Student Christine Jacobsen worked on the cutter VIRGINIA during summer Repair and Restoration courses in 2012.
Christine went on to work as a shipwright at The Center for Wooden Boats and at Northwest Seaport following graduation. She now works for the Port Townsend Shipwright’s Co-op.
We are exceedingly proud of Christine’s success in the boat building profession and wish her all the best in her growing career!
Click here for the Port Townsend Shipwright’s Co-op website.
Dana Linwood graduated from the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding in 1984 and has distinguished himself as a boat builder and wood worker. He is currently employed through Giddings Boatworks in Charleston, Oregon.
Journeyman Ships carpenter at Giddings Boatworks
Reedsport, Oregon
Shipbuilding
Foreman Ships carpenter
Giddings Boatworks
November 2012 – Present (2 years 1 month) Charleston, Oregon
Ships Carpenter
Giddings Boat Works
April 2012 – Present (2 years 8 months)
Designs and instalsl ship interiors.
Noah Flegeal graduated with the Class of 2013 at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding with an emphasis in Traditional Large Craft. He was part of the team that built the Whitehalls for the BBC and Discovery Channel to replicate John Wesley Powell’s expedition down the Grand Canyon, “Operation Grand Canyon with Dan Snow.” Noah had a background in English editing and culinary arts. He had worked as an editor and chef. After graduation he started freelancing as a woodworker and has completed some remarkable projects. Best wishes, Noah, with your new and exciting career!
You can see Noah’s website at: http://www.noahswood.com/
Evan Walsh – photo from Filson company feature story.
Evan Walsh graduated with the Class of 2013 with a focus on Traditional Large Craft. Evan distinguished himself at the school with the construction of the curved transom on the Hanson-designed Forest Service Scaler’s boat. After graduation Evan started working in the marine trades in Port Townsend, WA. It was during that time that he was featured in an article for the Filson clothing company. You can read the entire article and see additional photos at the following link:
http://www.filson.com/filson-life/2014/02/trade-stories-wooden-boat-building-pnw/
Ben Feldman is a shipwright in Alaska. He graduated from the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding in 2013. Ben was instrumental in repairing the TRUANT class sloop for The Center for Wooden Boats www.cwb.org while a student in Traditional Large Craft at the School. (Seach on TRUANT in our photo stream here on Flickr to find pictures of Ben at work on that boat, which was recently delivered to the Center.)
Ben is also an apprentice luthier. We love receiving photos from him showing all the exciting projects he is working on.
Best wishes, Ben, on your varied and exciting career!
Chris Gilda graduated from the Contemporary Boatbuilding program at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding in 2013. Chris had a varied background as a hotshot firefighter and sailor. He held an associate degree in diesel engines and then graduated from the boat school with an associate degree in boat building. With his interest in tallship work he had many bases covered with his background and he was hired immediately after graduation from the school.
“Welcome aboard Spike Africa. She was built in 1977 by Bob Sloan of Newport Beach, California. Bob was known and respected throughout the world for his lifetime of experience on sailing vessels. His goal in building Spike Africa was to create the ultimate schooner.
Since her launching, Spike Africa has worked as a freighting and charter schooner on the west coast, Mexico and Hawaii. She has been featured in major articles in every important yachting publication, and universally praised as one of the most beautiful schooners built in modern times.
She combines the functional elegance of the 19th century coastal schooners with unobtrusive touches of modern luxury. Bob named the boat for Spike Africa, a seaman renowned as a living legend of the sea. Spike, the man, was known up and down the West Coast as the President of the Pacific Ocean.
Bob built Spike Africa not as a yacht but as a true working schooner, which in every detail combines beauty and grace with sturdy seaworthiness. It is this harmony of form and function that gives Spike Africa her timeless elegance.
Spike Africa has served as a support boat for some of the most important 1970’s and 80’s yacht races, has won honors in her own racing career, and has starred in films such as “Joe vs. the Volcano” with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, TV shows including Baywatch and Hotel, and numerous national advertising campaigns.
Starting in 2009 Spike Africa’s current owners have taken her through a complete refit. Many long time admirers of Bob and Spike’s participated with world-class skills in wooden boat building, rigging, finishing, and mechanical systems. From keel to topmast, every part of the boat has been renewed, replaced, or upgraded as required to bring her into Bristol condition. The goal of the restoration was to maintain the traditional character of every detail just as Bob Sloan envisioned.
Since the Stone Age, every generation has made incremental advances in the art of wooden boat building. Without our care, the skills developed over millennia will not be maintained, advanced or passed on as they were in a world when men spent careers working on wooden boats and in the yards. Our wooden boats are important. These boats and the art and skills that they represent must be saved.”
Marketing Manager at Flagstaff Local Works
Flagstaff, Arizona
Construction
Current
Deckers Brands,
Flagstaff Local Works
Previous
Dave Muscato Woodworking, Four Corners Cabinetry, Frameworks Timber
“Flagstaff Local Workshop is a place where people can design, build and create their ideas. This community workshop provides local craftsman, inventors, engineers, artists, and entrepreneurs with access to affordable design space. It includes tools not economically available to individuals at a monthly membership rate. Local Works will also provide public classes, and lectures in the areas of automotive repair, woodworking, machine work, electronics, art and similar vocational areas.”
Masaki Tabohashi graduated with the Class of 2013, having completed an Associate of Occupational Studies degree in Traditional Small Craft. His instructor was Jeff Hammond. Masaki loved working with wood and had great patience with the demands of wooden boatbuilding. He works for REal Carriage Doors in Gig Harbor, Washington and is part of a dynamic team there. We wish Masaki all the best in his evolving career in woodworking!
Cooper Parish was hired by the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding after graduating from the Contemporary Boatbuilding program. He and a team of 5 graduates completed construction on the Bob Perry designed “Sliver,” a 62-foot yacht.
As of 2014 he is working for Scaled Composites in
“Founded in 1982 by Burt Rutan, Scaled has broad experience in air vehicle design, tooling and manufacturing, specialty composite structure design, analysis and fabrication, and developmental flight tests of air and space vehicles.”
1984
The year Jim Ferris and Charlie Moore, graduates of the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding, launched the partnership of Edensaw Woods. They started the business in Jim’s yard with an old J.C Penny truck, some blue plastic tarps and a few hundred dollars.
“We are a specialty marine plywood and custom wood supplier that will deliver the quantities you require – for projects large and small.
Because we pride ourselves on offering the best, we stock only the highest quality lumber and marine plywood. But quality woods alone are not enough to meet the standards of exacting clients. To ensure your satisfaction, we are committed to providing our customers – from weekend craftsmen to commercial boat builders and millwork houses – with exceptional service. We gladly accept orders by phone, fax or email and are EDI capable. Our delivery trucks serve the entire Puget Sound region directly from Edensaw’s Port Townsend and Seattle facilities, including all shipping lines: rail, ocean barge and truck. And we are delighted to fill even unusual custom orders.
At Edensaw, we measure our success in terms of satisfied customers rather than board footage. Please accept our open invitation to Edensaw’s showroom! We would be honored to provide the wood products and services you need for your next project. Referrals are gladly provided on request.
Custom wood products are Edensaw’s forte. Thanks to our in-house millwork shop and vast selection of wood, we can design solid wood products according to your exact specifications. And because we individually hand pick lumber and wood veneer from our own stock for each order, you can rely on consistently high quality in every board and veneer.
We supply custom materials for yachts and houses of all kinds. Duplicating Victorian trim and siding patterns for homes on the National Historic Homes Register is just one example of the kind of project we welcome.
At Edensaw, we recognize challenges as growth opportunities.”
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Laura graduated in 2000, and co-owns the business Ravenstone Tiles, which creates decorative tile and does repair and restoration of artwork, furniture and historic artifacts.
Retired Commander Chuck Garrett shares tips about boat building with his children, Roland and Maggie.
Retired Commander Chuck Garrett will graduate from the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding in Port Hadlock on Wednesday, September 17 at 3 pm. The ceremony will be held at H.J. Carroll Park, 9884, SR 19 in Chimacum and the public is welcome to attend.
Chuck’s motivation to enter Boat School was inspired years ago by his uncle. He stated, “When I was a teen I worked in my uncle’s cabinet shop for a whole summer. It was something I really enjoyed and wanted to get back to someday.” He studied woodworking in high school, but dropped this interest after entering the military.
Chuck was in the Army for eight years and went on to complete a 19-year career in the Navy as a fleet pilot, operational test and evaluation pilot, adversary pilot and flight instructor. He started his training at Officer’s Candidate School in Pensacola, Florida. Then, after becoming a Strike/Fighter pilot, he was stationed in mostly desert locations in the southwest, including NAS Lemoore and NAS China Lake in California and NAS Fallon in Nevada. His last duty station was on Whidbey Island, which was his first tour of the Pacific Northwest.
“When we saw that I was going to retire and there was an opportunity to use the GI Bill®, I saw a link to the boat school online. It included Yacht Interiors instruction and that got my attention. My wife, Amy, thought it was a great idea. In fact she said,” You have to do this!” I guess the stars were aligned.”
“I came to the school not knowing much about boats except that they were previously something I had to land on. My initial interest was in marine surveying. Now I know that there are many opportunities to pursue with these woodworking skills – marine tech, boat building, boat surveying and even aerospace industries.”
Now Chuck’s life has entered a new phase. He will be home-schooling his 8-year old daughter, Maggie, and 5-year old son, Roland, through Home Connection. He is planning to home-school them for the next 12 years and will be staying busy with a combination of teaching, marine surveying, woodworking and boat building with youth.
For questions you can contact the boat school at 360-385-4948 or [email protected].
Bradley Suedekum graduated with the Class of 2014 from the Traditional Small Craft program. Bradley was instrumental in the building of the Batela and Davis boat projects that year. He was a steady force in the boat shop, always willing to take on tasks and do what was required to get things done. Bradley headed for Seattle after graduation it appears to have been hired at just the type of jobs he was looking for. Congratulations, Bradley, and best wishes with your new career!
Student Russell Bates is shown in this video taking the 2014 Grandy out on its sea trials. Russell said he was pulling as hard as he could to test the oars and the boat’s performance. You can see the energy he was putting into it!
This is a beautiful boat that was completed in Instructor Jeff Hammond’s 2014 Traditional Small Craft Program. Nice work, students!
Posted: Wednesday, June 4, 2014 3:30 am
Forget Noah, Neena Milton is building a boat.
Milton, a senior at Chimacum High School, takes two periods of woodshop every day. She started taking woodshop for the first time last year after moving to Port Hadlock from San Antonio, Texas.
With a free period in her schedule, she wanted to take an art class but the class was too full. Milton started looking for alternatives that would be similar to an art class and stumbled upon woodshop.
“I saw woodshop and I decided, oh, well, that’s interesting, plus it’s more physical work than anything,” said Milton, 18.
She tried it out and sure enough, she liked it.
Milton sees it as a great way to keep herself busy and enjoys “just being able to make things and make some interesting objects.”
She now navigates the woodshop like a pro, measuring and cutting pieces of wood for her boat at her own discretion, with little instruction from her teacher, Todd Miller, but it wasn’t always easy.
The Batela is a traditional Venetian boat, that is, developed in the Italian city of Venice. It is a flat-bottomed boat with a slight degree of rocker (meaning, the bottom is curved from bow to stern) to make it easier to row and control. Rowed standing up, it is essentially a cargo carrier or ferry.
The Traditional Small Craft class of 2014 under the direction of Master Instructor Jeff Hammond will build the boat.
The batela is approximately 30 feet long, and will be built largely of western red cedar over sawn frames.
This is an extremely interesting commission in that the boat was developed using design input provided by the owner in the form of sketches and commentary accompanied by video of Venetian batelae. Jeff drew the boat using that data, and refined it based on additional commentary and guidance to meet the owner’s direction.
Enrollment at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding is now open for the 2014-2015 school year. The new Enrollment Forms and School Catalog are published and posted online at the following link:
http://nwswb.edu/programs/enroll/
The Boat School has capacity for a new cohort of 55 students each year, the 12-month Associates Degree programs starting on or around the date of October 1 and ending the following mid-September.
Enrollment is managed on a “first come first serve” basis so don’t wait too long to send in your enrollment forms. They must be accompanied by a $300 payment to cover the $100 registration fee and a $200 tuition deposit. (The tuition deposit is refundable if you happen to cancel your enrollment before school starts.)
The Boat School keeps an extensive Housing List for enrolled students with over 9 pages of rental properties listed by owners who want to rent to students. Rents in our area go for about $400 for a studio apartment, $600 for a one bedroom apartment. If you wish to share housing, we will facilitate communication between you and the other students to consider arrangements such as renting houses together.
