Make a Living, Craft a Life. FALL 2016
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HULL RAISER Make a Living, Craft a Life. FALL 2016 HULL RAISER | Fall 2016 | 1 Thank you Planned Giving Please Join Me in Making a Planned Gift Admiral Ship Supply I took great pleasure in designating Brooklin Boat Yard Captain’s Nautical the Northwest School of Wooden Community Boat Project Boatbuilding as a beneficiary in my will. Edensaw Woods What a privilege to make a lasting Fisheries Supply impact on the world based on my F/V Norsel personal values. I was surprised how Port Townsend Sails simple it was! Would you join me? Haven Boatworks, LLC Betsy Davis Jay Smith Boatbuilding NWSWB Executive Director Jensen Motor Boat [email protected] Jim Franken at Tim Nolan Marine Design Northwest Maritime Center Northwest Center of Excellence for Stay Connected Marine Manufacturing & Technology Keep in touch to find out about news, upcoming The Northwest School of Northwest Sail & Canvas events, and boats under construction at the Wooden Boatbuilding thanks Philbrick Boat Works Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding. these maritime businesses and Philips Publishing Group Port of Port Townsend organizations for their support Port Townsend Foundry Website this year. Collectively, they Port Townsend School District nwswb.edu have provided input at our Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-op E-Newsletters Program Advisory Committee Port Townsend Watercraft nwswb.edu/contact/enews meetings, provided venues for Robert McNeel & Associates Boats for sale Schooner Martha Foundation nwswb.edu/allboatsforsale informative field trips, come to Sound Experience aboard the Blog the School to deliver lectures, Schooner Adventuress nwswb.edu/category/all-posts sponsored events, or donated Stephen Waring Yacht Design Facebook: materials or services to the Taku Marine facebook.com/NWBoatSchool or search for “nwswb” School. Thank you! Turn Point Design Instagram Washington Sea Grant instagram.com/nwswb or search for “nwswb” West Marine West System Flickr: flickr.com/photos/nwswb/collections Youtube www.youtube.com/user/NWBOATSCHOOL Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding 42 N. Water Street, Port Hadlock, WA 98339 [email protected] • www.nwswb.edu • (360)385-4948 CONTENTS 4 10 Port Hadlock, WA Logan’s Passage: From Wall Street to You Can Go Home Again Water Street: Boat School WELCOME TO HULL RAISER, a magazine for Class of 2015’s Logan Sampson Serves as Business employers, Boat School alums, and friends of lands a job at John’s Bay Boats, a Opportunity Incubator traditional wooden boatbuilding. leading builder of traditional lobster Richard Johanson explains how he The Boat School was founded in 1981 by boats in his home state of Maine. and Lee Symes, Class of ’15, became boatbuilders who were passionate about pre- co-owners of Philbrick Boat Works serving traditional wooden boat designs and to revive a West Coast Brand that building techniques. This magazine showcases 6 once rivaled Chris Craft and Hacker the fulfillment and future of their vision. in the design and construction of As writer Molly Tyson, editor Christa Ayer, classic wooden speedboats. and I put together this first issue, we were Shop Talk: NWSWB Students struck by the many ways alumni stay connected Take on New Challenges with the Boat School. Engaged alumni are a See what’s taking shape in the vital extension of our Boat School staff – in the shop, from the hull of a human- shop, in the office, on the water, and lately on powered submarine for the the internet, where you can find Boat School University of Washington to the alums on Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, Instagram, replica of a 1948 Whitehall for San and blogs that provide some of the best insight Francisco’s historic Dolphin Club. on what it’s like to learn boatbuilding from master craftspeople in an apprentice model. I’m grateful to everyone who helped us tell 7 12 these stories, especially Chief Instructor Sean Koomen, who served as technical reviewer and Tradition and Relevance: Commissions with Character: spoke into a tape recorder – over the whine of a A Chalk Talk with Chief You’re Not Just Buying a Boat, power planer – to explain how our curriculum Instructor Sean Koomen You’re Launching Careers is evolving to preserve traditional boatbuilding Sean explains how the Boat The ideal project gives students methods, while preparing students for jobs in School is evolving to address the experience with all key aspects today’s boatbuilding trades. Sean also shared his skills and experience required of the curriculum, and gives thoughts on how we are preserving some classic at boat yards, while preserving owners a high-quality boat with West Coast wooden boat designs through a more traditional methods. extra character — as well as the targeted approach to commissions. satisfaction of ensuring that We look forward to seeing you any time you traditional skills are passed to a are passing through Port Hadlock! 8 new generation of boatbuilders. Amy Schaub: At Home on the Water 14 Class of 2005’s Amy Schaub met with Boat School students at Boat What’s New on Water Street Betsy Davis, Executive Director Haven, where her boat was hauled Take the School’s self-guided tour, out, to share her experience as check out our library’s new online owner of the F/V Norsel and as one catalog, find out about NWSWB’s The Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding is a of only two female skippers holding Strategic Plan, and learn about private not-for-profit 501(c)3 educational institution. a permit to seine for salmon in veteran-support resources. Our mission is “to teach and preserve traditional southeast Alaska. and contemporary wooden boatbuilding skills while developing the individual as a craftsman.” www.nwswb.edu On the cover: Senior Instructor Jeff Hammond and Kat Murphy, Class of ’15, bend frames onto a Catspaw Dinghy. Hammond retired as a full-time teacher Hull Raiser is published by Philips Publishing Group for the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding. Design and Production: Marilyn B. Esguerra in June 2015, but still stops by the School from time to time. Kat is working at www.philipspublishing.com n 206.284.8285 the Shipwright’s Co-op in Port Townsend. HULL RAISER | Fall 2016 | 3 LOGAN’S PASSAGE You Can Go Home Again YOU NEVER KNOW WHO WILL WALK THROUGH the door at the Northwest started early — Peter starts at 5:00 and the others start at 7:00 — School of Wooden Boatbuilding. It could be a tourist drawn to so I made sure I was the first one there every morning.” the historic architecture of the waterfront campus. This time, At the end of the working audition, he was offered a job it was Peter Kass, owner of the John’s Bay Boat Company, a — a chance to build the 50’ lobster boats he had grown up leading builder and designer of high-end wooden boats based in admiring off the mid-coast of Maine. South Bristol, Maine. • • • Logan Sampson, a student in the Traditional Large Craft boatbuilding class of ’15, saw a middle-aged man poking Logan arrived at the Boat School in the fall of 2014 with two around the shop. “I thought he must be a tourist,” Logan recalls, bags, a backpack, and a violin, but no tools. “but he asked some questions about how we did things on He had signed up for Traditional Large Craft Construction, one the west coast and I realized he was wearing a John’s Bay Boat of three programs offered by the School, and started acquiring Company hat. I grew up seeing their boats, so I asked, ‘Oh, do the 30+ woodworking tools he would need for the first quarter. you work there?’ ‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘I own the place.’” He quickly discovered there is no end to acquiring boatbuilding Kass was not at the Boat School on a recruiting trip, just visiting tools, and eventually got a truck to haul them in. his daughter who lives in the Pacific Northwest. But, he spent “I had very little woodworking experience coming to the School. 15 minutes talking to Logan that day, realized he was a native But, I had a lot of sailing experience and that turned out to be of Maine, and offered him a working interview the next time helpful. I knew the terminology and the purpose of what we he was home for a visit. Logan had already committed to a six- were building — how the parts worked with the rest of the boat.” month extension at the Boat School as the first recipient of the Prothero Internship, but Kass wasn’t filling a particular opening The training was intense — 8:00 to 5:00, Monday to Friday — but at his boat shop — just scouting future talent — so they arranged it was exactly what he was hoping for and his skills grew quickly. for a three-day work visit the following December. Ben Kahn, his instructor in the Traditional Large Craft program, Kass was not simply trusting his instincts and first impression describes Logan as one of those rare students with “the perfect of Logan. One of his previous employees had been blend of intelligence, skill, perseverance, and a NWSWB graduate and turned out to be a good fit modesty. After 18 short months of working with in skills and temperament for his small team. In that Logan, the instructors considered him a peer.” sense, Kass was fishing in familiar waters. Logan was chosen as the first recipient of the “I was definitely nervous,” Logan recalls of the three- NWSWB Prothero Internship, named for School co- day work visit, “because it wasn’t something I could founder Bob Prothero. This allowed him to tackle prepare for like a formal sit-down interview.