Hooked On Wooden Boats

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Latest Episodes:

HOWB 097 – Interview | Scott Sprague, Bainbridge Island Wooden Boat Designer and Builder - 07.25.13 May 13, 2024

Show notes

Today’s podcast is an interview with Scott Sprague of Bainbridge Island. I met Scott at the 2013 Bainbridge Island Wooden Boat Festival while he was relaxing on the beautiful 42ʹ double ended sloop – Tumblehome – he designed and built. We had a great time talking shop and I learned what a rotating wing spar is :).

Scott grew up on Bainbridge Island and from a very tender age he was sailing his parents gaff rigged sloop and wooded schooner around Puget Sound and into Canada. During high school he started designing boats and after graduating, he purchased a fishing boat hull and converted it to a 29ʹ wishbone ketch which he lived aboard for 7 years.

Scott was introduced to his dad’s good friend, renowned Northwest boat designer William Garden, as a youth and had the privilege of being mentored by Garden on vessel design. Between 1981 and 1989 Scott designed and built a very unique sloop – Tumblehome.

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You can contact me at woodenboatdan@gmail.com to share you comments, feedback, stories, and wooden boat adventures.

Keep the bright side up and the barnacled side down - Wooden Boat Dan over and out :D

PS Please note this podcast was recorded several years ago - some of the links, email addresses, phone numbers, and promos mentioned are outdated and no longer valid.

HOWB 096 – Interview | Betsy Davis, Executive Director of Center for Wooden Boats, Seattle, WA - 07.18.13 May 06, 2024

Show notes

Today’s podcast is an interview with Betsy Davis, Executive Director of The Center for Wooden Boats (CWB) in Seattle, WA. I chatted with Davis while she was sitting on her classic 1914 yacht Glory Be during the 37th annual Lake Union Wooden Boat Festival. We had a great time talking about CWB, the Glory Be, and other fun stuff.

Betsy spent her formidable years on Mercer Island and enjoyed getting out on canoes and row boats on Lake Washington. After working in the hi-tech industry, becoming a board member at CWB, and purchasing Glory Be in 1997, Betsy took some time to reflect on the next step in her life journey. That process landed her in the 2 year Marine Carpentry Program at Seattle Central Community College.

In January of 2002 while attending the Marine Carpentry Program, fire struck the Seattle Yacht Club where Glory Be was moored and she burned and sank. Three weeks later, her wreckage was pulled out of the water and she miraculously floated just like a boat should. One of Betsy’s Marine Carpentry instructions witnessed that phenomenon, and offered to Davis that if she would pay for the materials, the Marine Carpentry school would restore Glory Be.

Over the next 2 years, she was lovingly and painstakingly restored to her former glory, and looks as beautiful today as she did when she was launched in 1914 from the Taylor-Grandy yard on Vashon Island, WA. And in 2003, Betsy became the Executive Director of CWB.

HOWB 095 – Interview | George Fisher, Owner of Swedish 1937 – 30ʹ Square Meter Wooden Sailboat - 07.11.13 Apr 29, 2024

Show notes

Today’s podcast is an interview with George Fisher whom I met at the 2013 Bainbridge Island Wooden Boat Festival while he was relaxing on his sleek 1937 Swedish sailing vessel Hansina. We had a great time talking shop and recorded a really fun interview.

When George was 11, his dad came home and announced to the family he had purchased a “30 Square Meter” boat. This was a complete surprise as George’s family had done very little boating and none of the family even knew what a 30 Square Meter boat was. George sailed with his family on the boat on Long Island Sound, and at the age of 14, he took her out by himself without his parents knowledge (or permission). He fell in love with the boat and got out on her as much as possible.

For 20 plus years after college, George didn’t do any boating to speak of, but continued to research and collect information about 30 Square Meter boats all over the world. While flying on a business trip in 2005, he spotted a 30 Square Meter boat for sale at Lake Huron. When he came home and told his wife about the Lake Huron boat, she shocked George and said “you should buy it”. George flew to Lake Huron, bought the boat, hauled her home, renamed her “Hansina“, and the rest is history.

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You can contact me at woodenboatdan@gmail.com to share your comments, feedback, stories, and wooden boat adventures.

Keep the bright side up and the barnacled side down - Wooden Boat Dan over and out :D

PS Please note this podcast was recorded several years ago - some of the links, email addresses, phone numbers, and promos mentioned are outdated and no longer valid.

HOWB 094 – Interview | Pat Lown, Director of Research at WoodenBoat Publications, Inc. - 07.04.13 Apr 22, 2024

Show notes

Today’s podcast is an interview with Pat Lown who has been at WoodenBoat Publications Inc. since 1993 and is currently the Director of Research.

