Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival 2026

Launched in 1930 as a luxury yacht for Hollywood icon John Barrymore, serving as a patrol vessel in WWII, and eventually becoming the world-famous flagship for the Northwest's most iconic towing family, the 120-foot Thea Foss is a living monument to Pacific Northwest maritime history. Keeping a 96-year-old classic viable and efficient requires a careful balance between preserving her heritage and upgrading her capabilities.

In this seminar, we profile the fascinating lineage of the Thea Foss and dive deep into her latest upgrade: the installation of a massive lithium battery bank and a Victron 3-phase inverter system. We will pull back the curtain on the engineering challenges of retrofitting advanced energy technology into a vintage vessel. From balancing large AC loads and managing automation logic to achieving the ultimate onboard luxury—complete silence at anchor.