BOAT SMARTS

Situated about 40 miles north-northwest of Seattle, Washington, and sandwiched between Port Townsend and Discovery bays, is the Quimper Peninsula, an area that’s home to one of the most diverse traditional boatbuilding communities in the Pacific Northwest.

Scattered around an area that’s surrounded by mountains and forests are a handful of marine businesses that keep the boatbuilding gears well-greased. There are outfits such as timber supplier Edensaw Woods, the marine metal casting specialists at Port Townsend Foundry and various boat shops and boatyards, including Port Townsend Shipwrights Co-op, Haven Boatworks LLC and Cape George Marine Works, to name only a few.

Also nearby, in Port Hadlock, is one of the most respected boatbuilding and marine systems schools in the United States: the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding (NWSWB). Located on a sprawling seven-acre campus on the shores of South Port Townsend Bay, the accredited career and vocational school has been teaching