fill this year’s harbor with beautiful wooden boats from near and far. There are so many amazing boats coming to this year’s Festival. These are just a few of the must-sees on his list! Introducing the 2023 Harbormaster’s picks: Gray Wolf Wood can be speedy! Winner of the 2023 international Race to Alaska, Gray …
Admire the Beauty of Handcrafted Boats
In the last few years, we’ve seen a wonderful resurgence of craftsmanship. More and more people are building small handmade boats—putting their love and care into creating something beautiful with their own hands. Throughout Festival grounds, a stunning array of meticulously crafted trailerable boats and kayaks will grace both land and water. The First Fed Commons will be the focal …
Historic Thunderbird Sailboats #1 and #2
By Guy Hoppen Thunderbird #1, launched in November of 1958 and known as Number 1 or Thunderbird, and Thunderbird #2, named Pirouette and launched in August of 1959, will be moored together perhaps for the first time since the 1960s at the 2023 Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival! The Thunderbird sailboat was inspired by a Douglas Fir Plywood Association design …
First time at Festival?
The Wooden Boat Festival is a celebration of boatbuilding skills, craft, education, and adventure. There are hundreds of wooden boats of all shapes and varieties, hands-on demonstrations and presentations, activities for kids, and a number of ways to get out on the water. If you’re new to Festival, you may be wondering—where do I start? Here are some tips and can’t-miss activities …
A Smile on the Sea: Allen and Sharie Farrell’s China Cloud is still riding high
By Dan Rubin Sometime in the mid-1970s, Allen and Sharie Farrell, renowned for their hand-built sailing vessels and offshore adventuring, were living in a little cedar shake floathouse in False Bay on Lasqueti Island, when Allen began sketching plans for a vessel unlike any they had ever built. They had already managed to obtain their beautiful boat, Native Girl, back …
Arshay Cooper and “A Most Beautiful Thing” to Headline Wooden Boat Festival 2023!
Join us on Saturday night at Festival for a special cinematic experience as we present A Most Beautiful Thing with Arshay Cooper—the movie’s inspiring protagonist—on-site to hold a Q&A session after the screening. Inspired by Cooper’s 2015 memoir, A Most Beautiful Thing is a 2020 documentary film chronicling the history of the first US African American public high school rowing …
Golden Rule
The Golden Rule was the very first of the environmental and peace vessels to go to sea. In 1958, a crew of anti-nuclear weapons activists set sail aboard her in an attempt to interpose themselves and the boat between the U.S. Government and its atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean. At that time …
Ananda
Ananda is a 32’ Tri cabin cruiser built by Peter Hansen in Everett, Wa and launched in 1932. Ananda was built and designed by Peter Hansen for his personal use and was originally named the Margaret H (One account states she was named for his wife and another his grand daughter). Upon completion in his yard, Ananda was rolled on …
Sunshine Special
Back in 1972, the boat was brought to Seattle from the Great Lakes and the Sunshine Special got her name and her first yellow stripe and she has had the yellow stripe ever since. She’s a recognizable fixture in the San Juan and Gulf Islands. 18 years ago on our maiden cruise with the boat, we ran into 2 different …
Black Dogs
A Northwest built version of a William Atkins “Rescue Minor” Article by James Thomas from Small Craft Advisor Magazine For some years I’d heard stories about a boat an acquaintance of mine, Mark Nelson, a skilled carpenter and machinist had built to allow his wife Lark and he to take day trips on the Rivers and Lakes in Oregon. Knowing …
Discovery
Jim McCurdy had Bill Garden Design Discovery for his 40th Birthday. She was built to Yacht standards by the Vic Franck yard on Lake Union in Seattle in 1963. She is strongly built of 1 3/8″ Yellow Cedar Planking on 2 1/8′ x 2 1/8″ steamed white oak frames on 12″ centers. She still has her original 100 HP Perkins …
