It gets quieter on Puget Sound these days. With Labor Day a month behind us and crabbing season long over, most boaters have started wintering their vessels. Sometimes, on a windy day, you might glimpse one or another sailboat between the islands or a motorboat speed up the Narrows. Now is the time to contemplate and make the most of what North America’s largest event for the lovers of wooden boats had to offer on the first full weekend in September (the next one is from September 5 through 7, 2025; here’s the link: https://woodenboat.org/).
The Wooden Boat Festival in Port Townsend is certainly one of those events that get landlubbers and sea dogs together alike, those who have been on the water for ages and those who are just about to set out, those who build and those who buy. The entire region teems with people who want to drink in the nostalgic atmosphere of wooden hulls and masts, of the smell of sea and workshops. Who dream of sailing as in the olden days or boarding a boat that bespeaks a different way of life altogether.
My husband and I went there this year. We had three-day tickets, and we had been lucky enough that – although our hotel in the town canceled our booking short notice (it seems to be a thing around events these days) – we had been able to find another one in Sequim. Not exactly close by. But better than being on the other side of Hood Canal with roads jammed-up towards the fest.
There were different stages on which experts presented insight in whatever a boater needs to know, among them the North West School of Wooden Boat Building. Workshops invited to try tools and woodworking. Ropers from Hardanger in Norway demonstrated how to make ropes the traditional way. Have you ever smelled the smoky fragrance of the finished product? Or let your hand glide over a smoothly polished and glazed bow?
During Covid, my husband built a big wooden kayak. I know what it takes to stitch all the tiny elements together and have them sit till they shape the perfect roundedness. What it takes to glue everything together, to sand, to epoxy. That it takes the right temperatures to create such a boat, so everything dries evenly. There were companies that showed their products and their techniques. It was so interesting to compare the different kits, to see the similar outcome.
There were sailing classes and sailing tours for which one could purchase extra-tickets; you could even sign up for rowing a traditional longboat with its unique shape and colorful painting. Skippers were ready to chat with anybody who walked by and wanted to know about their travels, their experiences. I even came across a group of men dressed in historical costume, members of His Majesty’s Arm’d Tender Chatham living history reenactment group. Meanwhile, the passage between Whidbey Island and Port Townsend was covered with sails of vessels all sizes.
Was there anything for kids to do? You bet! There were art and toy boat building programs, and fun tiny boats to be paddled around the Point Hudson harbor basin. And on Sunday morning, quite a few kids turned out dressed up for the Pirate Parade. There was even a family dance set up at the Bar Harbor Main Stage.
It is quiet on Puget Sound now. Most of the 300 and more wooden boats have left Port Townsend. In the mornings, there is fog on the water. Boating life has this dreamy quality to it when you are not out on the water, working to be one with the currents and the winds. Ah, the clanking of the rigging, the swaying of a dock, the sound of bells and gulls, the leisure … Next year again, maybe … next year …
