Small Boats
How to Get Involved
Around the Pacific Northwest there are any number of opportunities to plug into the growing world of small boats, including:
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Watercraft, Chesapeake Light Craft, Devlin Designing and Boat Building, Small Craft Advisor, and others. Over the past few years, local boaters have started the Port Townsend Pocket Yachters – who proudly admit they have “No officers, no dues, no bylaws, no prizes or other signs of organization.” But despite being happily un-organized, the Pocket Yachters offer a list of informal on-the-water gatherings. Each July the group hosts the Port Townsend Pocket Yacht Palooza, a free celebration of inventive small-craft design held at the Northwest Maritime Center and co-sponsored by the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding; Small Craft Advisor magazine; the Northwest Maritime Center; the Puget Sound Chapter of the Traditional Small Craft Association; the Port Townsend Marine Trades Association, and Sage Marine. Mark your calendars: The third annual Pocket Yacht Palooza is July 19-20, 2014.
The Port Townsend Pocket Yachters, pocketyachters.com The Traditional Small Craft Association, Puget Sound chapter. tsca.net/puget/ The Center for Wooden Boats, a small-craft maritime museum on Lake Union, in Seattle. cwb.org Gig Harbor Boat Shop, which has offered boatbuilding classes and on-thewater events to the public. gigharborboatshop.org Rivers West Small Craft Center, a small-boat organization in Portland, Ore., offering classes, workshops and boating events. riverswest.org The Oregon Coots Chapter of TSCA, which has lots of small-boat events throughout the state. www.groups.yahoo.com/group/MessaboutW/ Wooden Canoe Heritage Association, Northwest Chapter. nwwoodencanoe.org
Here are additional publications, schools, non-profit organizations and blogs related specifically to smaller boats: A Buzzards Bay Sloop nears completion at the Northwest Maritime Center. The lapstrake sailboat was designed by the late Pete Culler, a legendary small-craft designer. Photo by Marty Loken
So, it’ll be great to see a big collection of small craft at this year’s Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival – with more to come in future years as the current boom in small watercraft takes hold. In the meantime, as the Pardeys suggested, “Go Small, Go Simple, Go Now!”
(The author, who builds and restores small boats in Nordland, Wash., was one of the original founders of the Center for Wooden Boats. He is active in the Traditional Small Craft Association and Port Townsend Pocket Yachters, and serves as a volunteer wrangler of trailer boats displayed at the PT Wooden Boat Festival.)
The Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding, Port Hadlock. nwboatschool.org The Northwest Maritime Center and Wooden Boat Foundation, Port Townsend. nwmaritime.org woodenboat.org Small Craft Advisor magazine, with international distribution, published in Port Townsend. smallcraftadvisor.com Port Townsend Pocket Yachters club forum. http://www.groups.yahoo. com/group/porttownsendsmallboats/ Hooked on Wooden Boats (podcast interviews with Northwest small-craft builders and others in the field of wooden watercraft). hookedonwoodenboats.com DoryMan (blog on small boats, put together by Oregon small-boat nut Michael Bogoger). dory-man.blogspot.com Small Craft Skills Academy, offered in Port Townsend and elsewhere across the U.S., and launched by small-craft adventurer Howard Rice. smallcraftacademy.com
Come back and see us again soon! 2014 Annual Events
nwm Visit for o aritime th . even er activiti org ts all e year s and long!
March 1
Shipwrights’ Regatta
March 21-23
Spring Symposium
May 24-25
Cruising Skills Intensive
June 13-15
Classic Mariners’ Regatta
September 5-7
Wooden Boat Festival
Northwest Maritime Center
Home of the Wooden Boat Foundation
26 • 2013 Wooden Boat FestivaL
Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader