Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival 2026

Whether it’s sailors griping about lack of wind, or powerboaters fearing steep and dangerous seas - the conditions in the Pacific Northwest present special challenges, due to the complexity of the many weather systems that interact in this region.  Captain Phyllis Woolwine owns Shearwater University - Maritime Education.  Speaking from 50 years of experience on the Salish Sea & Inside Passage, and 11 years providing custom training for hundreds of boaters of all types in these waters, she will provide a highly practical, science based, and interactive seminar on Pacific Northwest Marine Weather.  This topic is presented in a conceptual, non-technical manner that all boaters can understand and apply.
- What makes PNW marine weather so complex - and how can we make sense of it?
- Strategies to ensure that sailors get wind, powerboaters avoid dangerous seas, and all boaters use knowledge & strategies to stay safe, advantaging our crazy conditions.
  - Best sources & apps for marine weather - and the best ways to use them

The program will illustrate Viking culture and traditional ship construction, from harvesting trees to launch. Aspøya Boats in Anacortes, Washington drew a community of volunteers and shipwrights to accomplish a nearly insurmountable challenge. Valkyrie was launched in the spring of 2024 and now sails the Salish Sea in Washington State.

The sea doesn't care what gender you are. But other people do — or did. Grand yacht clubs banned female members, the Royal Navy rejected the WW2 Wrens, and even when leisure sailing was opening to a wider public, women's social and economic inequality made participation harder. My presentation will focus on some of the inspiring women, throughout the c20th, who  went to sea anyway. They were the pioneers whose spirit of independence led the way for others. Some names you will have heard of but too many were invisible or forgotten.  We can change that.

Solianna and her father Bruce spent six years —from  the time Solianna was age 13 to 19 — building a sailing dingy from scratch. They will recount the project from the design process to the harvesting of wood from the forests and beaches of Orcas Island to the construction of the standing lug sail.

Pacifica
The story behind the classic 1947 Sparkman & Stephens Yawl

In 1947, Avard Fuller, of the Fuller Brush family, had the 49-foot Sparkman and Stephens designed Eroica built in the Henry B. Nevins Boatyard, New York—she would later be renamed, Pacifica. Fuller and Stephens utilized what's considered one of the first extruded aluminum mast for a sailboat. This was just one in a series of breakthrough innovations found in Sparkman & Stephens yawls of the period that would change the course of yacht design.

The short film from nautical photographer Mark Albertazzi, relives the history behind Pacifica, her times on the East Coast, Mediterranean, and eventual move to the West Coast and its current home in Port Townsend, Washington. You’ll hear stories from those who have taken on the role of caretakers and their passion and perseverance to preserve one of the remaining classic yawls from the drawing boards of Olin and Rod Stephens.

Pacifica, is the third installment in a series of oral maritime history films by Albertazzi, with support from the Ancient Mariners Educational Fund, Ancient Mariners Sailing Society, and Maritime Museum of San Diego.

Long before the famous voyages of the 15th century, Scandinavian sailors had established a reputation as intrepid navigators and explorers. These seafarers, which today we call Vikings, are most famous for their raids upon the churches and towns of western Europe, but this was only a small part of their adventures across the Atlantic Ocean. Recent research suggests a much wider extent of exploration and settlement than previously thought, with intriguing new evidence appearing across a vast expanse of the northern hemisphere. In this talk I will introduce some of the lesser known aspects of the Viking Age, including their key contributions to maritime technologies, and discuss some ongoing mysteries regarding potential Viking presence in the high Arctic, Spain, and the Azores.

From a wooden boat and waterborne perspective, Leslie will take her audience on a voyage of Native history, loss and into our recent tremendous renewal of Native Canoeing strength as communities gather and traveling on the local Salish Sea waters once again. From research in library and museum photo archives, early explorers journals and ethnographies; as well as from searching to find and then make lines drawings from older representative canoes; right into recording Native Elders' own stories and hearing of community needs; she will share how communities found old growth, learned to carve and steam the great cedar into transformed canoes as the old masters knew how to do.  She'll present the excitement of "Bringing them canoes back" during the first PADDLE TO SEATTLE in 1989; and then a remarkable challenge for a 500 mile canoe pilgrimage ~ pulling all the waty up to Bella Bella, Canada.  And then land this presentation, by moving it forward to the rich gatherings of more than 100 canoes and six thousand Native folks now as the Tribal Journeys have matured.

It would be a slideshow presentation featuring descriptions of the class event, what it was like to build the boat myself, launching and sailing across the Atlantic to Antigua, the event itself and what it took mentally and physically to complete a circumnavigation on such a small vessel, systems, design and outfitting, as well as anecdotes from the high seas, followed by Q&A

The Viking Age (800-1050 AD) was a period of maritime expansion and transformation, shaping the lives of coastal communities from the Caspian Sea to Newfoundland. Explorers, fisherfolk, raiders, traders, and settlers travelled incredible distances over some of the most dangerous seas on earth, often multiple times within individual lifetimes. Although archaeological, linguistic, and genetic evidence provides us with the origin and destination points of these voyages, we know very little about what happened on the sea: what sailing and navigation techniques were used? What routes were followed? And why were the Vikings such successful seafarers?In this talk I will try to answer these questions by drawing on the results of my doctoral research project, in which I reconstructed Viking Age seafaring routes by conducting experimental voyages throughout Scandinavia onboard traditional Norwegian clinker boats. These voyages also helped establish the seafaring capabilities of the Vikings, allowing us to make more informed judgements about the geographical extent of their travels, and identify potential areas for future archaeological excavations. Finally, my research evaluated the relationships between indigenous North Americans and Viking settlers in and around Greenland, where the common pursuit of key resources led to cross-cultural tensions, just as it does today.

Sharing about the last year of learnings about woven sailmaking, the completion of the first sail and how it performed on the 33ft canoe. Sharing an update on the beginning process of the great voyaging canoe.

The Pete Seeger Sing-Along returns to the Festival for the 4th time. Pete was a wooden boat guy, so we decided the Wooden Boat Festival would be a good place to sing his timeless songs. Each year we fill the room with song and life, where every voice is welcome, lyrics are provided, and the spirit of Pete Seeger fills our souls. Songs are led by Tom Shindler and other Peninsula Musicians, but all of you are the real stars.

Captain Phyllis Woolwine, owner of Shearwater University - Maritime Education, will introduce powerful strategies for boat maneuvering - addressing boats of any size, in any conditions.  Most of the concepts will apply to all types of boats.  Specific strategies for controlling single engine vessels will be addressed, and if time, modifications for twin engines, outboards and stern-drives.  With core physics in mind, she will go over optimum strategies for maintaining full control of the vessel anywhere in the marina, in any conditions, including approaches to the dock.

Dreaming of doing an adventure race? Stuck in the rut of self-doubt? Don't be, come to this presentation and hear how to start adventuring by having an early midlife crisis and a daydream. Sharing lessons learned from running away on a Viking Ship a decade ago to coordinating multiple teams for the Kraken Cup in Tanzania. Then, the 2023 Race to Alaska, this presentation has tips and tricks for planning your first adventure race.  Wherever you are dreaming of going, it's more probable than you think.

It would be a slideshow presentation featuring descriptions of the class event, what it was like to build the boat myself, launching and sailing across the Atlantic to Antigua, the event itself and what it took mentally and physically to complete a circumnavigation on such a small vessel, systems, design and outfitting, as well as anecdotes from the high seas, followed by Q&A