Hooked On Wooden Boats

This week’s podcast is a little change of pace. First off, I talk about the Pacific Northwest Maritime Heritage Council meeting that I attended last weekend in Portland, OR. While there, I was able to reconnect with some friends from the Grays Harbor Historical Seaport (Cheers Les!), Dan Leach from Center for Wooden Boats in Seattle (Hi Dan!) and meet some new folks. One of the new wooden boat ent...

When Christian was a child, her family moved every 2-3 years to follow her dad’s transfers as an USAF pilot. But Seattle was considered the family’s home base. They spent a lot of time water skiing with friends, and paddling about in their Willits Canoe made on Day Island near Tacoma, WA by the Willits brothers. Christian’s dad was the Pacific Northwest Ski Champion for 7 years and helped form the...

Steve grew up in Minnesota canoeing and water skiing with his family and friends. As a young adult he visited his brother in Washington state, found Port Townsend and decided that was his sweet spot. After moving there, he met Bob Prothero (late founder of Northwest School of Wooden Boat Building) and enrolled at the boat school, so, in his words, he could “fix my own boats”. After graduating, he...

Carol had done very little boating, and no sailing as a kid in Camas, WA. But that all changed in 1972 when the family’s doctor and wife invited her to sail with them to the south Pacific on their new 42ʹ Cascade sailboat. Hasse eagerly hopped on board and a few days later they hit gale forced winds of 70 mph and 30ʹ seas off the Oregon coast. But there were few worries for this hearty group who l...

Eric has a rich maritime heritage. His family moved from Superior Wisconsin to the Seattle area in 1965 so his dad could work in the Seattle shipyards. Soon after, his father built a wooden fishing boat and headed to Alaska. The boat was a 30ʹ Bristol Bay double ender made for the rough waters of Alaska. When Eric was just 10 years old, he spent the summer in Alaska fishing with his dad. In his ea...

Interview – Christine & Jeffrey Smith of Northwest Navigation Christine had dreamed of having a bed and breakfast since she was a kid, and David loved wooden boats ever since living in Maine where he was a deck hand and eventually captained on several wooden schooners with Windjammer Charters. Their passions and ideas blended together and they determined to have a “floating B&B” ala a wood...

Tim took a keen interest in woodworking as a youth visiting his brother in Alaska, and building hickory dog sleds for racing. Then Tim’s other brother took him on his maiden sailing voyage off the coast of Georgia in wooden sail boat. Tim was hooked. Soon after Tim enrolled at the NW School of Wooden Boatbuilding, completed the program and began working in boatyards from Alaska to Port Townsend. A...

When Brion took geometry in high school he thought to himself “I’ll never use this crap”. But he soon became fascinated with knots and realized that geometry was his friend. He was super proud of his first two knots (learned from poorly drawn illustrations in an urban survival book) – the sheet bend and square knot. When he showed these knots to a good friend, the friend cracked open his 690 page...

Julia took a keen interest in wooden boats while attending The Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA and taking the integrated studies “Marine History and Crafts” program which was focused on wooden vessels. During the program the students learned boat design, lofting, building and heard outside gurus such as designer Bob Perry. Shortly after college, Julia landed at Mystic Seaport, CT apprentici...

This week I interviewed master shipwright and instructor Bruce Blatchley. Bruce spent a lot of time on the water in canoes as a kid on the east coast. After high school, military service, college, mountain guiding, rock climbing, and building houses, he turned his attention to wooden boats. He first attended the NW School of Wooden Boatbuilding, then worked locally in the trade fine tuning his ski...

In today’s episode I talk about the Sassafras 12ʹ Canoe project I am working on. I'm building it using plans from the book “The Canoe Shop” by Chris Kulczycki.  The first thing I did when I purchased the book was to cut the binding off with my band saw, then have Office Depot spiral bind the book (cost $4.00) so I could lay it open on my work bench.  A couple other things I did a little...

Interview: Sam Devlin – Devlin Boat I have looked forward with eager anticipation to interviewing Sam Devlin someday – and TODAY IS THE DAY. SWEET! The wooden boat lore surrounding Sam, his designs, and his dedicated boat building customers is far reaching! Two of the interviews I have done this year have been with Devlin builders/followers – Larry Cheek (Podcast 13 link) and Dale McKinnon (Podcas...

