About me
From an early age, Cooper‘s life has centered on being aboard and around boats. Growing up in Port Madison, a small but active sailing community on Bainbridge Island, has led to 35 years of racing and cruising sailboats on the Salish Sea, Inside Passage, and up and down the west coast. Cooper has delivered boats to and from Alaska, from Seattle to Auckland NZ, around Vancouver Island, and to the San Francisco Bay Area. Many of these trips showed him the importance of properly designed and installed systems by revealing what happens when they are not done with safety standards in mind. His work experience in a glass casting foundry for nearly a decade fed his passion for problem solving systems and fabrication. Welding, plumbing, and electrical systems were crucial in the foundry and often overlapped with his love for boats.Cooper first became aware of NWSWB in 1991, when he helped a family friend in the restoration of the classic 1936 6-meter Saga, and has since worked on many wooden boat restorations, engine repowers, updated rigging projects, and hull repairs. More than three decades later, he enrolled as a student in the Marine Systems Program during a year-long sabbatical from being a middle school communications teacher. He graduated with an even deeper love for boats and all of the systems that keep them operating safely and efficiently. He now teaches at the NWSWB.
