July, 2025
As promised, today I walked over to the Northwest Maritime Center and the Wooden Boat Center, all in one building. Port Townsend is know for old wood boats … new ones are still being built here, they are repaired here too (even really OLD wood boats, and old engines, and old steering systems, and all manner of any type of system on any old boat, they fix them here in Port Townsend), there are lots of old wood boats owned by people who live here who moor their boat in the large marina south of town. That major marina south of town has a huge haulout/repair facility (with lots of businesses and shipwrights who know old wood boats). The excellent Maritime Center and Wooden Boat Center are at the north end of town, right next to where I was camped. 🙂
Here’s the photo of the Maritime Center from a few days ago, that I took while standing outside my trailer.
And here’s the same view this morning. The door is open! And it looks like a great wood sailboat is just inside those large doors. I couldn’t hardly get my shoes on fast enough. 🙂
The sailboat inside that doorway was being repaired and restored and repainted here, by volunteers, by students, by paid staff. I’m not a sailboater, but I could tell it was beautiful.
I stood around outside a bit, finally found someone whom I could ask if I could come in. She said yes, please do, we love visitors!
Oh my I loved this place. The smell of the wood, the linseed oil and teak oil, the varnish, the smell of the machinery … all of it was so familiar to me after having owned and cared for my old wood boat for 18 years.
A power sander below, where you can sand small or medium sized bits of wood in any shape you want.
Woodworking tools below (this was one SMALL section of such tools). That wood panel with the word “SEATTLE” engraved in it had probably been taken off of a large wood boat that used to be moored in Seattle. And so it needed to go to another boat/ship. It’s customary to have the name of your “home port” on the stern of your boat, along with the name of the boat. So when you move the boat, or a new owner moves the boat, they change that sign that’s on the stern/transom of the boat.
Oooops! Is the photo below upside down?! Nope. 🙂 These rowing boats had been built here and were in the process of being finished but were stored this way to save space on the floor below.
How do you figure out how to shape the wood around the bow or the stern of a boat? Well, here’s one way …
The wood below had been used to plan/shape/construct the forepeak of a boat that was a bit larger power boat, not a row boat. My 40-foot Pied Piper was similarly built. The forepeak is the very forward-most part of the deck and the bow of the boat, where they meet, so the wood in the photo below is upside down compared to how it would be in the boat, but it’s a great example of how just that one portion of a wood boat is planned and built.
Tools, we need tools. Here is just one portion of the clamps used by people here … some LONG clamps and other medium clamps. All clean and tidy.
I walked through that room (sure took me awhile to do that!) and then I eventually moved on into a back room where folks were building small row boats and dories.
Look at these wood working tools. Each one is different, not one the same. And, still, the warm sweet smell of fresh wood in the air. And the knowledge that these folks take care of their tools, keep them clean and ready to use.
In one of the photos above in this room, you’ll see a small wooden boat in the background, one being built. Here it is below, photo taken looking straight on at the bow of the boat. The last bits of wood have been added/glued/screwed as part of the gunwale (pronounced gunnel).
Notice the different types of clamps that are installed opposite each other in order to create just the perfect amount of pressure.
There is so much old knowledge needed by people who do this work. There is so much knowledge of the wood, the fasteners, the type of glue, the tools, the designs, the stress on each part of a boat. This knowledge goes back thousands of years. It’s so impressive to see it in action still today. And yet … look below … there’s a computer laptop … new technology works too! 🙂
It was a pleasure to spend so much time here. A few people inside the buildings asked me what interested me there, asked sort of why I was there, nicely. When I told them I used to own and maintain a 40-foot 1939 wood power boat with the original engines, they said “come on in!” I was given free rein to the whole place.
Here’s the photo (below) from my previous blog post of the view of this building from the day of my walk in downtown Port Townsend.
Notice the totem pole. It was carved out of wood, the same as boats are carved/constructed from wood. More information about this totem pole, that was carved and donated by the S’Klallam Nation people, can be found here … https://nwmaritime.org/visit/where-we-work/about-our-campus/welcome-pole/.
Port Townsend has the oldest and largest wooden boat festival in Puget Sound. It’s now on my September 2026 calendar to drive there for a lovely long day of viewing the exhibits in these buildings, and viewing the boats that will be moored in the Point Hudson Marina. Some of the old wood power boats that will be there that weekend for that show are still owned and operated by people I used to know when I was a boater with my 1939 Matthews, Pied Piper.
One of the other super, absolutely super, wooden boat businesses near Port Townsend is the North West School of Wooden Boat Building, just a tad south of Port Townsend. They recently moved into a new, larger building. They are one of the two largest, best, most highly acclaimed wood building schools in North America, where students learn to design and build and repair wood boats. Probably my favorite webpage on their website is the one that highlights some of the people who have graduated from that school … https://nwswb.edu/alumni/.
I’ve mentioned here that there’s a large marina and boat/ship yard immediately south of Port Townsend. I’ve stayed in that marina too with my old wood boat, and have walked through that huge boatyard many times. I marvel at the work done there! Just to share one more thing, here’s a video (below, turn your sound on) of some work being done on an old wood boat that I’m very familiar with, Argonaut II. When I owned Pied Piper and had her moored in Seattle, my boat was moored right smack next to Argonaut II for many years. So when Jerry & Lee started up that old air-start engine, I listened and smiled and loved that sound. Today, Argonaut II is owned by Nicholas Verrochi, whom I may never meet, but whom I admire greatly for continuing to restore and maintain this terrific vessel. Argonaut II was “hauled” in that large Port Townsend boat yard just this past month (December 2025) for a LOT of work … here’s the video of just a sample of work done on Argonaut II … work that is also done on other boats when needed.
If you’d like to see the beauty of Argonaut II while she is cruising Puget Sound and up into Canada, go HERE. You can book a trip on her. I’d highly recommend it!
Oh, and here is a short video from Nicholas of the steps needed to air-start Argonaut’s engine … trust me, this is the short version! The two old gasoline engines on my boat were MUCH easier to start. 🙂
So all of that (above) is more about Port Townsend, and the area, and why it might be interesting to visit … from old wood boat stuff … to new and classic children’s toys … to delicious wine … to local artists … to gorgeous old homes … to extraordinary views of the water and islands … etc. I’ll be going there again in Towhee the Trailer, you can bet your boat’s bottom boot stripe!