This year’s class has done a terrific job on their skiffs! We can’t wait to see them on the water!
Bruce Blatchley, instructor, with his students l. to r.: Bobby Bowen, Matt Shaunnessy, Austin Hatch, Penelope Partridge, Michael Mullally, Alex Finn, Alan Fenwick and Bruce Blatchley. (Not pictured are Ryan Oswalt and Peter Flint.) These students are finishing up their first quarter at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding. During their initial quarter they study basic woodworking, drafting, lofting and skiff building.
Peter Bailey, instructor, with his students l. to r.: Rw Barrett, Andrew McGilvra, Peter Bailey, Johnathan Ishmael, Bradley Suedekum, Chris Carle, Drew Larson, John Sandoval, and Kristen Andrews.
Ben Kahn, instructor, with his students l. to r.: Jeff Lydston, Ben Kahn, Chuck Garrett, Alex Cox, Noah Sturdy, Chris Lindstam, Reuben Ewan, and Steve Kim. (Not pictured are Galen Brake and Glenn Quarles.)
Ernie Baird, instructor, with his students l. to r. Jacob Simmering, Lafayette Duvall, Mussa Ulenga, Ernie Baird, Adrian Candaux, Russell Bates, Caro Clark, Alden Rohrer and Gary Ragsdale . (Not pictured are Jessiah Worley and Mark Paxton.)
Jesse Long, instructor, with his students l. to r.: Jesse Long, Eric Kay, Mike Lee, Michael Voderberg, Cyrus Dworsky, and Caleb Underwood. (Not pictured are Alec Binder and Corey Rodgers.)
Students at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding take a short break after moving an entire truck load of lumber by hand! Shown l. to r. are Matthew Shaunessy, Korey Ruben, Penelope Partridge, Alex Finn, Mark Mullalley, Mike Lee, Alden Rohrer, Corey Rodgers, Alan Fenwick and Caleb Underwood.
Boat building has certain challenging physical elements that really help when you have a team ready to complete the task. This lumber was quickly put in place because of the high energy work of this cooperative team of students. Nice work!
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Every year at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding we build an exciting lineup of boats for either commission or for speculation. This year our students have been building the: –
This boat was designed by the American designer H.C. Hanson in 1957 for the US Forest Service as a Scaler’s Boat. Scalers determine the amount of board feet of lumber in each log cut by a timber crew. Three of these vessels were built commercially in the mid-1950’s to this design for the Forest Service for use in the western United States.
Under the direction of Instructor Ben Kahn, students at the School will continue construction on this boat during 2014.
The boat is 28 feet long with a beam of about 8 feet. It has a draft of four feet, and displaces about 4.5 tons.
Our boat is being built as a cruising vessel. It will be planked in aromatic port orford cedar from southern Oregon, over white oak frames. The house sides will be mahogany. The boat is driven by a 54 hp Yanmar diesel engine, and will be customized to the owner’s desire’s before delivery.
This is the first boat in the Sentinel-24 class of designed by Stephens/Waring Yacht Design of Belfast, Maine (SWYD) www.stephenswaring.com .
The Sentinel-24 class is designed to be a comfortable and stylish sloop with the beautiful lines of yesterday’s classics paired with modern underbody design and state-of-the art rigging.
This vessel represents Stephens Waring Yacht Design’s signature approach to distinctive, fun and high performance sailing with more than a touch of historic grace. –
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is contracting with the School for the construction of three traditionally-built Whitehalls to be built as replicas of the boats used by John Wesley Powell and his group during their first-ever descent of the Colorado River in 1869. The BBC will film a reenactment of the voyage later in 2013.
The School is building one 16-foot Whitehall, the “Scout Boat”, and two 21-foot Whitehalls. Though Powell launched four Whitehalls onto the river in 1869, one was lost in rapids shortly after the descent began.
This 62-foot strip-planked day sailor was designed by the renowned designer Robert Perry for a client here in the Pacific Northwest. www.perryboat.com/
Bob Perry has been very pleased with the School’s progress on the boat, and has remarked more than once that he feels we are doing a superlative job on the construction.
