Port Townsend’s Boatbuilding Legacy

The Working Waterfront

The local nautical trades created the Wooden Boat Festival 45 years ago. It was a brilliant mind of those already working here. Alice, my wife, and I came hera for the second festival because newsworthiness of the first one had reached us in Maine and California. We were separate of a hearty inflow of tradespeople around that time. Over the adjacent three years, respective large marine trades businesses were launched .
Wooden Boat Festival 1976 | Photo by Shaun McClurken
Wooden Boat Festival 2019 | Photo by Tom Hall
From 1985 to 1995, I worked for Admiral Marine Works build bad fiberglass yachts, starting with the 88-foot Crazyhorse and culminating with the 161-foot Evviva. At its launching in l993, it was the largest fiberglass yacht ever built .
There was no easy manner to launch the gravy boat we built at Admiral. We used the old gravy boat ramp in the corner of the Boat Haven and large house-moving dollies connected by cables to place the gravy boat at low tide. then we rolled the crouch dolly into the water system after the rising tide floated the austere. The Evviva was besides big for this and was launched over the beach by building a plywood “ road ” in front man of her on a recede tide.

A Smart Investment Serves the Community

In 1997, a collaborative campaign by the Port of Port Townsend and local marine trades businesses to service boastfully vessels prompted further economic investment. Our 300-ton elevation is still one of the largest publicly owned and operated nautical lifts on the west coast .
300-ton travel lift | Courtesy Port of Port Townsend
In 1999, six early Admiral employees established Townsend Bay Marine ( TBM ). I became the CFO. TBM was a general overhaul boatyard, construct, fixing and refitting boats until 2015 when we sold the facility to the Shipwright ’ s Co-op. We had more than 80 employees at our vertex. In 2009, we launched the mutant fisherman Cielo Mare. At 127 feet, it was the second largest boat ever built in Port Townsend. Our thriving nautical culture continues to attract artisans and dreamers to this day.

Townsend Bay Marine | Courtesy David King

A Public Port

We are all tied together by the Port of Port Townsend, created by the residents of Jefferson County in 1924. There ’ south significant ebb and flow in marine trades, and the 300-ton lift is identify to the resilience of our working waterfront. When TBM ’ sulfur joy boat commercial enterprise was killed by the fiscal crisis of 2008, sour in the Boat Haven shifted to commercial and fishing vessels and the larboard ’ s aerodynamic lift didn ’ triiodothyronine miss a beat .
Launching the Cielo Mare from the 300-ton lift at the Port of Port Townsend. | Courtesy David King

The Education Economy

In addition to the for-profit businesses, maritime-oriented non-profits anchor a unique department of education economy for Port Townsend and Jefferson County. The NW School of Wooden Boat Building is to Port Townsend marine trades what UC Berkeley is to Silicon Valley. The Northwest Maritime Center is leading the development of nautical department of education in public schools, preparing mariners as the boat school has been producing shipwrights. interim, the schooners Martha and Adventuress grace our bay. And the Port Townsend Marine Science Center teaches us to understand and appreciate it. These organizations are all character of Port Townsend ’ s boatbuilding bequest.

Lofting plans for a new boat project. | Courtesy of NW School of Wooden Boatbuilding
Fairing planks on the stem of a wooden boat being built. | Courtesy of NW School of Wooden Boatbuilding

A Maritime Community

Our working waterfront belongs to the people. The local anesthetic community has systematically chosen to protect it by excluding restaurants, resorts, and other “ urine enjoyment ” uses from the shoreline area, thus preserving it for uses that depend on access to the sea. Both marinas are populace open distance without locks at the drumhead of the docks. “ Mile Zero ” of the Olympic Discovery Trail is in the Port Townsend Boat Haven. Bicycles are angstrom common as pickup trucks. Workers and visitors intermingle. A tolerate pique of working in the Boat Haven is a slow-moving cable car driven by person appreciating the boats and the gravy boat work. Oh, and drive carefully—that ’ s me on the bicycle .
Written By Guest Blogger David King, retired CFO, Townsend Bay Marine
Port of Port Townsend Boat Haven
To learn more about visiting Port Townsend ’ s maritime residential district CLICK HERE .