Pat grew up in Kingston, New York near the Hudson River. Her family did not go boating, but as a youth she was introduced to boating when she attended a YMCA day camp where she had a great time paddling and rowing the canoes and rowboats there.

Growing up in Kingston, Pat was aware of the Hudson River sloop Clearwater (America’s Environmental Flagship) and the one to two week volunteer stints they offered. Pat volunteered after graduating high school in 1975 and fell in love with the boat and the water. She continued to volunteer frequently that summer and traveled to Stonington, ME in January 1976 to help with the restoration of the Clearwater at Billings Diesel and Marine on Deer Isle. Lown had planned to stay 2 weeks, but was so taken by Maine that she settled there where she lives to this day.

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You can contact me at woodenboatdan@gmail.com to share your comments, feedback, stories, and wooden boat adventures.

Keep the bright side up and the barnacled side down - Wooden Boat Dan over and out :D

PS Please note this podcast was recorded several years ago - some of the links, email addresses, phone numbers, and promos mentioned are outdated and no longer valid.

HOWB 093 – Interview | Father & Son Team Build SCAMP – Arlie and Todd Blankenship - 06.27.13 Apr 15, 2024

Show notes

Today’s podcast is an interview with Todd Blankenship and his father Arlie Blankenship. Arlie grew up in Port Townsend, WA fishing with a bamboo pole and hand reel in a 12ʹ wooden boat his dad made. When Todd was a teenager in Hawaii, he and Arlie built an Eight Ball sailing dinghy together and took sailing lessons. From that time on, they were hooked on sailing and owned several boats including a Hobie Cat.

At the September 2011 Wooden Boat Festival in Port Townsend, WA Todd & Arlie laid eyes on the SCAMP #1 boat for the first time. Arlie thought “it was ugly”, but Todd liked the fact that it was a seaworthy and stable boat. They purchased the plans that day and two weeks later ordered the Okoume plywood SCAMP kit from Small Craft Advisor Magazine. They completed “Humu” in August 2012 just in time for the Wooden Boat Festival. And Todd made the sail himself after taking a sailmaking class from Sean Rankins.

Todd and Arlie sail Humu (Humu is the State Fish of Hawaii) around Puget Sound every chance they get, and love every minute of the SCAMP experience!

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You can contact me at woodenboatdan@gmail.com to share your comments, feedback, stories, and wooden boat adventures.

Keep the bright side up and the barnacled side down - Wooden Boat Dan over and out :D

PS Please note this podcast was recorded several years ago - some of the links, email addresses, phone numbers, and promos mentioned are outdated and no longer valid.

HOWB 092 – Interview | Matt Murphy Editor Wooden Boat Magazine – Personal History & Preview of 2013 Wooden Boat Show Mystic, CT - 06.20.13 Apr 08, 2024

Show notes

Today’s podcast is an interview with Matt Murphy. Matt is the editor of Wooden Boat Magazine in Brooklin ME where he has worked since 1992.

Matt grew up in Salem, MA “playing in boats during the summers while dreaming about them in the winters”. He cut his mariner teeth sailing one design sloops such as the Rhodes 19, Etchells 22, and Town Class sloop around the Marblehead area of Massachusetts. At the age of 14 he picked up his first Wooden Boat Magazine and became totally hooked on wooden boats.

Murphy built his first wooden boat – a 22ʹ King Fisher rowing shell – while in college, then he built a strip planked kayak, a dinghy, and a peapod, and the list continues to grow! In early 1992 Matt responded to an ad in Wooden Boat Magazine for an associate editor , was hired, and has loved his “job” ever since, including traveling around the world to research, write about, and photograph wooden boats.

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You can contact me at woodenboatdan@gmail.com to share your comments, feedback, stories, and wooden boat adventures.

Keep the bright side up and the barnacled side down - Wooden Boat Dan over and out :D

PS Please note this podcast was recorded several years ago - some of the links, email addresses, phone numbers, and promos mentioned are outdated and no longer valid.

HOWB 091 – Interviews | Bruce Blatchley – Instructor; Steve Stanton – Student: NW School of Wooden Boatbuilding - 06.13.13 Apr 01, 2024

Show notes

Today’s podcast contains two interviews from the NW School of Wooden Boatbuilding in Port Hadlock, WA. The first interview is with Steve Stanton. Steve is a retired law enforcement officer from Colorado and is a student this year at the School. Hear Steve share his insights about the School and some of the fun things he is learning.

