Working Waterfront
A PROSPERING PORT page 3
SHIPYARD REPUTATION SWELLS page 5
ONE STOP SHOP page 10
A DAY BY THE BAY page 11
Supplement to the Wednesday, March 6 issue of the Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader
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The Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader
Port sees increase in heavy lift use, shipyard activity Active community, open yard attracts ships from across the region
people here is our costs; our costs are lower,” Pivarnik said. He added that while the port does charge for getting a boat out of the water, they let shipowners work on their boats themselves. “There are a lot of boatyards that are offering free haulouts. However, they have to do all the work on the boat, so what that says to us is that haulout is really included in the labor costs for putting a new engine in your boat,” Pivarnik said. He said since the port allows boat owners to work on their boats, or contract with a variety of the local marine trades, the port has to recoup maintenance costs for the docks and lifts somehow. “The issue is we don’t work on boats, we haul boats out, so we have no way of recovering costs other then hauling the boat out,” Pivarnik said.
By Tristan Hiegler of the Leader
P
ort of Port Townsend officials are calling 2012 their best year for their heavy lift, which means shipyard work is on the rise. “Last year was our best year ever since we built it,” Port Deputy Director Jim Pivarnik said of the 330-ton mobile boat hoist. “The shipyard is doing very, very well, and we attribute that to the fishermen,” Pivarnik added. “The fishing fleets have done very well this year and they understand this is their livelihood and their business so they need to maintain ... their boats and make sure they’re always top-notch.” The heavy lift handled 143 lifts in 2012, up from 123 in 2011 and 101 in 2010. The Port of Port Townsend has a reputation for being affordable, Pivarnik said, bringing in boats from the entire region. “The first thing that drives
The 78-foot, 135-ton Pelican sits in the Port of Port Townsend’s heavy lift. Port officials have called this the port’s best year for the heavy lift. Photo by Tristan Hiegler
The Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader
See HEAVY LIFT, Page 4 ▼
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night, Pivarnik added. He said despite some metal thefts in the past couple of years, the yard is relatively secure. “For the most part we have a pretty safe environment in there, and people do watch out for everybody else’s property,” he said.
WAITING LIST
The SeaHawk gets her bottom cleaned on the wash pad at the Port of Port Townsend Boat Haven, which has the facilities that allow boat owners and operators to meet state environmental guidelines. Photo by Robin Dudley
HEAVY LIFT: Building reputation ▼ Continued from page 3
He added the port offers competitive prices for getting a boat out of the water compared to other ports.
HELPFUL COMMUNITY Pivarnik said Port Townsend is also attractive because of its sense of community and its open yard setup. He said more than 400 skilled marine tradespeople operate on port property. “An owner can bring his boat in here and literally get it from stem to stern done,” Pivarnik said. “Very few boatyards have that depth of marine trade background, so this community that’s developed over the last 40 years is one that really has some synergy to bring people here.” He added many of the marine trades cooperate on large projects and recommend other local businesses for jobs they can’t complete. “That whole community really brings it together as a ‘one-stop shop.’ That sense of community is really what I think makes the Port of Port Townsend unique,” Pivarnik said. Chris Chase, vice president of the Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-op, said he believes the “collective workforce” of the port brings enough talent to the table
“I think the marine trades is a wordof-mouth industry and Port Townsend has a reputation throughout all the industries as a place you can get it all done.” Chris Chase vice president Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-op to attract vessels from across the region. “The whole Port of Port Townsend I’d say, collectively, is a very talented group of people,” Chase said. “I think the marine trades is a word-of-mouth industry and Port Townsend has a reputation throughout all the industries as a place you can get it all done.” Chase said the co-op itself is a full-service business that handles woodworking, electrical work, mechanical fixes and fiberglass repairs. “There’s nothing we would turn away from. We do it all,” he said.
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Chase added boat owners have plenty of options when looking for marine trades in Port Townsend, with dozens of shipwrights available. He said the competition between the various marine trades is friendlier than one might expect. “We utilize several of the other businesses ... it’s a friendly competition, but I think we utilize each other,” Chase said. “I think that’s a strong selling factor for the city of Port Townsend – it’s a friendly place to be.”
Pivarnik said a moorage slip at the port is a coveted thing. He said several years ago, people could have expected to receive their spot in five years, whereas today, efficiencies have been made to process the waiting list faster. “I don’t know exactly what’s happened or where these people have gone. We now have a waiting list of 125 people [a low number historically] ... and I have 18 empty slips right now,” Pivarnik said. Whenever a slip becomes available, he said people on the waiting list are contacted in order. He said many pass on slips because their plans to buy a new boat fell apart, they sold their boat or something else cropped up that changed their schedule. “We’ll go down systematically through the list and for one reason or another people don’t want to take the slip,” Pivarnik said. “I’ve said it in the commission meetings – I think a lot of our waiting list is fabricated, not in a mean way, but in a way that people want to have a place.”
Staying on the waiting list requires a $25 annual fee, Pivarnik added. He explained that some of the empty slips are kept open to attract out-of-town boat owners as well as for maintenance needs. He said 75 percent of the business in the boat- and shipyards at the Port Townsend Boat Haven comes from non-locals. “We do service all of our locals, but we really service the greater community, to Alaska all the way down to Seattle,” Pivarnik said.
UPCOMING PROJECTS Pivarnik said the port is accepting bids to repair the Commercial Basin until 1 p.m., March 21. He said the $500,000 project involves extensive maintenance starting in July, which is optimal because the fishing vessels that utilize the basin will be up north. “It’s not a new marina, but we’re putting in a half a million dollars to make sure it lasts another 15 years,” he said. The port’s overall strategy is to continue slow, steady growth, Pivarnik said. Big expansions aren’t in the works during the economic recession, he said. “That’s our plan: Watch growth, be very mindful of the market and take care of what we got,” Pivarnik said.
OPEN YARD Pivarnik said many boatyards are chained up overnight and only open to boat owners from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. He said the Port of Port Townsend has a different approach. “The commission has been, in the 12 years I’ve been here, very adamant that our docks will always be open, there are no locks on our docks, and our yard will always be open,” Pivarnik said. He said it’s not unusual for boat owners to work throughout the night, as long as all outside work is stopped by 10 p.m. “But people can work inside; they can varnish inside. If they want to work inside at 2 a.m., we allow that,” Pivarnik said. An armed security guard patrols the yard throughout the The Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader
Reputation, skill make Port Townsend a draw for boat projects love and attention: large or small, wooden to steel to composite, recreational to commercial.
By Robin Dudley of the Leader
Y
ou can’t swing a fender around here without hitting someone whose livelihood revolves around boats; the place is crawling with experts in the marine trades. There are fishermen, shipwrights, ship-specific engineers, plumbers, electricians and welders; canvasworkers, riggers, sailmakers and blue-water sailors; commercial captains, navigators, sail-training educators, artists, writers, photographers and even cooks in our marine trades network. “Reputation is a big thing in this world, in our boat community,” said Joni Blanchard, 25 years here as a boat finisher. “It’s a very cohesive and interplaying community amongst the boat trades. Many of us are longtime peers and friends; you get to know who’s who when you’ve been around. It’s a longtime-cultivated, highly graded scene.” And that’s why it’s one of the best places in the Pacific Northwest to bring your boat for
AN ORIGINAL
These graduates of the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding (from left) Christine Jacobson, Chris “Zeal” Stohlman, Ossian Smith, Blaise Holly and Leland Gibson all worked on the schooner Adventuress, hauled out at Haven Boatworks for a centennial restoration. Photos by Robin Dudley
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Among the boats on the hard (on land in the boatyard or shipyard) at the Port of Port Townsend is the Eileen O’Farell, shining with a new coat of red bottom-paint, new zincs, and a freshcleaned propeller. Jim Peacock has owned the wooden boat for 45 years, buying it in 1969 when he was in his 20s and eventually converting the fishing troller into a cruising sailboat. He has taken it to Puerto Vallarta, and to the Kuskokwim River and Bethel, Alaska, working on a fisheries research contract for the U.S. Geological Survey, he said. “The previous owner fished it for 20 years with his family,” Peacock said, adding that the boat, launched in Tacoma in 1950, “is known all over Alaska as a troller.” Peacock has plenty of stories. “I feel like the grandfather of the wooden boat movement because I had the first shop here See PROJECTS, Page 6 ▼
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John Nash of Port Townsend Rigging spends the morning at the masthead of the Beagle installing halyard blocks, a storm trysail track bracket and a solent stay.