Flying Eagle
A workboat with beauty of purpose, was designed and built by local Maine lobstermen for their specific geographic conditions. These rare wooden watercraft are known by historians as the best working form ever constructed and most beautiful and fastest lobster boats of their time. This is due in part to their skeg construction. Although a visual and spiritual inspiration to …
Little Packet
Christopher Jenkes commissioned a smaller version of Lester Stone’s personal yacht, when he saw the drawings he said, “That’s a nice little packet, and the name stuck. In addition the the commissioned Little Packet, the Stone yard built a sistership launched in 1967. We are the third owners of the boat. Dick Wren bought her in 1971 and was very …
Argonaut II
For more than a century, Argonaut II sailed the waters of the Pacific Northwest and most famously served the remote native tribes and rural communities of British Columbia. Originally built as a corporate yacht for the Powell River Company in Vancouver, BC in 1922, the United Methodist Church purchased the boat in 1934 to serve as a Mission Boat until …
Luna
LUNA, a Bolger-designed Chebacco, was constructed by Jerome McIlvanie of Yakima, Washington between 1996 and 2001. The boat is 19’ 6” long and has a beam of 7’ 9”. After being sailed just once – from the launch ramp to the marina at the 2001 Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival – she was sold and stored under a tarp in …
Scherzo
Scherzo is a home-built, 14′ power dory. Her hull is from a design by the late Jeff Spira of Huntington Beach, California. Her interior was designed by the builder around an old wooden ship’s wheel discovered in an antique shop on Long Island, NY. Hull construction is plywood sheathed in fiberglass set in epoxy. Her console is painted plywood; other …
Zena
I bought this partly-completed HADRON dinghy and completely redesigned the interior, fitting self-draining floor, daggerboard and cassette rudder. It’s designed to float low when capsized so that it’s easier to get on the daggerboard to right her.
Xanadu
Xanadu was built in Hong Kong in 1971 of Philippine mahogany planks on yacal frames. Her interior is mostly teak. She is powered by a single John Deere diesel engine of 225 horse power at a cruising speed of 8 to 9 knots, consuming from 2 to 3.5 gallons per hour. With a fuel capacity of 640 gallons, she is …
Wood Duck
Boat purchased in 1970 for $45….at Bellevue Washington. My father had a vision for the Poulsbo boat to become a jaunty sailboat. The attractive lines were decked and an an engine house built by Jensen Motor Boat Co. Many complications ensued as the air cooled engine was boxed. An un weighted keel was added but she sails very top heavy. …
Woody
Woody was my first boat build project launched in 1993. Her hull is marine grade fir plywood. Frames are Port Orford Ceder. The transom, seats and trim are Mahogany all fastened with square drive silicon bronze screws. No epoxy was used building the boat other than attaching the frames. She was built using plans from Ken Swan.
Wind Spirit
I found this pirate ship sitting in an equipment yard in Olympia in 2011. The Vessel was hand crafted as a one-off pirate ship conversion in 1985, by a retired naval architect to play with his grandchildren. Upon inspection the boat needed a total restoration. This ship, as it turns out, is an authentic scaled replica of a seventieth century …
Whisper
Whisper was built in 1957 by the Thomas Knutson Shipbuilding Corp. in Halesite, Long Island, New York. She was designed by Sparkman and Stevens as part of their “Pilot” series of production boats. Whisper has sailed in Maryland, Florida, and Puget Sound. A simple engine replacement in late 2012 resulted in a 3 year major rebuild in Port Townsend. The …
Waterstrider
Sprit rigged stitch and glue double ender with two rowing stations. Skerry design from Chesapeake Light Craft.