The boat was built on molds cut by Turn Point Design in Port Townsend.turnpointdesign.com/
The hull is western red cedar sheathed in 24-ounce fiberglass. WEST System products have been used throughout the project. www.westsystem.com/ss/
Master Boatbuilder Ray Speck drew the lines for this classic Puget Sound small craft while working as a boatbuilder in Sausalito CA. Ray saw that the harbormaster, Sid Foster, was using a particularly sweet little 12′ 5″ lapstrake skiff to row around Richardson Bay.
Ray took the little skiff’s lines with Sid’s permission, and over time, developed them into a range of skiffs from 13 to 18 feet long. Ray estimates he’s built just about one hundred of these beautiful boats so far in his nearly 45 year career as a boatbuilder, many of them while teaching at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding. The Sid is an excellent sailor as well as a very nice boat to row. A rare combination.
Planked in red cedar, framed with white oak and trimmed with a combination of Honduras mahogany and Sapele this is the most recent of many built at the school. –
The Davis Pulling Row Boat is carvel planked. The Davis boats were built by a native family in Southeast Alaska. It is believed that they were modeled on the Pelagic Sealing Skiffs and ship’s boats. They were very popular and used in the hand trolling fishing industry of the early to mid part of the 20th century. The lines were taken from an orginial boat that is in the Center for Wooden Boat’s permanent collection in Seattle. – –
Grandy Skiff, lapstrake planked in western red cedar and framed in white oak.
The cross bars (called “cross spalls”) keep the boats shape against the press of the white oak frames until the interior is constructed. — at Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding. –
During WWII George Calkins built boats for the war effort. After the war he began focusing on smaller plywood boats. Prams, rowboats, dories, runabouts, race boats, and cabin cruisers emerged from the CalkinsCraft shop at Delake, OR (now Lincoln City).
Over a ten year period George built over 1,000 plywood boats. Besides being successfully built and used by recreational boaters all over the world, BARTENDERS have been used extensively in Australia by harbor patrols, state police, and Australia’s famous surf rescue teams. Several oil companies have utilized the BARTENDER in the offshore oil industry to get them through rough sea conditions that most other small craft would not handle.
This photo gallery shows students in the 2014 fall quarter working on their basic woodworking skills. They have completed various projects, including spars, mallets, half-laps, dove tail joinery samples, and carving a rabbet into a model stem. Many of these students had little to no experience with tools and woodworking before starting this program. We have a dynamic class of 61 beginning students this year who will be joined by an additional 6 returning students for winter quarter. It’s going to be an exciting year with some interesting boat projects and dedicated students!
Stephens/Waring Yacht Design – Sentinel-24, a high performance cold molded day sailor on the water.
Port Hadlock, WA, August 15, 2014
The Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding (NWSWB) in Port Hadlock is excited to announce a new collaboration with the Northwest Maritime Center in Port Townsend. Due to significant growth in the Contemporary Wood Composites Boatbuilding program at the School, the Northwest Maritime Center will host approximately 18 of the School’s full-time vocational students in their Port Townsend boat shop for winter and spring quarters. This partnership will span from January through June 2015.
“We are thrilled about this collaboration with the Northwest Maritime Center. They have made it possible for the School to expand immediately to meet increased enrollments in the Contemporary program. This will give us time to thoughtfully consider how we should more forward,” said Interim Director David Blessing.
The Contemporary Wood Composites Boatbuilding program was started in 2005 as an addition to the well-known Traditional Boatbuilding programs. Students learn modern techniques, including strip-planking, plywood construction methods, cold-molding and epoxy applications.
A recent contemporary boat from the NWSWB is the Stephens/Waring Yacht Design – Sentinel-24, a high performance cold molded day sailor. The boat was built under the leadership of Chief Instructor Sean Koomen. “It’s an ideal boat to build with our students. They gain experience in a variety of different skills and techniques, including laminations, vacuum-bagging, fiberglass in different weights and foam construction,” said Koomen. The boat has teak decks laminated over plywood sub-decks, all set off by a bright mahogany coaming. She was launched at the 2013 Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival and is currently for sale.
