Loading…
Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival 2026
Venue: Cruising Stage clear filter
Friday, September 11
 

9:30am PDT

Paths of Stewardship: How Wooden Boats Endure
Friday September 11, 2026 9:30am - 10:30am PDT
A live, moderated conversation in the style of Beyond the Boat — but not recorded — featuring four panelists:•    A shipwright•    A wooden boat owner•    An operator/captain•    A representative from a maritime education programDuration: 60–75 minutesAudience Q&A included.
ConceptWooden boats endure not simply because they are beautiful, but because people choose to carry them forward.
This session explores how different roles — ownership, craftsmanship, seamanship, operations, and education — intersect in sustaining wooden boats. Each panelist represents a distinct path, yet all share responsibility for continuity.The conversation centers on:• Why individuals choose to commit to wooden boats• How responsibility shapes that commitment• What continuity requires from each role• How these paths overlap in real life
The goal is not technical instruction, but reflection. Wooden boats are more than vessels. They are places where people learn patience, care, accountability, and stewardship.
This session invites the audience to see wooden boats not as isolated projects, but as living ecosystems sustained by interconnected choices.
Why This Fits the FestivalThe Festival celebrates craftsmanship, tradition, and community. This conversation highlights the human dimension behind that celebration.Rather than focusing on tools, techniques, or restoration specifics, this session examines:• The values that sustain wooden boat culture• The shared responsibility between builders, owners, operators, and educators• The lived experience behind preservationIt speaks to current owners, aspiring stewards, and younger generations entering the field.
Intended ToneConversational, thoughtful, accessible.Honest about challenges.Grounded in lived experience.
This is not a lecture. It is a guided conversation designed to invite the audience into the deeper story of continuity.
Speakers
avatar for Leroy Lewis

Leroy Lewis

Leroy Lewis grew up in Northern Maryland, where he began sailing at age eleven on the Chesapeake Bay and nearby lakes, developing an early fascination with maritime history.After a 39-year career in engineering at Boeing, he returned more fully to that lifelong passion through wooden... Read More →
Friday September 11, 2026 9:30am - 10:30am PDT
Cruising Stage

11:00am PDT

Inspiring the next generation of Riggers
Friday September 11, 2026 11:00am - 12:30pm PDT
Panel discussion of how various riggers stumbled into the field, some of their experiences, how they pass along the knowledge to newcomers
Speakers
avatar for Courtney Andersen

Courtney Andersen

Courtney Andersen was born in Minnesota of good Viking heritage.  Water has always been in his blood: first the small and Great Lakes, then travels following the Mississippi in the wake of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn.  As a child his family moved down to the Gulf Coast of Mississippi... Read More →
Friday September 11, 2026 11:00am - 12:30pm PDT
Cruising Stage

1:00pm PDT

Sailmakers panel
Friday September 11, 2026 1:00pm - 2:30pm PDT
Moderated by Mark Shiner
Allison Wood, Emiliano Marino, 

What does it mean to devote your life to making sails?
Part craft, part engineering, part problem-solving, sailmaking sits at the intersection of tradition and performance — shaping the way boats move through the world. Join a conversation with working sailmakers as they share stories from the loft, discuss the evolution of the craft, and explore what it takes to build sails for everything from traditional wooden boats to modern voyaging vessels.
In many parts of the world, traditional sailmaking is becoming increasingly rare. Here in Port Townsend, it remains a vibrant and active part of the working waterfront.
Speakers
avatar for Mark Shiner

Mark Shiner

Orkney College Maritime Studies Dept. University of the Highlands and Islands.
Mark Shiner has been on the water since around the age of 6. He holds a commercial skipper’s UK Certificate of Competence which is similar to the US Coastguard “Six Pack” and is also qualified to instruct skippers to that level.Mark began sailmaking in the Orkney islands, Scotland... Read More →
Friday September 11, 2026 1:00pm - 2:30pm PDT
Cruising Stage

3:00pm PDT

The Compelling Power of Adventure
Friday September 11, 2026 3:00pm - 4:00pm PDT
What do most adventurers have in common? How do they ensure they get to base camp fit and ready to take on the actual challenge they set out to accomplish? How do they handle fear? And how do they handle the fear of failure?  This talk is for a more general audience but of course is based on my sailing experience.
Possible other topics – Storm Tactics, preparing for and handling storms at seaHow to encourage your partner to share your dream?Creating an unstoppable boat.
Speakers
avatar for Lin Pardey