We welcome everyone to attend the School – retirees, recent high school graduates, second career explorers, veterans, vocational rehabilitation participants, women, and international students! Contact our Director of Education, Pamela Roberts, if you have any questions or if you need assistance. You can reach her at [email protected] or 360-385-4948 ext. 307.
Students Jessiah Worley, Chris Lindstam, and Alan Fenwick scrape epoxy off the interior seams of a boat that has recently been lifted off its mold.
The Lake Oswego boat is a wherry developed in Oregon by a Finnish boatbuilder for use on Lake Oswego. Two original boats are known, both maintained by The Center For Wooden Boats in Seattle WA. www.cwb.org
The Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding will build the boat during the 2014 Contemporary class of cold-molded construction. Instructor Jesse Long will lead students in building the boat using plans developed by CWB in the early 1908’s.
Student Bradley Suedekum helps propel the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding’s boat during the Port Townsend Rhody Parade. Helping are Executive Director Pete Leenhouts at the wheel, passenger Courtney (last name TBD), student Mark Paxton and Director of Education Pamela Roberts.
There is nothing more energizing than a high school marching band at Rhody Parade. Shown is the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding’s parade boat and team!
Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding student Mark Paxton enjoys attention at the Port Townsend Rhody Parade from the Sequim Irrigation Festival Royalty.
Our Boat School parade team awaits the start of the parade. L. to r: Executive Director Pete Leenhouts, students Mark Paxton, Bradley Suedekum and Courtney (last name TBD).
Director of Education Pamela Roberts shows off her maritime parade outfit.
Parade signs on the boat trailer help inform the community about educational opportunities at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding.
This Lake Oswego boat was built onto a mold constructed of thin “bead and cove” wood strips. The mold looks like an actual hull, but it really is just the form the actual boat is built onto. Strips of wood veneer are carefully measured and placed onto the mold and edge glued to each other to create the hull. The mold is waxed before the veneers are placed so that once the edge glue dries the hull can be easily removed from the mold. Shown are Instructor Jesse Long with students Chris Lindstam, Galen Brake, Jessiah Worley, Drew Larson, Lafayette Duvall. Nice work!
Congratulations on completing the keel of the CHAMBERLIN 36! Shown left to right are: Students Korey Ruben, Corey Rodgers, Cyrus Dworsky, Penelope Partridge, Ryan Wilmsmeier, Mussa Ulenga, Alden Rohrer, Instructor Ben Kahn, Reuben Ewan, Adrian Candaux, Jeff Lydston, Mike Lee and Alex Cox.
This big 36-foot long motor sailor was designed by designer Carl Chamberlin of Port Townsend, WA and modified for an owner in southern California. Construction began in January, 2014. It is being built at the School 2014-1016 by the Traditional Large Craft classes under the direction of Instructor Ben Kahn.
SEA BEAST, named after the owner’s favorite dog, is the second of these big motor sailors to be built, and was expanded six inches in beam to accommodate a Gardner 3L diesel engine.
Instructor Ben Kahn is leading construction.
The boat will be planked with port orford cedar planking over white oak frames on a purpleheart keel. The deck house will be built of fiberglassed marine plywood, and the masts and spars constructed of sitka spruce.
Student Noah Sturdy demonstrates how to caulk a boat seam.
Wikipedia: “Traditional caulking (also spelled calking) on wooden vessels uses fibers of cotton and oakum (hemp fiber soaked in pine tar). These fibers are driven into the wedge-shaped seam between planks, with a caulking mallet and a broad chisel-like tool called a caulking iron.The caulking is then covered over with a putty, in the case of hull seams, or else in deck seams with melted pine pitch, in a process referred to as paying.”
David Eckler graduated from the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding in 2007 and has been going strong every since!
He does artisan woodwork and custom boat building. He designs and builds wooden boat accessories. You can see his work and get his contact information at the following website:
Keep an eye out for the upcoming edition of the Small Craft Advisory for December/January 2015 – when a small article (a “blurb”) about David and his business development will be published!
“Tired of getting your foot tangled up in your anchor line? Tired of tripping over your water bottle and chasing it down just to get a drink of water?”
Go to David’s website and he’ll help solve these and other problems for you – with custom woodworking!
David’s advice for boat school students: “If you get an idea in your head about something, follow through with the idea and that way you can see if it will work – if it will come together into a viable business.”
