Hooked On Wooden Boats

The first interview in today’s podcast is with Steve Stone of Brooklin, Maine. I met Steve at the 2012 Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival and he is one of the founding partners of OffCenterHarbor.com video website. Steve grew up sailing, later studied filmmaking, and fell in love with wooden vessels along the way. Steve is super excited about the videos he is producing for OffCenterHarbor.com. The...

The first interview in today’s podcast is with Thomas Scheinpflug. Thomas crews on the Pacific Grace Schooner and was one of the shipwrights who built her, finishing in May 2001. Pacific Grace is owned and operated by the non-profit S.A.L.T.S. Sail and Life Training Society of Canada. The second interview is with Dave & Linda Burright of Albany, Oregon. Dave & Linda built a 26ʹ George Caul...

Today’s interview is with kayaker and boatbuilder Freya Fennwood. Freya grew up in Port Townsend and was hanging out at her dad’s boat shop (Pygmy Boats) from the tender young age of zero (wow!). At 18 months she recalls falling asleep between her dads legs while he was paddling the family kayak. At age 12, Freya had her own kayak and was doing multi-week outings with her dad in wilderness areas o...

Ten days ago, I attended the 36th Annual Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival. I recorded 3 hours of interviews with more than a dozen people over that three day period (and had an absolute blast – btw!). This week I am playing four short recordings/interviews (total of 37 minutes): 1. The first HOWB Podcast “Meetup” on record. HOWB fans Ralph Duncan, Christina Cogan, and Korey Ruben. 2. Tug Buse sm...

This past weekend while at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival, I had the privilege to interview Lin and Larry Pardy. Lin and Larry have been sailing the world since they built their first boat Serrafyn and launched her in 1968. Their second build was Taleisin launched in 1983. They have written and published numerous books, and sell DVD’s and other great products at their website: LANDLPARDEY....

This week I drove 45 minutes to CAMA Beach State Park where the Center for Wooden Boats refurbished and opened a Boathouse in 2008 in conjunction with WA state parks refurbishing and opening this 30+ cabin resort. This is one beautiful spot. CAMA Beach was a water front resort from 1935 to 1980, at which time it was closed. In the good old days, you could drive your car to this resort, rent a cabi...

This episode is a follow up to last week’s August 2012 SCAMP Camp Part 1 (see HOWB 049). I had the privilege to sit down and ask John Welsford some more questions about the SCAMP design and how the Camp was going. John gave some keen insight into the function and benefits of a pram bow, and talks about the success of the inaugural Camp. I also interviewed Cliff Sell who was a student at the Camp....

This episode is an interview with Scott Jones recorded during the August 2012 SCAMP CAMP at the NW Maritime Center in Port Townsend, WA. I had met Scott on previous outings to Port Townsend, but never had the opportunity to sit down with him and get the inside scoop on his passion for wooden vessels. This interview was on the 4th day of the 2 week SCAMP CAMP where an eclectic group of ambitious fo...

This episode is an interview I did with John Welsford while at the NW School of Wooden Boat Building’s 31st anniversary celebration. I met John for the first time that day, and he was more than agreeable when I asked if I could interview him for HOWB. So we sat down for almost an hour of recording, and I was having the time of my life! John is a native of New Zealand and loves his country. Boatbui...

This past week I interviewed Sean Koomen, instructor at the NW School of Wooden Boat Building. Sean grew up in Minnesota. At the age of 14 he discovered one of Dynamite Payson’s books at the library, and was soon falling trees for lumber to satisfy his boat building curiosity. Fast forward to college and Sean was in serious study mode to become a concert cellist. Spending 5 hours a day practicing...

On July 15th, I attended the Annual Maritime Heritage Festival in St. Helens Oregon. It was a really fun festival with a wide range of traditional vessels of all sizes and shapes including the Steamboat Portland, a wooden PT Boat 658, and other fun boats. This is a really fun show that I recommend you put on your calendar for next July! Two of the interviews I did that day are included in this pod...

Ten days ago, I attended the Annual Maritime Heritage Festival in St. Helens Oregon. It was a really fun festival with a wide range of traditional yachts, small craft, vintage cruisers, the Steamboat Portland, a wooden PT Boat 658, and other fun boats. If you can make it to the show next year, put it on your calendar – it is a great event. I recorded a total of 6 interviews, 2 of which are include...

This past weekend I attended the Annual Maritime Heritage Festival in St. Helens Oregon. It was a really fun festival with a wide range of traditional yachts, small craft, vintage cruisers, the Steamboat Portland, a wooden PT Boat 658, and other fun boats. I will be sharing several interviews I did at the festival over the next few weeks and displaying some of my photos below. The first interview...