Lin Pardey

L Pardey books
Lin Pardey literally wrote the book—many books—on cruising, inspiring generations of sailors to embrace the ethos of go small, go simple, go now. Over several decades, she and her late husband, Larry, built two boats—the 24-foot Seraffyn and the 29-foot Taleisin—and sailed... Read More →
Friday September 11, 2026 3:00pm - 4:00pm PDT
Cruising Stage
 
Saturday, September 12
 

9:30am PDT

Puget Sounds Golden age of Yachting through the Lens of photographer Ken Oiler
Saturday September 12, 2026 9:30am - 10:30am PDT
As 20th century designers and builders created our area’s maritime history, photographer Ken Ollar was there to record it. For over half a century, he sped through the Salish Sea aboard his motor vessel Shutterbug, capturing the action at Swiftsure, fleet and PIYA races, Opening Day celebrations, unlimited hydroplane races, and yacht club cruises. His collection of over 10,000 negatives, slides, prints and ephemeral, is now part of the Gig Harbor BoatShop’s Northwest Fleet Photography Collection. Using archival protocol, a team of volunteers are digitizing images for a publicly accessible database. As the body of work grows online, the historical importance of it becomes more apparent. Ken Ollar’s stunning work is filling our maritime past with narratives and details never heard before. We will share gems and highlights with you through projected images and stories.
Speakers
avatar for Jan Hein

Jan Hein

Gig Harbor BoatShop NW Fleet Photo Collection
Jan Hein is a freelance writer/photographer and ocean sailor. Her work has appeared innumerous publications including Classic Boat, Wooden Boat, All At Sea, 48° North, andSail. She served as press reporter for Antigua’s Classic Regatta, and is a frequentphoto contributor for Northwest... Read More →
avatar for Richard Gray

Richard Gray

Gig Harbor BoatShop NW Fleet Photo Collection
Richard Gray is professor emeritus in the Department of Art, Art History & Design at the University of Notre Dame. He has exhibited his artwork in solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally for forty-five years. Gray is also former chair of the National Board of Directors... Read More →
Saturday September 12, 2026 9:30am - 10:30am PDT
Cruising Stage

11:00am PDT

Docking for 2 people, 1 line, Any Conditions, Full Control
Saturday September 12, 2026 11:00am - 12:00pm PDT
Docking with dynamic springlines has become a lost art - with tragic results in marinas all around the world, not the least in the Pacific Northwest. Captain Phyllis Woolwine is leading a charge to bring these powerful skills & strategies back. Owner of Shearwater University - Maritime Education, “Captain Wooly” specializes in training boaters of all types to use springlines for maximum safety and boat control while leaving and returning to the dock - every time, in any conditions, with just two people. This seminar provides an overview on the physics of the core springline strategy we apply on all boats, every time, no matter the boat type or scenario.
Speakers
avatar for Phyllis Woolwine

Phyllis Woolwine

Shearwater University
Captain Phyllis Woolwine is a leader in Maritime Education in the Northwest, and owner of Shearwater University in Anacortes, Washington.  “Captain Wooly” and her crew specialize in custom instruction on boats of all types and sizes.  Outstanding instruction on the water, online... Read More →
Saturday September 12, 2026 11:00am - 12:00pm PDT
Cruising Stage

12:30pm PDT

Yacht Designer Panel
Saturday September 12, 2026 12:30pm - 2:00pm PDT
Every boat begins as an idea.
Join a conversation with yacht designers as they explore the balance between beauty, seaworthiness, performance, and practicality in designing boats for real people and real waters. From traditional wooden craft to modern interpretations, this panel offers insight into the thinking, creativity, and experience that shape the boats we admire — and the lives built around them.
What makes a boat feel “right” on the water? Come find out.
Speakers
avatar for Sam Devlin

Sam Devlin

Devlin Designing Boatbuilders
Sam Devlin has been in business as a boat designer and builder for 45 years and is widely regarded as one of the world's leading designers of Stitch-and-Glue boats. His design catalog includes more than 100 pleasure and commercial watercraft from a 6'6" dinghy to a 62' blue water... Read More →
avatar for John Harris

John Harris

Chesapeake Light Craft
John C. Harris designed and built his first boat, a rowing shell, at age 14. John is celebrating his 30th year at Chesapeake Light Craft. As CLC's owner he's designed some of the most popular wooden boats in the world, and shipped more than 50,000 build-your-own-boat kits. His interests... Read More →
Saturday September 12, 2026 12:30pm - 2:00pm PDT
Cruising Stage

2:30pm PDT

Spar Makers Panel
Saturday September 12, 2026 2:30pm - 4:00pm PDT
Moderated by Ernie Baird, 
Brad Seamans, Pete Stein, Daniel Hawkins
Wood spars are at the heart of traditional sailing craft — shaping the way a boat moves, balances, and feels at sea. But what exactly goes into designing and building a wooden mast or spar?
Join a conversation with experienced spar makers as they explore the art, engineering, materials, and traditions behind these beautiful and highly functional structures. From selecting wood to shaping spars for vessels that sail everywhere from local waters to Cape Horn, this discussion offers a rare glimpse into a craft still actively practiced here in Port Townsend.
Saturday September 12, 2026 2:30pm - 4:00pm PDT
Cruising Stage

4:30pm PDT

Spars Rigging and Sails- working together
Saturday September 12, 2026 4:30pm - 6:00pm PDT
Moderated by Allison Woods
Megan Hudson, Mark Shiner, Chance Bates, Justin Lathrop, Ossian Smith, Bruce Tipton

A sailing rig only works when every piece works together.
Sails, rigging, and spars are deeply interconnected — each affecting how a boat performs, balances, handles, and endures at sea. It’s far more complex than simply ordering a sail or stepping a mast. Sail shape influences rig loads, rigging affects sail trim, spars bend and flex under pressure, and every detail must work in harmony.
Join working sailmakers, riggers, and spar makers for a fascinating conversation about the collaboration, craftsmanship, and problem-solving required to bring a successful sailing rig to life — from traditional wooden boats to modern voyaging vessels.
Speakers
avatar for Alison Wood

Alison Wood

Port Townsend Sails
Alison grew up sailing the Intercoastal waterways of the Southeast. She was part of an all female crew to deliver an Irwin 43 from Key West to Annapolis for the famous Tanya Abei. She completed an apprenticeship with Brion Toss Yacht Riggers before joining the crew of Port Townsend... Read More →
Saturday September 12, 2026 4:30pm - 6:00pm PDT
Cruising Stage
 
Sunday, September 13
 

11:00am PDT

How We Learned Sailmaking: A Brief History
Sunday September 13, 2026 11:00am - 12:00pm PDT
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!)

Speakers
avatar for Mark Shiner

Mark Shiner

Orkney College Maritime Studies Dept. University of the Highlands and Islands.
Mark Shiner has been on the water since around the age of 6. He holds a commercial skipper’s UK Certificate of Competence which is similar to the US Coastguard “Six Pack” and is also qualified to instruct skippers to that level.Mark began sailmaking in the Orkney islands, Scotland... Read More →
Sunday September 13, 2026 11:00am - 12:00pm PDT
Cruising Stage

12:30pm PDT

Ghosts in the cabin: 80 Years Of Peter Duck
Sunday September 13, 2026 12:30pm - 1:30pm PDT
If you own a boat which was owned by a famous writer, if your father and mother owned her before you, if her other significant owners did adventurous voyages of a type you'll never even dream of, how do you cope with the feeling of inadequacy? Put it another way, how do you manage to care for the boat and have fun on your own terms, without feeling like an undeserving imposter? They are the ghosts on your cabin. An individually designed and traditionally built yacht is the work of many hands, all of them highly skilled, most of them poorly paid.  They are the forgotten people whose labour is too easily taken for grant ed and forgotten.Writing my new book about 80 years of Peter Duck, I'm trying to face up to some of these questions: lay the ghosts, celebrate the makers. It was teh Port Townsend invitation that started me on this quest, please come and join me.
Speakers
avatar for Julia Jones

Julia Jones

Golden Duck
Julia has been sailing all her life. That doesn't mean she's a particularly talented or adventurous sailor, just that it's an integral part of who she is. Her boat, Peter Duck, is also a part of her identity. PD is a wooden ketch built in 1946 for the Swallows and Amazons author... Read More →
Sunday September 13, 2026 12:30pm - 1:30pm PDT
Cruising Stage
 
Share Modal

Share this link via

Or copy link

Filter sessions
Apply filters to sessions.