The second interview is with Bruce Blatchley, Contemporary Instructor at the School. Bruce and I talk about the progress of the 62ʹ day sailor “Sliver”, cold molded boat building, the School’s Calkins Bartender boat build, Bruce’s wooden surf board build, and other fun stuff. You can find out more about Bruce’s personal history in the previous interview I did with Bruce – HOWB022.

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You can contact me at woodenboatdan@gmail.com to share your comments, feedback, stories, and wooden boat adventures.

Keep the bright side up and the barnacled side down - Wooden Boat Dan over and out :D

PS Please note this podcast was recorded several years ago - some of the links, email addresses, phone numbers, and promos mentioned are outdated and no longer valid.

HOWB 090 – Interviews | 2013 Olympia Wooden Boat Fair – Tug Sandman, Naida Classic Yacht - 06.06.13 Mar 25, 2024

Show notes

Today’s podcast contains two interviews from the 2013 Olympia,WA Wooden Boat Fair. The first interview is with Tom Pearson. Tom is a volunteer for the Tugboat Sandman. She was built and designed by Crawford & Reid in Tacoma, WA and launched in 1910. Sandman is 59ʹ 10ʺ x 14ʹ 6ʺ and is planked with old growth Douglas Fir. She was a working tug until 1987 and has spent her entire life in Puget Sound.

The second interview is with Michael Fife who is co-owner of the classic Yacht Naida. Naida is a 48ʹ Grebe built in Hollywood in 1935 and believed to have first been owned by Humphrey Bogart. She is a bridge-deck design with elegant tuck-n-roll upholstery, bronze engine controls, and a colorful leaded glass hatch.

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You can contact me at woodenboatdan@gmail.com to share your comments, feedback, stories, and wooden boat adventures.

Keep the bright side up and the barnacled side down - Wooden Boat Dan over and out :D

PS Please note this podcast was recorded several years ago - some of the links, email addresses, phone numbers, and promos mentioned are outdated and no longer valid.

HOWB 089 – Interview | Jay Smith on Trunnels and Nordic Boat Building - 05.30.13 Mar 18, 2024

Show notes

Today’s interview is with Jay Smith of Anacortes, WA. Jay studied Clinker boat building in Norway when he was in his 20’s then moved back to the US and has continued building traditional lapstrake boats for the last 30 plus years (for more on Jay’s personal history listen to my previous interview with Jay at HOWB 007).

One of the projects Jay is working on is a 56ʹ viking ship which is being being fastened with traditional hand made wooden trunnels. Jay is machining the trunnels from Pacific Yew – a dense, rot resistant, and flexible wood, which was prized for long bow construction in medieval England.

In the fall of 2012, Jay traveled to Europe and and met with traditional boatbuilder John Macaulay of the Isle of Harris in Scotland. John has been building all his life, and specializes in lapstrake construction that was influenced by the Vikings beginning in the 8th century.

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You can contact me at woodenboatdan@gmail.com to share your comments, feedback, stories, and wooden boat adventures.

Keep the bright side up and the barnacled side down - Wooden Boat Dan over and out :D

PS Please note this podcast was recorded several years ago - some of the links, email addresses, phone numbers, and promos mentioned are outdated and no longer valid.

HOWB 088 – Interview | Masaki Tabohashi, Student at NW School of Wooden Boatbuilding - 05.23.13 Mar 11, 2024

Show notes

Today’s interview is with Masaki Tobashi of Kyoto, Japan. Masaki is a student at the NW School of Wooden Boatbuilding (NWSWBB) in Port Hadlock, WA.

Masaki enjoyed woodworking when he was very young and was especially attracted to wooden boats. When he was in the 8th grade his mom found the website for the NWSWBB and Tobahashi watched a 16 minute video of master instructor Jeff Hammond magically shaping lapstrake boat parts. Masaki was hooked and set a goal to attend The NWSWBB after high school.

Masaki made good on his goal. After high school he worked for one year in Japan to save for one year of school. In the fall of 2012, he moved to Port Hadlock to start school and is loving every minute of it!

Masaki has a “huge dream” (for later in life) to set up a Wooden Boat Center in Japan which would include a traditional boats museum, boat shop, and a boatbuilding school. Go for it Masaki!!

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You can contact me at woodenboatdan@gmail.com to share your comments, feedback, stories, and wooden boat adventures.

Keep the bright side up and the barnacled side down - Wooden Boat Dan over and out :D

PS Please note this podcast was recorded several years ago - some of the links, email addresses, phone numbers, and promos mentioned are outdated and no longer valid.

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