Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival 2026

Mark Shiner maybe owns a copy of every English language book about sail making published in the last 250 years. More importantly, he has read them, so you don’t have to! But when, and more importantly, why, did we start putting the art of sailmaking into print? How did the thousand-year tradition of apprenticeship training go head-to-head with “book learning”? Join Mark, an island sailmaker, teacher and researcher, on a walk through time, starting with an Elizabethan eviction notice in 1571, meeting some interesting characters along the way, some good books and some dreadful books, and ending with a look at Mark’s favourite text, the Sailmaker’s Apprentice by Port Townsend's own Emiliano Marino. (and if you made the Ditty Bag in chapter 1, bring it!)