Port Townsend - Grand Banks Yachts

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Launched in 1913 at Rice Brothers’ Yard in East Boothbay, Maine, the gaff-rigged schooner Adventuress is a common sight on Port Townsend Bay and beyond. Operated by Sound Experience—a local non-profit—Adventuress hosts youth education programs for over 3,000 young adults and adults annually. According to SoundExperience.org, the program is actively supported by hundreds of volunteers who help crew for school groups, public day sails, week long trips and continue the work of historic preservation and restoration. PT’S VINTAGE APPEAL Adventuress under sail, with a training group on board. Near the entrance to Port Townsend sits a welcome sign that bills this gem of town as a “Victorian Seaport and Arts Community.” That’s true enough, but far from the whole story. Port Townsend has not only acknowledged its maritime heartbeat, it has embraced and elevated and nourished it. Among its world-class boatbuilders and marine tradespeople, within the sparkling and relatively new Maritime Center, and throughout its residents, business and civic leaders, you’ll find saltwater and spar varnish running through the veins of this singular seaside town. Situated about as far northwest as you can go in the United States without plopping yourself into the vast Pacific, Port Townsend, Washington, is both a haven and a breeding ground for artists, furniture-makers, bakers, booksellers and boat builders. Its appeal is unmistakable: with towering Douglas fir trees and sweeping views over the entrance to Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Port Townsend offers something for everyone: a small movie theater and performing arts center, quality restaurants and grocery stores, art galleries, and even car-ferry service from the mainland if you’re planning to rendezvous with landlubbers. Port Townsend Shipyard, just west of the public marina, is one of the big attractions for seafarers; the 150-foot/330-ton might of their TravelLift brings many an impressive species of ship to its expansive grounds. It is often a fun diversion to simply walk the gravel yard and inspect the variety of ongoing projects on the hard. The local Wooden Boat Foundation and the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding both call the shipyard home, as do many of the marine businesses that cater to boat construction, repair, and restoration— with an emphasis on wooden boats, of course. Farther up the road into town, many of the beautiful Victorianera buildings stand proudly preserved as homes, B&Bs and other enterprises. A swoon in the town’s economy during the late 1800s prompted a population exodus that actually helped maintain Port Townsend’s charm rather than “renew” it, preserving it for over a century to come. As the economy improved during the 20th century, the town grew vital and vibrant, pulling in tourists by the ferryboatload. Today Port Townsend is as picturesque as it is quaint, sporting a full-time population of just ten thousand residents. Many of those residents have witnessed a renaissance over the past few decades; festivals attract visitors far and wide to celebrate everything from independent cinema and steampunk to rhododendrons and vintage cars. The most renowned event of all, though, is the annual Wooden Boat Festival, now in its 37th year. With more than 300 wooden vessels, dozens of indoor and outdoor presentations and demonstrations, a who’s who of wooden boat experts and thousands of wooden boat enthusiasts, it is the largest wooden boat festival in North America. SPRAY 2013 ANNUAL PRINT EDITION 67
PT’S VINTAGE APPEAL The festival takes place each year at Point Hudson Marina and the adjacent Northwest Maritime Center, where Jake Beattie is the enthusiastic and energetic young Executive Director. A jewel of contemporary design, the Maritime Center features contemporary, large-timber architecture featuring open spaces, breezeways, a café, chandlery, nautical library, and much more. This is Jake’s domain, and it operates as a unified social and educational meeting place. It serves as a modern example of the community business model, as six separate business entities share office space within its walls. It has a state-of-the-art training center for ship’s captains—or young, aspiring captains—to train in a virtual world complete with huge flat-screen displays and expensive software. It contains a beautiful Center for Wooden Boats, where just about anyone with the time can rent space, access tools, and mind-meld with other knowledgeable shipwrights (and in Port Townsend, knowledgeable shipwrights are the norm). Education has become a primary focus of the Maritime Center as well. Programs for troubled youth offer classes in shipbuilding from scratch; on my tour I saw the skiff that is used as the model for teaching these kids how to loft water- and station-lines, and mill and assemble their own boat from raw materials. In Port Townsend’s public schools, experiential education will soon take on a whole new shape and dimension. Jake, along with Port Townsend Schools Superintendent David Engle, have developed a plan to integrate teachings from the Maritime Center into the school system. The idea is “place-based curriculum that unifies learning along a central focus for a student’s entire school career.” In other words, why not use Port Townsend’s biggest geographic benefit—and this amazing new facility—to their full advantage? From the age of five to eighteen, kids in the local school system will be able to translate math, science, and history lessons directly into continues on page 73 PHOTO [Above, clockwise] PT’s old and new, represented in sailing dinghies; Port Townsend Salmon Club sign and pier leading out to the Adventuress in the background; Lots of beautiful handiwork on sale at the Maritime Center’s chandlery; Grade school student art pinned up on the walls of the Wooden Boat Foundation. OPPOSITE A collection of oars for the multitude of rowing skiffs and shells that are housed in a separate space. GRAND BANKS YACHTS • SPRAY MAGAZINE • 2013 ANNUAL SPRAY 2013 ANNUAL PRINT EDITION 69
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