PROJECTS: ▼ Continued from page 5
with Mark Burns in the early 70s.” That shop was Port Townsend Boatworks, and some of its shipwrights, including Jim Lyons and Leif Knutson, went on to be founders of the Shipwrights Co-op and others to start the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding, Peacock said. In the early 1980s, he said, Port Townsend Boatworks built “the last new wooden troller ever.” He explained that in those days, he would fix fishing boats with the expectation that he would be paid after fishing season was over. “It was like, ‘I’ll pay you next summer if you fix my boat now.’” Because of its prominence in the world of wooden boats and all their traditional accoutrements, as well as the port’s heavy-haulout capacity and the strategic geographical location, Port Townsend is somewhat of a mecca for marine tradespeople. Peacock’s wife, Maj-Britt Peacock, is quick to point out that she and Jim supported the need for a heavy hoist when it was first proposed in the late 1980s. The prospect of economic development finally helped make the project a reality, and a marine Travelift with 330-ton capacity opened in late 1997. “You put the haulout here
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and the boats will come,” Jim said, adding that “marine trades employ a lot more people than official records show.” Across the gravel yard, an unconventional vessel backs up Peacock’s assessment.
TRADITION The Reba H is a small salmon troller built in 1891. Peter Stein is paying the boat off through a work-trade agreement that includes going to Alaska in July to fish on a gillnetter belonging to Reba’s current owner, Ozzie Anderson. Reba came to Port Townsend through Dave Thompson, shipwright and port commissioner, who had been given the boat after it sunk at Bainbridge Island years ago. “It had been with the same family there for 50 years,” said Thompson. “They sold it to a guy and it subsequently sank, and he just wanted to get out from under it.” Thompson added that he “got an outboard with it; that’s the only reason why I took it.” Thompson sold it to Logger Bill for $100, who then sold it to Anderson, who converted the vessel into a hand-troller. “He put a ton of work into it,” said Sonia Frojen, who laughed as she described the image of tall Anderson aboard the compact Reba H. “He had a boatwarming party with six people,” Frojen said. “It was amazing that we all fit.”
“It’s a very cohesive and interplaying community amongst the boat trades. Many of us are longtime peers and friends, you get to know who’s who when you’ve been around. ” Joni Blanchard finishworker
YACHTS, SCHOONERS
Frojen has lately worked with Joni Blanchard of Leatherwood Finishing Company, author of Tricks, Cheating & Chingaderos: A Collection of Knowledge and Tips for Varnishing and Painting Wooden Boats. “I tend to work alone a lot. It’s quiet and peaceful work for the most part. I like working with my hands,” said Blanchard, who cares for the luxurious woodwork of yachts like Catalyst, Westward, and the schooner Nevermore. Built on Quadra Island in the 1970s, the lusciously comfortable schooner is moored here, her varnished, softly curving tumblehome glowing like Grand Marnier in the promising February sunshine. Nevermore belongs to
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acupuncturist Billy Wolf, now of Hawaii, who sails the schooner in the summer. For the past 25 years, Blanchard said, this one boat owner has kept many local people “consistently employed annually.” The schooner has had work done by canvasworker Inger Rankins and sailmaker Sean Rankins of Northwest Sails & Canvas; shipwrights Danielle Nevins, Brian Wentzel, Bruce Tipton and Arren Day; Pete Langley of the Port Townsend Foundry for bronzework; Mort Mortenson for electrical work and systems, and many more. Blanchard teaches many upand-coming finishworkers the trade. “It’s nice to hire these young girls with an eye that can actually see,” she quipped. “I don’t care if they have experience. I care about enthusiasm. I look for a spark in the eye and a spring in the step,” she noted. Of Nevermore, Blanchard said, “I’m hauling her out in May for her annual shave and haircut, three fresh varnish coats on the hull and exterior varnish.” Blanchard is currently on a job at Cape George Marina with Frojen and boatwright Andy Whitman. “I enjoy having friends to work with me on some jobs,” Blanchard said, adding that on warm days at the boat haven they will often “round up a dinghy and go to Sea J’s for a milkshake break.”