The school is accredited through the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges (ACCSC) and is approved for Federal Student Aid and Veteran’s Educational Benefits. Students earn an Associate of Occupational Studies (AOS) degree in one year through an intensive schedule of instruction from 8am to 5pm, Monday through Friday.
Jake Beattie, Northwest Maritime Center Executive Director shared, “The Maritime Center was built to be a resource for this community- and this leverages all of this investment for the greater good. It helps the Boat School accommodate more demand and eighteen more students will be prepared for their next job. This is a partnership we can all be proud of.”
The Bob Perry-designed yacht, “Sliver,” was picked up today and is on her way to Seattle where her mast will be installed and the finishing work will be completed. Sliver was a three-year Contemporary Wood Composite Boatbuilding project that touched the lives of many of our students.
We would like to thank everyone who was involved in her construction, especially Instructor Bruce Blatchley and his crew – Fred Shwiller, Jordan Primus, Kai Lorenz, Cooper Parish, Troy Craig and Amos Howe.
Nice job guys – you have much to be proud of. Good luck as you all launch further into your boat building careers! We will miss you. Please stay in touch!
The Traditional Large Craft program at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding will prepare you for employment in the field of wooden boatbuilding with an emphasis on large vessel construction. The knowledge and skill sets you’ll acquire in this program will enable you to join teams of boatwrights at an entry level, building vessels such as offshore cruisers, motoryachts, workboats and replica craft of many types.
Completion of the 12-month AOS degree program in Traditional Large Craft will prepare you for intermediate to advanced level employment opportunities. Those who enter the workforce specializing in Yacht Interiors joinery will find work in yacht manufacturing companies that have cabinet divisions and in related woodworking trades, such as furniture making, architectural woodworking and musical instrument making. Graduates specializing in Repair and Restoration will find intermediate to advanced employment in traditional boat shops, ship yards, educational institutions and maritime museums.
Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding graduates of the Traditional Small Craft diploma and degree programs join teams of boatwrights at an entry level, building vessels such as offshore cruisers, motoryachts, workboats and replica craft of many types. Small Craft graduates also find entry level employment in maritime museums, historical societies, schools, and non-profit organizations that build, maintain and operate traditional small craft.
Completion of the 12-month AOS degree in Traditional Small Craft with the addition of 400 level courses will prepare you for intermediate to advanced level employment. Repair and restoration skills are sought after by boatyards and interior joinery skills apply to vessels of any size or hull material.
In this photo slideshow you can see the contemporary wood composite boats built at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding. Included are photos of the Stephens/Waring designed Sentinel 24 day sailor and 62-foot Bob Perry yacht.
Students who graduate from the Contemporary Wood Composite Boatbuilding program go on to work in boat building and repair, as well as yacht construction and design and even in the rocket industry!
A new TV documentary about John Wesley Powell’s famed exploration of the Grand Canyon has come to Washington for authentic — if ill-suited — wooden watercraft.
LONG BEFORE any modern-day, quinoa-gobbling Californian had the notion, John Wesley Powell may have been the first nonnative to advance the concept of sustainability in the American West. As an early director of the U.S. Geological Survey, he fought — unsuccessfully — to curb the 19th-century homesteading frenzy until the government could ensure there was enough water to go around (which there wasn’t).
However, the one-armed Union Army veteran’s big claim to fame was an adventure in which he brought a pocketknife to a gunfight. So to speak.
What he brought was a handful of alarmingly ill-suited wooden boats on the first recorded exploration of the Grand Canyon’s wild rapids…
And there’s a Northwest connection. The BBC commissioned the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding, in Port Hadlock, Jefferson County, to construct for the program three replicas of Powell’s boats.
Click here for PDF of the article (the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding has paid a fee to the newspaper for this PDF distribution).