Vixen
Since her launching in 1952 Vixen has sailed two and a half times around the world. Her most recent circumnavigation was an 11 year voyage completed in 2015. The people of Port Townsend have contributed greatly to Vixen’s success including a twelve year restoration under the guidance of Port Townsend resident Les Schnick. Vixen is a classic Atkin design specifically …
Vito Dumas
I purchased Vito Dumas in January of 1976, and after a period of work combined with shakedown cruises on the California coast, began a nearly three year cruise that included Baja California, Marquesas, Societies, Hawaii, Alaska, and British Columbia.. Vito has always treated us well, and I have attempted to return the favor by doing the necessary projects to keep …
Virginia Cary
1973 Grand Banks 36. The last year Grand Banks their boats in wood. Very stable and good sea boat. Two time Alaska veteran, and several trips to Desolation Sound. This boat has always been under cover, and has been maintained properly since day one. Excellent condition. When underway, twin Ford Lehman engines use 3 to 3.5 gallons per hour. Very …
Orion
Launched in San Diego in 1948, Orion -#68- of 83, underwent a large restoration by Baird Boat Works of Port Townsend WA in 2006. Mahogany planks (some new), over steamed oak frames (all sistered). Updated rigging with Schaefer and Harken blocks, roller furler. Lots of bronze hardware and varnish. 4hp outboard. Very minimal systems, but she makes up for it …
Forget-me-not
Bartender boats were designed for the rough waters over sandbars at the mouth of the mighty Columbia River. ‘Forget-me-not’ is a Cruiser in yacht dress, built by the students and grads (including the owners son) of the NW School of Wooden Boatbuilding. Begun in summer 2012 at Port Hadlock WA, completed 2015. Plywood epoxy hull, bright sappele house, helm, coaming …
Waterstrider
Chesapeake Light Craft Skerry, stitch and glue double-ender with sprit rig. From Port Townsend to Ross lake, Lake Crescent and the San Juan Islands, Waterstrider has been a fun family for 18 years.
Betty Mc
Betty Mc is a 45′ “crayfish” boat, typical of many fishing craft from south eastern Australia built throughout the 1900s. Early boats were all sail and as engines improved, sail rigs shrunk. Betty Mc is one of the last era of boats to retain a sail rig. She was built in 1963 by Ken Lacco for his son Snow, who …
Grail
Grail is built of the finest materials Balu, Oak, VG Fir, back bone and ribs. VG Fir planking, Oak deck beams , Port Orford Cedar decks , single plank Mahogany house sides, spruce spars. She made a voyage down the coast to the Galapagos Islands with her original owner. She returned to the Salish Sea where she has been since. …
Marionette
Marionette is #6 of 22 K-50s built in San Diego. She was commissioned in 1964. Kettenburg Boatworks was famous for building lightweight and very fast wooden racing sailboats and the K-50s are of that model. She is light for her size, weighing just 28,000 lbs. She has a 13.5′ beam, 7′ draft, and carries a sail area of 1,000 square …
Cape Ross
Topsides re-planked, hull totally re-calked and refastened in 2018. Hull, topsides and cabin repainted in 2018.
Felicity Ann
Felicity Ann 1939. Felicity Ann’s keel was laid at Mashford Bros. yard in England in 1939. Aboard her, in 1953 Ann Davison became the first woman to go solo across any major ocean. The voyage was documented in Ann’s book “My Ship So Small.” She was sailed for the first time in 50 years during the summer of 2018. The …
Svale
Resembling, and preceding, the larger and more well known Folkboat, the KDY15 became a popular racing class in Denmark during the last century. Svale was built in 1954 in Svendborg, Denmark and incorporates all the ‘updates”‘that became part of the class design in the 1950s including a laminated mast, rectangular boom, foam flotation, and other small details. Svale was brought …
Duffy & Dinky
Duffy was built to a design penned by Edwin Monk Sr. in 1947 by Frank Adams under the north span of Seattle’s University Bridge. She was launched in 1950. The original owners raised their family onboard while cruising the length of the Salish Sea, making Ketchican twice. Duffy remained under their stewardship for 42 years, moored at the Seattle Yacht …
Eloise
This Whitehall-type long boat was stored in a barn loft in the San Juan Islands for over 60 years. Those decades at rest among old farm equipment and dust has not dimmed her beauty. As a tender, her duty was to serve in the shadow of the 85′ Lawley schooner “Eloise” (ex. Gulmar c. 1913), but today she is in …
Ellen
12 foot single station dinghy. Glued plywood lapstrake construction, White oak stem, keel, rails, sapele transom, meranti floors and thwarts.
Minx
Built in 1997 in Port Angeles, Minx was constructed along the lines of a Dark Harbor 12-1/2, using old growth cedar strip planking over steamed white oak frames. The quality of her materials and the addition of bronze hardware throughout makes her a rare find.
SputterBug
Dedicated to the art of boat building that honors the great craftsmen of the early mahogany boats, the Sputterbug Runabout was created in 2019 as a project to build a smaller runabout on a modern planing hull design. Having a love for wooden boats, I wanted to recreate classic mahogany runabout boat aesthetics, applying modern building techniques. To do so, …
Ellie J
Ellie J is a 23’ motorboat designed by Arch Davis and built by Denis Dignan and Tom Tucker in Port Hadlock. Named for Denis’s grandchildren, Ellie and Jameson, she launched in spring 2019. Her first voyage is to the boat festival!
Li’l B
Designed and built by Russell Brown, the PT Eleven is a highly developed 11ft nesting dinghy ideal for cruising boats since she can be stored in a small space; only 6ft x 4ft 2″. The PT 11 rows very well and has a simple and lightweight, high performance sailing option. Each hull half weighs about 45# and can be assembled …
Blue Star
Based on a design by Scott Sprague for a 24′ tug designed to pull a small freight barge out to her owners’ cabin in British Columbia. The mast and boom are to load/unload a dinghy, the scow, or cargo from the deck and small aft hold. She has great visibility and easy access to the deck. A small fore-cabin has …
Seagoin
Her designer, Ferdinand Bach (1888-1967) Detroit Michigan, reportedly designed a handful of boats. He apparently designed cars but never drove one, couldn’t swim yet regularly paddled a canoe to work. He was also a renowned carver of duck decoys. “Seagoin” was brought to Port Townsend from Michigan in the early 2000’s, her renovation carried out by talented, local, marine tradesmen. …
Pax
PAX is the only 45 sq meter Danish Spidsgatter sailing in North America. Pax (Latin for Peace) is a spidsgatter (Danish for “double ender”) built in Kalundborg, Denmark in 1936. The spidsgatter was a racing class begun in the mid-1920s as sail clubs across Denmark sought to expand opportunities for families to sail together. The boats were fast (very high …
Ellie
Ellie’s hull is built in glued-lapstrake construction with meranti plywood over permanent bulkheads and stringers. Her spars are Douglas Fir. Both masts are built hollow using the bird’s mouth method. Her seats provide permanent flotation and are decked with oiled mahogany. She sports a gunter-rigged main, roller furled jib and sprit-boomed mizzen, all rigged for easy access from the cockpit. …
Discovery
Jim McCurdy had Bill Garden Design Discovery for his 40th Birthday. She was built to Yacht standards by the Vic Franck yard on Lake Union in Seattle in 1963. She is strongly built of 1 3/8″ Yellow Cedar Planking on 2 1/8′ x 2 1/8″ steamed white oak frames on 12″ centers. She still has her original 100 HP Perkins …
Saturday Night Special
This SNS was built in Texas for the Texas 200, but health problems stopped the builder from entering the race. The second owner planned to sail it in the Texas 200, but his sailing partner backed out and life became busy. The boat sat outside for a couple of years, and when I bought it the centerboard no longer functioned. …
Chencharu
Chencharu is one of two Harrison Butler boats built in 1950 in Malaysia. I bought her in Australia in 1977. I circumnavigated Australia and then eventually sailed most of the Pacific, ending up on Hat Island. I recently built a new mast as the original split. I am. Currently on my way back from Hawaii. This is my second time …
Elinor
Elinor is my second attempt at strip-built kayaks and is designed by Nick Schade of Guillemot Kayaks. Elinor is also the name of my second-born daughter who had a significant influence in the development of the inlayed designs for the deck art. All based on her favorite artist Eyvind Earle.
Epic
Community Boat Project has sought for over a decade to create the ultimate non-motorized educational vessel. Schooner-rigged, rowing 8 oars and capable of the multi-day unsupported sailing expedition, Epic is an ultimate teaching platform for all ages.
TERN
Tern has sailed to Mexico, Alaska, Hawaii, and Polynesia. A real deep water-capable, well-made balanced boat. Comfortable 2 berths, midget pot belly, and Swedish Swing Gimbled cooking stove, sink, air-tight compartments, white oak heavy beams, 4000 lbs, 50 yr old well care for exact replication of Trekka without the yaul rigging.
Ariadne
Ariadne is a Jolly boat designed by Greg Foster and built by the owner, Jack Stewart. Throughout her life, she has carried Jack, his wife, his three sons, and three generations of family dogs on many voyages throughout the Salish Sea. Her first long voyage was in May of 1992 when she followed Peter Puget’s route through the southern sound …
Bandwagon
The Hvalsoe 16 is a comfortable and stable rowing boat. Bandwagon began life with a spritsail rig, since converted to a balanced lug yawl. The rig and many details have evolved over multiple seasons of exploring and camp cruising, from southern Puget Sound to the Broughten archipelago in British Columbia.
Nevermore
Nevermore began her life in the imagination of her builder, Ralph Eastland. With an axe in hand and an imagination in his heart, Ralph went into the forests of British Columbia and felled the trees that he would then craft into the timbers of this magnificent schooner. Meticulously constructed of exemplar Pacific NW woods, Nevermore has a red cedar hull, …
Houat
Houat was built at Evergreen State College based on the Zimmer Design from Wooden Boat Magazine. At some point, it ended up at a Maritime Museum in Anacortes, then given to the Community Boat Project locally. It was restored during the winter of 2019/20. It has since had a new centerboard trunk built as well as new rigging and sails. …
Discovery
Jim McCurdy had Bill Garden Design Discovery for his 40th Birthday. She was built to Yacht standards by the Vic Franck yard on Lake Union in Seattle in 1963. She is strongly built of 1 3/8″ Yellow Cedar Planking on 2 1/8′ x 2 1/8″ steamed white oak frames on 12″ centers. She still has her original 100 HP Perkins …
WOODY
Sam Devlin’s Surf Scoter design is readily recognized in the Northwest and they have migrated far beyond their home habitat. In a world of plastic boats they are distinctive and lovely and truly a species apart. While the original design was conceived two decades ago, with many boats subsequently built, this late-model Surf Scoter 23 enjoys many evolutionary advantages, including …
Deception
This boat is an original example with no major rebuild other than a power change in 1985. She is a single screw powered by a lugger 668 with a range of nearly 1500 miles.
Jonquil
A classic Atkin ketch built per plan to the Jonquil design. Carvel planked mahogany on oak frames. Gaff mainsail and Marconi mizzen.
Bruno
1963 Egg Harbor Express Cruiser was designed by Ted Haggas and built in Egg Harbor, NJ., modeled after the famous Maine lobster boats to be fast and extremely seaworthy. I purchased Bruno from Inger McGinnis’s estate 3 years ago who had been 2nd owner since delivered new in San Diego. It is only one of 3 known to not have …
Roopa
This little wooden boat’s story is one of devotion, dedication, family, companionship, artistry, tragedy and triumph. Her story begins over a century ago, as Sewall Southard Sr. infused his passion for sailing and everything nautical, a gift from his father, down to his son Clarke. All are the descendants of the famous Southard shipbuilders whose work is still showcased in …
Harpoon
A Ted Coates designed and built cedar plank lapstrake, outboard, utility runabout powered by a 1940 Johnson, 22 HP outboard. Outboard and boat restored by Denny Johnson.
Alca i
Named after the extinct penguin-like flightless bird named Alca impennis (commonly known as the “Great Auk”), the hull of Alca i is strip plank on frame heavy construction with keel, frame and floors of epoxy-laminated and glassed white oak with bronze, Monel and stainless steel fasteners. Each piece of the two-inch thick oak strip hull planking was epoxy-sealed prior to …
New Penny
Built to the Devlin Marsh Wren design “New Penny” was a many year long building project, started at Woodenboat School in Brooklin, Maine and then carrying on a the Devlin Yard in Olympia. She is a daysailer very much like a larger H-12.5 and capable of handling two couples for a sail without getting in each others way. She is …
Freebird
I always want to build a cedar strip boat. I even bought special routers bit, 26 years ago, to fabricate the cedar strips. Life got in the way, so no boat. Fast forward to 2021, retired, and time on my hands, time to build a boat. Since my wife is not the boating type, I won’t with a kayak. I …
Haverchuck
The Hvalsoe 18 measures 18′6″ by 5′4″, Her rig is an easy to reef lug yawl. Design displacement is 750lbs. Designer Eric Hvalsoe says his goal for the design was “to create a boat that was comfortable to inhabit—in the oar-and-sail sense of inhabit—for long days on the water.” Launched in 2015, “Haverchuck” has since explored much (but not nearly …
Ouzel
This Sam Devlin design was custom built by Tom Larkin of Seattle and has proven herself worthy on at least one previous trip up the Inside Passage towards Southeast Alaska. As the Devlin Boat Company states, the Godzilla 25 is “a working boat that would happily carry you away to distant ports.” This custom Godzilla 25 design has spent many …
Faamu Sami
Ray Speck built this boat in a, surplus military prefab barracks boat shop that he and Kit Africa shared, perched upon an old, deteriorating WWII Sausalito slipways pier. It’s a rare enlarged version of his ‘stock’ SYD skiffs, well-known through Ray’s years as a Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding instructor, and absolutely typical of Ray’s early production work–an approach to …
Destiny
Bright finished yellow cedar cold molded hull sloop. Large sail plan
Moonshine
Moonshine is a well built boat from the days of classic wooden boats. She has been well maintained over the years and is a joy to be on.
Eclair
Rare classic runabout built in 1954 by Tomahawk Boat Co., Tomahawk, WI. Lapstrake construction of marine plywood with enclosed bow, windshield, and brilliant red mahogany brightwork. Tomahawk was an early pioneer of fiberglass pleasure craft.
Beginnings
No great history other than quality time spent between a father and his sons. Wonderful winter project. Really happy with how out first boat turned out. Many more to come!
Klara
Klara, the Somes Sound 12 1/2 designed by John Brooks, follows the tradition of a sturdy, elegant daysailer – the Herreshoff 12 1/2. It’s immediate predecessor is Joel White’s Haven 12 1/2, which has often been built using cold molded construction. Like the Haven, the Somes Sound has a foreshortened lead keel with a drop through centerboard, making it more …
Dennis Kirk Oswalt
This custom built, one-of-a-kind Hacker was commissioned on October 9, 2001 and recreates the famed early 1930s Hacker Craft Commuter design. It was built by Bill Morgan of the Hacker Boat Company in Silver Bay, NY. The mahogany hull is in impeccable condition and was built in a traditional style with a blend of modern technology. Powered by a Crusader …
Bliss
Found this Beautiful Cedar Edge Glued Rowboat on Craigslist close to 20 years ago for $400! About 15 years ago I turned her into a Sailing Dinghy/Tender for my 43′ Cruising Sailboat.
Golden Rule
The Golden Rule was the very first of the environmental and peace vessels to go to sea. In 1958, a crew of anti-nuclear weapons activists set sail aboard her in an attempt to interpose themselves and the boat between the U.S. Government and its atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean. At that time …
Ananda
Ananda is a 32’ Tri cabin cruiser built by Peter Hansen in Everett, Wa and launched in 1932. Ananda was built and designed by Peter Hansen for his personal use and was originally named the Margaret H (One account states she was named for his wife and another his grand daughter). Upon completion in his yard, Ananda was rolled on …
Sunshine Special
Back in 1972, the boat was brought to Seattle from the Great Lakes and the Sunshine Special got her name and her first yellow stripe and she has had the yellow stripe ever since. She’s a recognizable fixture in the San Juan and Gulf Islands. 18 years ago on our maiden cruise with the boat, we ran into 2 different …
Black Dogs
A Northwest built version of a William Atkins “Rescue Minor” Article by James Thomas from Small Craft Advisor Magazine For some years I’d heard stories about a boat an acquaintance of mine, Mark Nelson, a skilled carpenter and machinist had built to allow his wife Lark and he to take day trips on the Rivers and Lakes in Oregon. Knowing …
Discovery
Jim McCurdy had Bill Garden Design Discovery for his 40th Birthday. She was built to Yacht standards by the Vic Franck yard on Lake Union in Seattle in 1963. She is strongly built of 1 3/8″ Yellow Cedar Planking on 2 1/8′ x 2 1/8″ steamed white oak frames on 12″ centers. She still has her original 100 HP Perkins …
Flying Eagle
A workboat with beauty of purpose, was designed and built by local Maine lobstermen for their specific geographic conditions. These rare wooden watercraft are known by historians as the best working form ever constructed and most beautiful and fastest lobster boats of their time. This is due in part to their skeg construction. Although a visual and spiritual inspiration to …
Little Packet
Christopher Jenkes commissioned a smaller version of Lester Stone’s personal yacht, when he saw the drawings he said, “That’s a nice little packet, and the name stuck. In addition the the commissioned Little Packet, the Stone yard built a sistership launched in 1967. We are the third owners of the boat. Dick Wren bought her in 1971 and was very …
Argonaut II
For more than a century, Argonaut II sailed the waters of the Pacific Northwest and most famously served the remote native tribes and rural communities of British Columbia. Originally built as a corporate yacht for the Powell River Company in Vancouver, BC in 1922, the United Methodist Church purchased the boat in 1934 to serve as a Mission Boat until …
Luna
LUNA, a Bolger-designed Chebacco, was constructed by Jerome McIlvanie of Yakima, Washington between 1996 and 2001. The boat is 19’ 6” long and has a beam of 7’ 9”. After being sailed just once – from the launch ramp to the marina at the 2001 Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival – she was sold and stored under a tarp in …
Scherzo
Scherzo is a home-built, 14′ power dory. Her hull is from a design by the late Jeff Spira of Huntington Beach, California. Her interior was designed by the builder around an old wooden ship’s wheel discovered in an antique shop on Long Island, NY. Hull construction is plywood sheathed in fiberglass set in epoxy. Her console is painted plywood; other …
The Future of Maritime Tent
Sponsored in part by Northwest Maritime Center and Dovetail Workwear, the Future of Maritime tent at this year’s Wooden Boat Festival will showcase the inspiring movements taking place to connect and transform the lives of people connected to the blue parts of our planet. Capturing the essence of regionalization and transformative efforts of humans and their relationship to water and …
The Harbormaster’s Picks
Harbormaster Daniel Evans has scoured over every boat application to fill this year’s harbor with beautiful wooden boats from near and far. There are so many amazing boats coming to this year’s Festival. These are just a few of the must-sees on his list! Introducing the 2023 Harbormaster’s picks: Gray Wolf Wood can be speedy! Winner of the 2023 international Race to Alaska, Gray …
Admire the Beauty of Handcrafted Boats
In the last few years, we’ve seen a wonderful resurgence of craftsmanship. More and more people are building small handmade boats—putting their love and care into creating something beautiful with their own hands. Throughout Festival grounds, a stunning array of meticulously crafted trailerable boats and kayaks will grace both land and water. The First Fed Commons will be the focal …
Historic Thunderbird Sailboats #1 and #2
By Guy Hoppen Thunderbird #1, launched in November of 1958 and known as Number 1 or Thunderbird, and Thunderbird #2, named Pirouette and launched in August of 1959, will be moored together perhaps for the first time since the 1960s at the 2023 Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival! The Thunderbird sailboat was inspired by a Douglas Fir Plywood Association design …
First time at Festival?
The Wooden Boat Festival is a celebration of boatbuilding skills, craft, education, and adventure. There are hundreds of wooden boats of all shapes and varieties, hands-on demonstrations and presentations, activities for kids, and a number of ways to get out on the water. If you’re new to Festival, you may be wondering—where do I start? Here are some tips and can’t-miss activities …
A Smile on the Sea: Allen and Sharie Farrell’s China Cloud is still riding high
By Dan Rubin Sometime in the mid-1970s, Allen and Sharie Farrell, renowned for their hand-built sailing vessels and offshore adventuring, were living in a little cedar shake floathouse in False Bay on Lasqueti Island, when Allen began sketching plans for a vessel unlike any they had ever built. They had already managed to obtain their beautiful boat, Native Girl, back …
Arshay Cooper and “A Most Beautiful Thing” to Headline Wooden Boat Festival 2023!
Join us on Saturday night at Festival for a special cinematic experience as we present A Most Beautiful Thing with Arshay Cooper—the movie’s inspiring protagonist—on-site to hold a Q&A session after the screening. Inspired by Cooper’s 2015 memoir, A Most Beautiful Thing is a 2020 documentary film chronicling the history of the first US African American public high school rowing …
Jake’s Fave Five
Before he was hired here (and helped us improve event security), Northwest Maritime Center Executive Director Jake Beattie brought boats, volunteered, and snuck into Wooden Boat Festival for the better part of a decade. “I’m a festival fanboy.” After getting him off of his soapbox (“What do you mean I only get five?”), Jake shared his top five can’t-miss activities …
The Harbormaster’s Picks
Header photo by Mitchel Osborne Harbormaster, Daniel Evans, has scoured over every boat application—learning about each vessel and filling this year’s harbor with wooden boats from near and far. Through this process, he’s compiled his five must-see boats at this year’s festival. Introducing the Harbormaster’s picks: Lady Washington Owned by Grays Harbor Historical Society, Lady Washington is the official tall …
Get inspired at the Adventure Stage!
Header photo by Thomas Hawthorne We have an epic line-up of speakers on the new Adventure Stage across the harbor in the newly renovated Pygmy building. Some of the speakers on the Adventure Stage this year include: Karl Kruger The only stand-up paddleboarder who has finished the 750-mile Race to Alaska on a paddleboard. Karl is currently attempting to become …
Penguin Class
Built-in 1965 by John Wright of Philadelphia PA. The boat was sailed for two years before the owner passed. For fifty years the boat remained in the owner’s garage untouched. Later it competed in the Penguin Fleet of Chicago Il before moving to New Jersey where I discovered it on the internet. In 2021 I tailored the Penguin on its …
Meet the Artist: Chris Witkowski
Artist Statement Two years ago, when the Wooden Boat Festival team and I were brainstorming a concept for the 2020 Festival, little did we know that the image I created would be even more perfect for this year’s Festival. With research, we knew there were female ship captains in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and we decided to …
S/V Tullamore
S/V Tullamore came into my life in June 2020, passed on by Scott McEniry of Bellingham. Scott had recently tossed a brand new Yanmar into “Tully,” thank you Scott. My stewardship of her begins with some additions/changes—a new and vastly improved propeller, a shortening of the tiller, carving out of the inevitable rotten planks, and—hopefully—adding a mainsheet winch and opening …
Teal
Teal was built for the Alaskan Department of Commerce for the fish and game patrol. She was completely restored by the Port Townsend Shipwrights to yacht standards.
Auzzy
I spent 20 years looking for a boat design that I could build when I retired. I was set to build a Devlin “Black Crown” and even rented one several times. My plans changed when I found Brian Dixon’s design “Great Alaskan”. I chose his design because of the planing hull. I started the build in January of 2019 and …
Summertime of Wight
Built at Cowes, Isle of Wight, to ocean race under RORC rules and competed in 1966 and 1967. When IOR rules came in, the boat was not competitive and was sold. It was then sailed across the Atlantic, through the Panama canal across to Hawaii. Then onto Victoria. Summertime has been displayed in Vancouver, Victoria, and Port Townsend, winning best …
Krokenen
The Krokenen is a robustly built, wooden classic built in 1977 in Grimstad, Norway. The hull form can generally be attributed to the coastal fishing boats of the country and was most probably built by a yard experienced with purpose built workboats and pocket cruising yachts for the fjords and waterways. The name means ‘Hiding Place’ as the builder’s son …
Susan Anne
I built the Haven 12 1/2 in 2008. It was my second carvel planked boat. After over 45 years as a fine furniture maker, I converted to boats. This soon became quite a passion. Years and a few boats later, I would say this was the hardest boat I have built. But the reward is a boat that is sweet …
Pleiades
This is a splendid example of a Howard Chapelle designed Pinky Schooner. Chapelle spent a lot of time and research effort on Pinky Schooners, which he considered to be one of the finest sea-going traditional crafts ever built. ‘Pleiades’ is based on Chapelle’s ‘Pinky Yacht’ design (as seen in his book American Sailing Craft), and it represents a slightly modified …
Meko
Built in 1931 for a Colonel E.R.Tooley (Victorian Regiment, BC) as a “Gentleman’s Cruiser”, MEKO was subsequently bought as a derelict vessel by retired shipwright Mike Haas of Squamish, B.C., in the early 2000s, as a project boat. He stripped the boat back to frames and started a rebuild that would take between 2005 – 2012. Mike passed away in …