Two weeks ago I attended the Center for Wooden Boats 36th Annual Festival and interviewed Lloyd Shugart. Lloyd and his wife Theresa have owned “Flying Cloud” – a 52ʹ Ed Monk Sr. designed Bridgedeck Cruiser – since 2002. She was built in 1937 at the Grandy Shipyard on Lake Union in Seattle for Francis Brownell Jr. (president of First Seattle Bank), WA. When the Shugarts purchased her, she was in ma...

This week I attended the Center for Wooden Boats 36th Annual Festival and interviewed Darryl Carver. Darryl and his wife have owned “Dulcinea” (nick named “Roz”) – a ’28 L. Francis Herreshoff designed “canoe yawl” since 1999 and are her 3rd owner since she was built in 1983 by Hank Chamberlain on Lopez Island, WA. L. Francis first wrote about this style of boat in Rudder Magazine after seeing Cano...

This week I interviewed Fred Smith and Ron Downs of Smith’s Boat Shop on Samish Island, WA. Fred and his brother Don built their first boat in 1960 – a 24ʹ plywood catamaran that could be beached easily on the tide flats in front of their house. Next they built an 8ʹ dinghy with plans they bought from US Plywood for 50 cents. Soon the neighbors began noticing the boats Fred and Don had built and s...

This week’s show is an interview with Josh Colvin, editor of Small Craft Advisor Magazine. I met Josh in Port Townsend during the Pocket Yacht Palooza, and had a blast throwing questions at him left and right. Josh has been boating since he was a kid, and grew to love sailing early in life. As a young adult, he would sail with his Uncle and others on larger sailboats and was having fun doing it. B...

This week’s show is an interview I did with Howard Rice while at the 1st Annual Port Townsend Pocket Yacht Palooza in May. I was delighted to meet Howard for the first time and have the extraordinary opportunity to sit down with him one to one and ask any question my probing mind could devise! During the questioning Howard described how he has been one with the water since birth, and how his desir...

This week’s show is 3 interviews I did while at the 1st Annual Port Townsend Pocket Yacht Palooza in May. First up is Marty Loken of the Island Boat Shop in Nordland, WA. Marty is one passionate guy and shares his thoughts on the first Palooza, his personal boats, and what’s happening at his boat shop these days. The second interview is with Lee Bjorklund. Lee talks about his sloop OPUS – an 18.5ʹ...

This week is a continuation of last week’s interviews that I did at the 33rd annual Olympia Wooden Boat Fair in Olympia, WA. The first interview is with Hal Van Gilder, president of the Olympia Wooden Boat Association. Hal grew up boating and his dad built a 39ʹ wooden cabin cruiser in 1932 which Hal owns and maintains to this day. This boat is “federally registered” due to some past history and s...

I start this podcast with Pete Leenhouts of the NW School of Wooden Boat Building. Pete discusses the upcoming August 6-17, 2012 class in Port Townsend where the Boat School and the NW Maritime Center along with Howard Rice and John Welsford will oversee a group of students build their own gorgeous microcruiser – SCAMP. Next I share some highlights of the Olympia Wooden Boat Fair which I attended...

This week’s interview is with Peter Crim of the Wind and Oar Boat School in Portland, OR. I first met Peter at the PNWMHC meeting in Portland, OR in April, and then reconnected with Peter while he was at the CAMA Beach facility of the Center for Wooden Boats attending a 3 day session “Teaching With Small Boats”. Peter grew up on the east coast, and from the age of 6 his parents owned and sailed wo...

Two weeks ago, I met Chris Finks (Maritime Heritage Coalition) at the Portland Yacht Club to personally tour several of the historic and wonderful wooden boats his friends own and moor at the Yacht Club, and to talk shop (wooden boat shop of course). One of the chaps I interviewed that day was Chuck Kellogg. Chuck has been a member of the Portland Yacht Club since his youth when he first learned s...

Chris grew up in California, and at the ripe old age of 5, went water skiing behind his neighbor (Fred’s) wooden boat – a Century water ski boat. Soon after, Fred traded in the Century and bought a fiberglass replacement. Chris was appalled that Fred would trade such a beautiful wooden vessel in for a plastic boat. Thus began his love for wooden vessels. As a young adult, living on the east coast,...

This week I interviewed Master Mariner (USCG 1,600 ton all Oceans Auxillary-Sail license), Rigger (master rigger of five Tall Ships) and Sailmaker (owner of Force 10 Sailmaking and Rigging) Wayne Chimenti. Wayne has over 30 years of sail training on 20 different schooners and square riggers – including a 13 year stint as Captain of the Puget Sound based 1913 schooner Adventuress. Wayne is actively...