BOAT WORK WORLD
Blanchard is devoted to theboats she works on. “They’re my old gals,” she said of Catalyst and Westward. She even has a cologne recipe: “Catalyst for Men: Bombay gin, a little diesel, pine tar and a sprig of oakum.” Maybe that particular boat lotion earns partial credit for another phenomenon observed by Blanchard about our maritime community: “It’s multigenerational ... there are many older, even retired workers along with many young people supporting families in it.” Blanchard said of what she calls the “boat work world” – “It’s a trade that attracts good people, like no-bullshit people. Real people.” A few more good people gather under Adventuress’ whiskey plank at Haven Boatworks. How did these shipwrights learn their craft? “I watched him, he watched him, he watched him and he watched me,” joked lead shipwright Blaise Holly. “Adventuress tends to tie up all the talented fellows.” In fact, many of the shipwrights working there on one
Kurt Halley (left) and Dan Wiggins of Craftsmen United, Inc., stand in front of a former buoy tender being converted into a fishing tender.
sunny afternoon graduated from the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding on the Port Townsend Bay waterfront in Port Hadlock. When he was 14, Chris “Zeal” Stohlman of Marrowstone Island earned a scholarship to sail on the schooner Martha; then as volunteer with Martha in the shipyard, he said, he “got a taste for it.” A quiet young man, he graduated from the boat school in 2009, and is seen either using or carrying tools and working quietly, persistently, his presence signaled by a truck adorned with the words “The DIFFICULT Now, the IMPOSSIBLE takes a little longer.”
EDUCATION, TOO
From the Wooden Boat Foundation to the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding to the Northwest Maritime Center, maritime education has been a strong component here for decades. The marine trades, especially sail-training organizations dedicated to education,
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attract a lot of volunteerism. Christine Jacobson, a 2012 boat school graduate, volunteers for Adventuress owners Sound Experience, contributing her time and skills to the Centennial Restoration project. Holly, the project’s lead shipwright, said he decided to go to the boat school while living on an island in Alaska and “people kept asking me to fix their boats, and I figured someone had probably done it before.” Holly graduated in 2002. What does it take to get a job as a shipwright? According to Holly, “learn how to think.” Problem-solving ability is more important than a lot of training. “None of the carpentry is really that difficult,” Holly said, “but the problem-solving is what you need in the yard.” The other shipwrights seem to agree. “You can’t really do it on your own,” said Leland Gibson, who graduated from the boat school in 2007. “You have to be around experienced people. You can, but you’re recreating a See PROJECTS, Page 8 ▼
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Many marine tradespeople use bicycles to get around. Here, shipwright Dylan Mackay pedals through the Port of Port Townsend.
PROJECTS ▼ Continued from page 7
couple hundred years of knowledge.” “Any monkey can hang a plank,” Holly added, “but ... when they get trickier, the guy working in isolation will get hung up.”
LOOK ALOFT
Another job that is easier with a buddy is rigging; it’s useful to have someone on deck to loosen lines when one is established aloft. At the boat haven’s C Dock on an unseasonably sunny February afternoon, John Nash was hauled up to the masthead of a sailboat called Beagle. Tools dangling from his belt, and his hands moving steadily while unspooling thin wire, holding the end of a braided line in his teeth, Nash braced himself with feet against the stays. His coworker, Justin Lathrop, explained that Nash was installing halyard blocks and a storm trysail track bracket and that their company, Port Townsend Rigging, also would install a solent stay, about a foot behind the forestay, that holds a sail for use in strong wind. Rigging is another skill that Port Townsend is known for, being the home of Brion Toss, world-renowned rigger and author of the widely-used handbooks, The Rigger’s Apprentice and The Sailmaker’s Apprentice. Lathrop said he has been working as a rigger for about six
years, having started as a boat washer about 14 years ago for Marine Service Center in Seattle. However, “The yard is no longer there,” Lathrop said. “It’s houseboats now.”