Hondo coaming installed with teak cockpit sole and teak thwarts!This year’s Contemporary Wood Epoxy Program students did a fine job building the Sentinel’s hull and deck. After a couple final details in the boat’s cockpit construction, it’s on to laying the teak deck. With a mast delivery in mid-July and sails being sewn as we speak, the excitement for this year’s Wooden Boat Festival is really starting to rev up! Stayed tuned for more details on the 24’s construction this summer.
Instructor Ben Kahn with students Sam Hunt, Mark Stuber, and Shawn Huston launch their Whitehall boat.
The launch for the BBC’s Whitehalls was a great success on June 13, 2013. Three Whitehalls were launched – two large and one smaller. The two large Whitehalls were built in the boat shop of Instructor Ben Kahn with students:
Gina Bonneau Noah Flegeall Chris Brobst Asa (TBD) Shawn Huston Patrick Carlisle Sam Hunt Mark Stuber
Asa, Noah and Gina put the green Whitehall boat through its sea trials.
Instructor Jeff Hammond led construction on the smaller red Whitehall with students:
Paul Lyter Zach Simonson-Bond Masaki Tobahashi Randy Roberts Steve Stanton Carey Anderson Griffin Myers Dan Bramberger Jeremy Nugent
Misaki Tobahashi, Paul Lyter and Zach Simonson-Bond put the red Whitehall through its sea trials.
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) asked the Boat School to build three traditionally built Whitehalls as replicas of the boats used by John Wesley Powell and his group of explorers during their first-ever descent of the Colorado River in 1869. The BBC will film a reenactment of the voyage later in 2013. Good luck on the trip and we hope that these beautiful boats serve this project well!
The 2013 Contemporary Wood Composite students move closer to finishing the Sentinel 24. Here are a couple photos of the completed deck frame and completed subdeck installed!
The cockpit was constructed in a separate area from the boat and then lifted into the deck beams. The boat will be finished with teak laminated to the sub deck.
Deck frame, subdeck, and toe rail in on the Sentinel 24!
Students have been making impressive progress on this boat – we are proud of their accomplishments.
I don’t believe that I could ever get tired of framing boats. It seems like the boat just appears in front of you. Of course it doesn’t. There has been a lot of work to get to this point. We have spent hours lofting, making molds, fitting and bolting the back bone together, but this is when it all comes together. You slather linseed oil and turpentine on the frames and get the steam box rolling. For a few hours you’re bending oak. It never ceases to amaze me how oak gives itself up to the bend. Then, at the end of the day, the shape you have been thinking about for months is there in front of you. Everything you do from this point just makes the boat come more alive. Now we move on to planking.
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) asked the Boat School to build three traditionally-built Whitehalls as replicas of the boats used by John Wesley Powell and his group of explorers during their first-ever descent of the Colorado River in 1869. The BBC will film a reenactment of the voyage later in 2013.
The School is building one 16-foot Whitehall, the “Scout Boat”, and two 21-foot Whitehalls. Though Powell launched four Whitehalls onto the river in 1869, one, the 21-foot “No Name”, was lost to the river shortly after the descent began.
Join us as we congratulate our instructors, Ben Kahn and Jeff Hammond, and their hard-working students when we launch these magnificent boats into Port Hadlock Bay.
The U.S.F.S. used these boats to get the scaling crews to the log rafts at remote harvest sites. Their job was to determine the volume, or “scale” of the timber; A scaler would measure each log, identify the species and deduct for defects to estimate the amount and quality of lumber in it. The scalers would tie up their boats to the log rafts and, wearing their cork boots, they would walk the rafts measuring and grading the logs in the water.
These boats were designed as rugged sea boats, built to serve in coastal waters of the North Pacific. Hanson had a great eye for work boats, and these have the classic lines of the Northwest work boats that he is famous for. The first boat we built never failed to draw a crowd.
I slightly re-designed the second boat; Stretching it to 28′ 6″ and adding a foot of beam. I also carried the beam further aft increasing beam at the transom. I did change a few of the construction details, most notably by widening the harpins so I could set the house on the deck. This will allow us to build the house off the boat next year.
This classic Pacific Northwest design is from the board of George Calkins, and was drawn in 1963. It was the biggest of the Bartender class, which was designed for the rough surf off Washington and Oregon’s Pacific coast. The design was so successful that it was accepted by the U.S. Coast Guard for use as its surf rescue boat.
We are building this boat with a mid-section stretched 16 inches – one frame bay – to yield a design length of 27 feet 4 inches, and will raise the hardtop over the steering console an inch or two for the owner’s headroom. It is framed in sitka spruce, planked with marine plywood and sheathed in 9-ounce fiberglass below the waterline and 6-ounce glass above.
Students in the 2012 Yacht Interiors class July – September 2012 built most of the interior of this boat. The hull was begun on January 7th 2013 by students in the Contemporary class and rolled upright on May 10th, 2013. Work is continuing on this beautiful, powerful boat as of this writing and we expect the boat to be completed by the Contemporary class of 2014 in time for the 2014 Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival.
The Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding is located in Port Hadlock WA, on the Olympic Peninsula, and is a private, accredited non-profit vocational school.
Our mission is to teach and preserve the fine art of wooden boatbuilding and traditional maritime crafts.
You can find us on the web at http://northwestboat.wpengine.com .
You can reach us via e-mail at [email protected] or by calling us at 360-385-4948.
This was a great week in the Bartender boat project. Quinten has a scheduled interview with an employer, the boat exterior is coming along quite nicely, and we’re getting close to actually rolling it over!
You can see more photos about the Bartender at the following link:
– – 42 N. Water Street, Port Hadlock, WA
360-385-4948 [email protected]
boatschoolstore.com
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Greetings!
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Because of your interest in the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding, I am sending you this important announcement below. I would greatly appreciate it if you would share this message with your friends and acquaintances.If you have any questions after reading, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
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We want to help make everyone’s wooden boat-building dreams come true!
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Pamela Roberts
Director of Education and Students Services Administrator
Open Enrollment has begun at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding for the 2015-16 school year and space is limited – so we encourage those interested in applying to contact us now for priority placement. Our new cohort of students will begin classes on October 1, 2015 and graduate the following September 16, 2016.
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The boat school provides an individualized, private school experience within a close-knit community of traditional wooden boat builders. A wide variety of students attend and are welcome in the school, including those pursuing careers as future shipwrights, as well as retirees exploring long-delayed dreams of working with wood. No previous woodworking experience is required.
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The Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding is accredited as a private institution of higher learning through the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges (ACCSC). Our full-time programs are all accelerated – the 12-month Associate Degree of Occupational Studies (AOS) as well as the 9-month diploma programs – helping students quickly move forward in their career and educational goals, as well as keeping school affordable.
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Teacher to student ratios (1/12) ensure that individual attention and care are given to each learner. Students flourish in our traditional, supportive apprenticeship model. Our team of highly experienced teachers have been instructing boat-building students for a combined total of over 100 years.
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Located on a pristine harbor of Port Townsend Bay, students enjoy the school’s rich natural setting on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State.
Our facilities include historic buildings, as well as new workshops for contemporary projects.
How can we help make your wooden boat-building dreams come true?
Contact Us! – Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding [email protected] 42 N. Water Street Port Hadlock, WA 98339 –(360) 385-4948 ext. 307
Gabriel works on restoring the Truant, planking areas that suffered from rot. These types of projects at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding help prepare students for work in Repair and Restoration of boats.
The 12-month Associates of Occupational Studies degree program at the Boat School, includes the option to study in the summer quarter one of two class offerings – either Yacht Interiors or Repair and Restoration. Gabriel is well on his way to a bright future as a woodworking craftsperson.
We have a range of scholarships at the Boat School, as well as other scholarships you may be eligible for. E-mail Student Services at [email protected] or call 360-385-4948 ext. 307 for additional information.
Federal Income Tax credits can help offset the cost of attending College. Visit http://www.irs.gov and enter “education credits” in the search box for details.
