Life has conspired to keep me away from the water for a long time. The life sustaining qualities of water are beneficial to both body and soul. I get my boating in small doses so I am excited that The Wooden Boat Festival in Port Townsend, Washington is only a few weeks away. I have been experiencing the attractions of the Northwest maritime center vicariously through their website and via some excellent interviews on Dan Matson’s Hooked On Wooden Boats podcast.
I seem to experience the festival in different ways each year. Last year I got involved in the schooner race. This year I will focus on the boat building demonstrations and try to hitch a ride on several small craft. There are always more seminars that I want to attend than possible without a handy clone to team up with.
It will be interesting to see the latest programs going on at The Maritime Center. I remember seeing the first of John Welsford’s Scamp design being built there. They just recently completed the Scamp Camp. The program brought together ten individuals to build these amazing little boats under the tutelage of Welsford himself and some other very competent instructors. I’m hoping some of the products of this program will be on display. It would be interesting to see Scamp up close.
I also hope to interview a range of vendors of products and tools that relate to building boats. I will present them here for the edification of my readers who are inflicted with the building bug. Stay tuned as I hope to finally have more time to devote to Seaward Adventures in the future.
This years festival dates are September 7-9. For more information about the festival check out the Festival web site at http://www.woodenboat.org/festival/. To keep up on news from the Wooden Boat Foundation throughout the year “Like” them on Facebook. Entertain and educate yourself a bit with some interesting video on YouTube. Be patient the festival is right around the corner.