Interview: Tom Rogers & Bud Bronson – Tacoma Sea Scouts Am I the only boater that didn’t know the Boy Scouts have had a Sea Scout program since 1912? That’s right - 100+ years! The Sea Scouts take youth ages 14-21 and use maritime activities to teach leadership and values. Both the Odyssey (a 90ʹ 1938 wooden sailing yawl) and the Charles N Curtis (a 78ʹ wooden power boat built in 1931 for the...

In 1984, under the inspiration of the late author, educator, and waterway explorer Sam McKinney, RiversWest opened its doors in Portland, OR and began to offer camaraderie, classes, and cheap boatbuilding space in a large shed near the Willamette River at Oaks Park. In 2006, RiversWest realized its longtime dream of an on-the- water location and moved to Pier 99 on the North Portland Harbor channe...

Starting with competitive swimming (including trials for 1964 Olympics), then moving on to sailing, skiing, diving and cycling, Dale has always been adventurous and an ultra active athlete. But after a skiing accident in 1999 that shattered her left leg, Dale was looking for her next adventure – something with low impact to the lower body, but still a great workout. In Dale’s own words, here’s wha...

Michael “Tug” Buse grew up on the water. In fact, looking west from his parents’ Warm Beach (WA) home dining room, all you see is Port Susan bay and Camano Island in the distance. Beginning at the tender age of 10 months, Tug was getting sea legs on his parents’ wooden tugboat, the “Maggie B” while cruising around Puget Sound. Buse always wanted to build a little sister for Maggie B. He wanted a b...

This week was an interview Dee & Sara Meek of Oak Bay, WA. The Meek’s have the distinct privilege of owning the 68ʹ, 1890 wooden tugboat Elmore. They purchased her in 1990 after Dee read an article about a couple that had turned a tugboat into a live aboard. He convinced Sara they should buy an ocean going tug to live on. Shortly afterwards they found the Elmore on the Snohomish River in need...

This week is an interview with the exec. director of the Northwest Maritime Center and Wooden Boat Foundation – Jake Beattie. Jake began sailing an El Toro's when he was seven years old, spent time sailing the San Juans on his family’s sailboat, and then went off to college. After college he decided to “volunteer” for 2 weeks on the Tall Ship Bounty back east. One and a half years later he finishe...

This week I interviewed Larry Cheek of Whidbey Island. Larry is originally from El Paso Texas and had never even seen a boat growing up miles from water. But after moving to the Seattle area as a seasoned journalist, Larry was given an assignment in 2002 by Sunset Magazine to attend and write articles on two wooden boat festivals – Seattle and Port Townsend, WA. Larry attended both shows and got “...

This week I interviewed Bill Mahler, (former) director of the NW School of Wooden Boatbuilding. Bill tells me the story of how the school got started: After building wooden boats in the Puget Sound area for more than fifty years, master shipwright Bob Prothero had learned a lot about the business that wasn’t in any textbook. It was his dream to find a way to pass this lore along to new generations...

This week I interviewed Marty Loken who owns the Island Boatshop in Nordland, WA (the boatshop is now closed and Marty is "retired"). Marty grew up around boats in Ballard, WA and from a young age, followed in the mentality of his dad – if you want a boat you simply build it. Marty was busy building his first wooden boat – a small pram – when he was 10 years old. Over the years he has refined his...

The second weekend of September this year I attended the PT Wooden Boat Festival for the 12th time. It was a blast as usual and the weather was sunny and HOT! And PT rarely gets HOT. On this podcast I share the highlights of the day I spent there with my son Josh. If you've never been to the Festival, its high time you go!! -------------------------- You can contact me at woodenboatdan@gmail.com t...

This week I interviewed Rich Kolin who lives on Camano Island, WA. Rich began building boats as a young lad in California under the tutelage of influential builders and designers John Gardner and Pete Culler. Eventually he moved to the northwest where he continued to hone his boat building and designing skills, began teaching classes and wrote several books. Oh, and did I mention he learned the ar...

This week I interviewed Eric Harman of Harman Canoes located in Oso, WA. Eric builds wood canvas canoes following proven North American methods developed in the late 1800’s. Eric tells the story of how he fell in love with canoeing in the 1970’s, built a cedar strip canoe, and then found his first wood canvas canoe and never looked back. --------------------- You can contact me at woodenboatdan@gm...

Today's interview is with traditional Nordic boat building expert Jay Smith. He is the founder of Aspoya Boats in Anacortes, WA . In his youth, Jay lived in Norway several years and apprenticed with a veteran Nordic boatbuilder there learning the trade from the bottom up.  Since then, Jay has been building and teaching others the traditional art of clinker (or lapstrake) boatbuilding. This bu...