SOUNDS BUSY
At a meeting of the Port Townsend Marine Trades Association, it was noted that one of the assets of shoreside trades here is the general acceptance of marine trades by residents. One PTMTA member noted that the working waterfront in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood has been somewhat “gentrified.” The relative newcomers to that neighborhood, such as condominium owners, sometimes complain about the noise and light of late-night work. The City of Port Townsend does have industrial noise regulations that apply to port property at night and on Sundays (“inside” work is still allowed), but on weekdays the yard is alive with noise. Sparks fly at Craftsmen United, Inc., as a former U.S. Coast Guard buoy tender bought in Everett by Ron and Aaron Jolin is converted to a Bristol Bay fishing tender, gaining 12 feet in length plus a fiberglass fish hold with a 48,000-pound capacity. Craftsmen United also does a lot of work as a mobile shipyard. Owner Dan Wiggins pointed out a large container he called “Shopzilla” that they are taking to Lake Roosevelt to work on a vehicle ferry, a 116-foot, 23-car state ferry replacing the current
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Joni Blanchard, a local finishworker, plans to do the annual haulout on the schooner Nevermore in May, including three varnish coats on the hull. A wooden boat like this provides work for numerous specialty tradespeople.
“We do the work, the work leaves, and the phone rings.” Dan Wiggins president Craftsmen United 12-car Keller ferry that has been in use since 1948. “It’s all in modular pieces right now,” Wiggins said of the new ferry, the pieces of which were built in Rainier, Ore., by Foss Maritime. “We’re helping Foss accomplish something that not many people can do,” Wiggins said. “We’re modular construction experts ... We specialize in those types of things and that’s why we’re sought after.” They also keep a 20-foot container of tools and equipment in Panama City, Fla., where they modified the bow of the U.S. Navy’s 280-foot high-speed aluminum catamaran Seafighter. Craftsmen United employs “25 experienced guys” at present, Wiggins said, but they are in the same “small business” category as much larger companies. “We compete against businesses with 1,000 or fewer employees,” he said. Wiggins said that Kvichak Marine Industries in Alaska, Bay Ship in California, the Navy and the state of Washington have “all been a great advocate for us,” and said “we try to hook up with more established shipyards so we can continue to work
at least as a subcontractor.” February is the busy season for fishing boat work, he added, saying Craftsmen United also has “a lot of loyalty” from fishing boat owners in Kodiak Island, Alaska, where he used to be a longline halibut fisherman. Due to their reputation, they have plenty of work. “We do the work, the work leaves, and the phone rings,” Wiggins said. Wiggins started Craftsmen United in 2006, after Nichols Marine on Whidbey Island went bankrupt. “We all kind of built reputations there,” Wiggins said. Several Nichols employees became Craftsmen United workers, including Kurt Halley, who spent 32 years at Nichols and is to lead the ferry project at Lake Roosevelt. “You couldn’t get a better boss than Dan,” Halley said. “He’s
fair, level-headed and treats his employees well. He’s got a good loyalty, and he gets right in there” working, Halley said.
FIX-IT HAVEN When you need something done well, it’s wise to look for people who love what they do, and messing about in boats is much more than a job for many in Port Townsend and Jefferson County. The bay is known for its excellent sailing and safe harbor, and the town for its festivals celebrating human ingenuity, so the depth and breadth of marine trades skills (and personalities) here are unsurprising. So whether you’re looking to spruce up your surfboard, remodel your seiner, or ready your yacht for a cruise, bring your boat to Port Townsend and find experience, talent and character.
Michael Truex (left) and Gary Fredrick prepare to launch Truex’s dinghy at the Port of Port Townsend Boat Haven.
The Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader
Jefferson County marinas upgrade sewage pumpouts Marinas at Mystery Bay State Park, Port Ludlow Bay Marina and Port Hadlock Marina have been awarded more than $100,000 in federal and state grants to upgrade aging boat-sewage pumpout facilities, making it easier for area boaters to safely dispose of untreated sewage, according to a press release. The grants are funded by the federal Clean Vessel Act and administered by Washington State Parks Boating Program. The grants pay for new pumpout equipment and reimburse the marinas for 75 percent of operation and maintenance expenses. As a condition of the grants, the marinas must make the pumpouts available to the public. At privately owned Port Hadlock Marina, the new pumpout unit replaces one that hasn’t been working for about a year, according to harbor master Tod Hornick. The marina’s customers are delighted, he said, because the new pumpout is “a lot easier to use, cleaner and more accessible.” Hornick added that the grant process was remarkably easy and fast. With 271,000 registered boats in Washington, and thousands more unregistered small craft, discharge of untreated human waste from boats can have serious health and environmental impacts. Sewage can contaminate commercial and recreational shellfish operations, and lead to closures of shellfish beds and recreational beaches. As organic matter from boat sewage breaks down, it can rob water of oxygen, harming fish and other aquatic wildlife. Pumpout stations help boaters protect the environment and comply with U.S. law, which prohibits the discharge of raw sewage into inland waters or within three miles of the coastline. A searchable list of the more than 150 pumpout stations in Washington can be found at parks.wa.gov/boating/pumpout. The Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader
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SEA Marine goes comprehensive Facility at Point Hudson adds to local marine trades reputation
By Viviann Kuehl, Contriuutor
S
EA Marine is surging ahead on a wave of history with its comprehensive marine services, including repairs, refits, boat sales and construction. “This is the cleanest, friendliest boatyard in the world,” asserted SEA Marine’s service manager Mark Merryman. “This is where people bring their dreams to fulfillment.” It’s hard to put comprehensive service on display, not to mention expertise, but that’s SEA Marine’s standard. SEA Marine won a special award at the 2013 Seattle Boat Show. With a pair of video displays, a short section of mast mounted with a boom and sail, a canvas cover and a brightly painted engine on display, SEA Marine won a Northwest Marine Trade Association award for Best Display of Services. “They were particularly enamored of our canvas display,” said co-owner Matt Elder.
COMPANY HISTORY
Merryman, a 25-year employee of the business that has only been known as SEA Marine for the past six years, speaks of writing a book on the history of boatyards in Port Townsend. SEA Marine’s part in that history started with the idea of building a boat. Shannon Elder Yachts LLC was formed by Pat Shannon and Matt Elder in February 2005 with the idea of building yachts in the Pacific Northwest for the Pacific Northwest. Looking for a place to rent for boat building, they found Fleet Marine at Point Hudson in Port Townsend. Soon it was pointed out that they didn’t have to just rent, but could own the entire operation, said Merryman, and SEA Marine was born. Shannon Elder Yachts LLC bought Fleet Marine as well as the land on which it sits in 2006, after 31 years of ownership by Gary and Nadine Jonientz. Fleet’s business was built upon the repair of fiberglass pleasure boats.
SEA Marine’s Broker and ABYC Master Technician Eric Schouten likes the feel of one of the engines suited to powering a boat to a beautiful place in a short time. Photos by Viviann Kuehl
Elder is committed to the continuation and expansion of that core business, but also to the creation of a new “sedan cruiser” for the Pacific Northwest. The Salish Sea was the first, and so far only, boat constructed by SEA Marine. It’s a 48-foot family cruiser whose design, by Doug Zurn, transformed traditional elements for the Northwest. Eric Schouten is SEA Marine’s main broker, a U.S. Coast Guard–certified captain, and American Boat and Yacht Council master technician. A native of the Netherlands, he grew up on boats, and they later became his career, first in Florida and then in Port Townsend. “People should never buy a boat without a survey,” he noted. “People should always have a boat you use. If not, you should pass it on.” Schouten knows the true cost of owning a boat, and financing is part of the comprehensive service offered. The boatyard has grown from Fleet’s six to eight yearround employees to its current staff of 16.
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As SEA Marine, the boatyard fixes fiberglass, paint, wood, and electrical and mechanical systems on vessels as long as 54 feet out of the water, and on larger boats in the water. The size of out-of-water vessels is limited by the capacity of the company’s 30-ton lift, said Merryman, although he recalls boats being hauled out at the Port of Port Townsend and trucked to the boatyard. On a recent day in the covered shop area, workers were busy putting new bottom paint on a 48-foot Seattle sloop; repairing wood on the deck and painting a 35-foot double-ender from Port Ludlow; painting the hull and bottom and installing a new generator on a Nauticat from Alaska; updating a Whidbey Island– based, 44-foot Lafitte with a water maker, hydrovane steering, a single-sideband radio, new tanks and interior work; doing epoxy work on twin bilge keels on an English boat; sistering frames, repairing decks and house, and installing an engine on a Knutson 35 based in Tacoma. After SEA Marine workers
fixed the back deck on a channel cutter, the owners were busy at work on the interior. “We are very open to having owners work on their boats,” said Merryman. “We can give advice and help with materials
or referrals.” Meanwhile, a mast was being repaired in the mast room by a neighboring businessman. Comprehensive service means passing on parts of the work to specialists, and there are many close by in Point Hudson, explained Merryman. “Everybody brings in business. Sometimes it’s just for you, but usually not. There’s rigging, or sails, or something that we can send to the experts right here. “It’s more a community than a business in that respect,” noted Merryman. The sense of community extends to workers and customers. “I like the customers,” responded receptionist Kaihla Corn when asked what she likes about her job. “They’re interesting, well-traveled, extremely accomplished, and it’s exciting to hear their stories. It makes me look forward to what’s next.” Corn herself is a secondgeneration worker, her mother having worked for Fleet. Merryman’s eyes crinkled as he smiled. “I get to talk to people about boats. What’s not to like? You get to know people. They get to be like family.”
SEA Marine service manager Mark Merryman oversees works in progress, including owners at work on their boat in the one of the Point Hudson businesses’ dry work spaces.
The Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader
Upcoming sailing and rowing events in Jefferson County March 4-15 • Scamp Camp construction workshop at the Northwest Maritime Center March 15-17 • Spring Boating Symposium at the Northwest Maritime Center
Sailboats out on Port townsend Bay. Photo by Patrick Sullivan
March 15-17 • Port Townsend Yacht Club St. Patty’s Shakedown Cruise to Port Ludlow April 14-18 • Port Ludlow Yacht Club Wake-Up Cruise to Pleasant Harbor April 19-21 • Port Townsend Yacht Club Earth Day Cruise to Mystery Bay May 4 • Opening Day Boat Parade organized by the Port Townsend Yacht Club, to begin after the 12:30 p.m. ferry May 4 • Port Ludlow Yacht Club Scatchet Head Race May 13-20 • Port Ludlow Yacht Club May Cruise June 7-9 • 30th annual Classic Mariners Regatta June 7-10 • Port Townsend Yacht Club cruise to Pleasant Harbor June 10-17 • Port Ludlow Yacht Club June Cruise June 15 • Port Ludlow Yacht Club Tala Point Race June 22 • Port Townsend Sailing Association Midsummer Regatta June 22 • Port Townsend Yacht Club lunch cruise to Port Hadlock, solstice celebration and bonfire June 30 • 20th annual Rat Island Rowing Regatta, starting and ending at Fort Worden State Park June 29 • Port Ludlow Yacht Club Jack & Jill Race & Cruise July 3-5 • Port Townsend Yacht Club cruise to Stuart Island July 20-21 • Pocket Yacht Palooza at the Northwest Maritime Center August 2-4 • West Coast Wooden Kayak Rendezvous at Fort Worden State Park August 3 • Boat School Rendezvous at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding in Port Hadlock August 4-16 • Scamp Camp construction workshop at the Northwest Maritime Center August 16-19 • Port Townsend Yacht Club cruise to Anacortes August 24 • Port Townsend Yacht Club Kala Point Lunch Cruise “Cheeseburgers in Paradise II” Sept. 6-8 • 37th annual Wooden Boat Festival Sept. 28 • 6th annual Fort Worden Messabout organized by the Puget Sound chapter of the Traditional Small Craft Association and Port Townsend Pocket Yachters
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Port Townsend Publishing Company Published continuously since October 2, 1889 Port Townsend Office 226 Adams Street, Port Townsend, WA 98368 • 360-385-2900 Website: www.ptleader.com Special Section Editor: Megan Claflin • Lead Production: Kathy Busic Marketing Director: Catherine Brewer • Publisher: Scott Wilson
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The Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader