Hooked On Wooden Boats

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Latest Episodes:

HOWB 077 – Interview | Capt Daniel Evans – Wooden Schooner Adventuress 03.07.13 Dec 25, 2023

Show notes

Today’s interview is with Captain Daniel Evans of Sound Experience and the great 1913 wooden schooner Adventuress.

Capt Daniel spent his formative years in Anchorage, AK and began sailing at the age of 4 while on a visit to his grandparents in Gig Harbor, WA. Evans attended Evergreen U while living on his 28ʹ Miller Marine sloop and continued to fine tune his sailing and maritime skills.

Through his rock climbing adventures Daniel met some Outward Bound folks and eventually became the manager for their Sea Based program from Anacortes, WA. The program was Long Boat based with adventures in the San Juan and Southern Gulf Islands of Canada.

Up next for Daniel, was a stint on east coast schooners and working toward his USCG Captains License. His schooner work included the Liberty Clipper, Schooner Massachusetts, Roseway, Lettie G Howard, and the Saphira Christina.

During that time he met Catherine Collins, director of Sound Experience and let her know that if one of the Captains positions on Adventuress ever became available, he would love the opportunity. Evans got the call and joined Sound Experience as one of the Captains in early 2010.

Adventuress is in Phase 4 of her Centennial restoration which includes replanking and framing the port side, a new main mast, and refreshing some of the on board systems.

When I asked Captain Evans why he loves Sound Experience, his answer was twofold: 1. Adventuress sails really well (not a slug in the water). She was designed by BB Crowninshield to be beautiful AND to be fast – and that she is. 2. The Sound Experience community is phenomenal.

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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podcast was recorded several years ago - some of the links, email addresses, phone numbers, and promos mentioned are outdated and no longer valid.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 076 – Interview | Mindy Ross, Center for Wooden Boats Sailing Education Director - 02.28.13 Dec 18, 2023

Show notes

Today’s interview is with Mindy Ross of the Center for Wooden Boats (CWB) in Seattle, WA. Mindy has be with CWB for 14 years and is currently the Sailing Education Director.

Mindy grew up near Cleveland, OH and is a third generation sailor/racer. Her grandfather raced Comets and Trivets in the 20’s and 30’s at the Cleveland Yacht club and later her parents raced at the Sandusky Sailing Club.

As a kid she traveled with her parents racing Thistle’s in the midwest and southeast. The family would camp, race for the weekend, and then move on to the next regatta.

Later the family moved to Milwaukee, WI and Mindy spent time crewing on the tall ship Gazella as well as continuing her sail racing. Next it was on to the University of Oregon for Wendy, where she attended school and raced on U of O’s sailing team.

After college, Mindy chose to move to Seattle because it was near the water (and near the big water too). Upon arrival she visited the CWB and fell in love with the sense of community and the historic wooden vessels. She began volunteering and racing SNIPE’s on Lake WA. Today she is the Sailing Education Director and loves every minute of it. Her favorite boat at the CWB is the Geary ’18 “Flattie”.

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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 075 – Interview Part 2 | Capt Ken Greff of Sound Experience / Adventuress 1913 Wooden Schooner - 02.21.13 Dec 11, 2023

Show notes

Today’s featured segment is Part 2 of the interview with Captain Ken Greff, president of the board of Sound Experience. Sound Experience is the caretaker of the 1913 BB Crowninshield designed gaff rigged 101ʹ schooner Adventuress.

Sound Experience’s mission with Adventuress is to “educate, inspire, and empower an inclusive community to make a difference for the future of our marine environment.”

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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 074 – Interview Part 1 | Capt Ken Greff of Sound Experience / Adventuress 1913 Wooden Schooner - 02.14.13 Dec 04, 2023

Show notes

Today’s featured segment is Part 1 of a 2 Part interview with Captain Ken Greff, president of the board of Sound Experience. Sound Experience is the caretaker of the 1913 BB Crowninshield designed gaff rigged 101ʹ schooner Adventuress.

Ken spent his early youth in San Francisco and his family settled on Mercer Island, WA when Ken was in grade school. Greff stream fished with his parents and dabbled in sailing small boats on Lake Washington with his high school buddies.

While attending Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA, one of Ken’s professors invited him to crew on a T-Bird sailboat for a Bellingham Bay race. Ken jumped at the chance, and got “hooked” on keel boat sailing which he enjoyed as often as possible during his college years.

During his school teaching years, Ken heard about the bicentennial parade of tall ships in NY Harbor and the sail training programs for youth. At the time, he was working with troubled kids in the school system and was interested in helping these kids build character and leadership skills through an alternative means such as sail training.

Greff began inquiring locally about sail training and eventually was advised to connect with Youth Adventure who owned the historic schooner Adventuress and was using her to train youth. Ken saw Adventuress for the first time at the Seattle waterfront during a tall ship festival and was immediately taken by the youth aboard who were jovially singing and warmly welcoming him. Ken began volunteering that fall of 1978 and has never looked back!

Tune in again next week for Part 2 (Episode 75).

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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 073 – Interview | Jim Metteer – Wooden Boat Builder and Restorer Extraordinaire - 02.07.13 Nov 27, 2023

Show notes

Today’s featured interview is with Jim Metteer of Poulsbo, WA. Jim grew up “all over” the west coast as his dad moved from working at one hydroelectric dam to another. In 1965 the family settled in south Seattle, WA where Jim graduated from Tyee High School.

Jim’s dad had a power boat and Jim liked to be “on” the water, not “in” the water. After high school Metteer landed at a local furniture company learning the furniture trade and eventually taking over their finishing department. The advanced coatings skills Jim learned during those 3 years still serve him to this day.

Metteer’s first boat was a 1980 Thistle – a 17ʹ Sandy Douglass one design cold molded planing sloop. Jim sailed her on Lake Washington and Puget Sound. A few years later Jim fell in love with “Vito Dumas” – a Manuel Campos designed Cutter. However, the owner wouldn’t sell to Jim. So Jim decided to build his own Campos Cutter. The Campos cutter is a modified scandinavian rescue boat designed with a shallower for the waters of Buenos Aires in the 1940’s.

Jim read the book – How To Build a Boat by David McIntosh and started building it. It seemed to come natural and took Jim 4 1/2 years to complete. One of his tricks was to go to the boat every day whether he felt like it or not.

Lumiere was launched in 1991. She is Carvel plank, 1.25ʺ Port Orford cedar over 2ʺx2ʺ oak frames with a 1 1/2ʺ teak deck. She has a Honduran Mahogany cabin and 8600 pounds of lead in her keel.

With the encouragement of his wife, Jim decided to build boats for a living, so he joined up with the late Tom Pryor in 2000 to take over the work Tom had been doing in Poulsbo. Tom rented him the barn and Jim helped Tom live out his last years out in the neighboring farm house.

Metteer’s first project was restoring the friendship sloop Puff. This was a 2 year project. Next was the restoration of a boat gifted to him – Fokus III, a classic 6 meter racing boat. Fokus III was launched 1948 in Norway and was scheduled to race in the 1952 Olympics (for reasons unknown, she didn’t go to the Olympics). Jim has done a beautiful restoration on Fokus!

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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 072 – Interview | Roy Jackson – built Wooden Schooner over a 3 decade period! WOW! - 01.31.13 Nov 21, 2023

Show notes

I had the rare and special privilege of meeting up with Roy Jackson who, along with his late wife Dolores built a 43ʹ Murray Peterson designed gaff rigged Coaster II Schooner – Dolores M Jackson – between 1976 and 2009.

The interview and time together with Jackson was a blast! This is an amazing story! The interview is a MUST LISTEN!

Roy grew up in Detroit, MI and was accustomed to the regular sight of schooners and other vessels navigating the Detroit River. His mom and dad boated (black tie events) on friends boats while the kids played on land.

Roy’s dad had been in the British Calvary, so Roy was taught to ride horses and spent lots of time on horseback as a kid including riding on the famed Belle Isle.

Roy began a career in advertising after school, and in 1965 a coworker invited Jackson to join him on sailing his Yawl from Nassau, Bahamas to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. This was a new experience for Roy and he enjoyed every minute of it. The trip was “perfect” according to Jackson with smooth swells, moonlight, steady breezes and phosphorous creatures to gaze upon in the water at night. When he returned from the trip, Jackson determined he was going to build his own boat someday.

While reading a Sensible Cruising article in National Fisherman magazine, Roy laid his eyes on a beautiful Murray Peterson designed Coaster II Schooner. He decided he would build that boat and ordered the plans from Peterson in 1973. A friend at work told Jackson that Seattle, WA was a hub for building wooden boats. Roy did his research and decided to make the move in 1974 including taking a position at a large ad agency in Seattle.

The Jackson’s purchased property on Bainbridge Island (a 30 minute ferry ride to downtown Seattle), Roy designed their home, had it built, and they moved in. Next was construction of the boat shed for building the schooner and lofting of the vessel on the shop floor in 1977. Listen to the interview for the rest of the story!

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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 071 – Interview | Jim Llewellyn Wooden Boat Restorer and Blanchard Sr. Knockabout Owner - 01.24.13 Nov 13, 2023

Show notes

Jim grew up in Bellevue, WA and at the age of 9 his parents bought a Blanchard Jr. Knockabout for $250 and spent another $250 to refurbish it. Jim’s dad taught him to sail on that wooden sloop, and at the young age of 13 “turned over the keys” to Jim and let him go out by himself on Lake Washington (wow, what a blast for a 13 year old!). As Jim became an adult, the Knockabout became his boat. He and a buddy sailed two Blanchard Knockabout Jr’s from Lake Washington all the way to Victoria BC (across the Strait of Juan de Fuca) and back – a bold adventure in an open cockpit sailboat!

In 1976 Jim bought his Blanchard Sr. Knockabout (26ʹ LOA) and began refurbishing the boat in the off season and racing the rest of the year. Jim still owns this beaut and takes great care of her. Jim also owns a 1966 Century Resorter mahogany ski boat, which he uses about 100 days each year for water skiing. (see HOWB 045 for a related interview on another Century Resorter).

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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 070 – Interview | Captain Tyson Trudel – Center for Wooden Boats Youth Program Dude, Wooden Boat Afficianado - 01.17.13 Nov 06, 2023

Show notes

Tyson did most of his growing up in Cove, Oregon with a massive population of 500 people During his youth he sailed with his family on their 21ʹ San Juan sloop. However, when his parents decided to take a year off and build a log cabin, they had to sell the family boat to pay for the new well. Tyson was heartbroken – he loved being on the water.

But never fear, his parents bought him an 8ʹ Jester sailing dinghy on his 8th birthday. He was sick that day so they put the dinghy in his bedroom and let him sleep in it – he was hopelessly “hooked” on boats at that point. Sorry about that Tyson – hahaha.

During junior high and high school, he took every shop class offered and helped build several Phil Bolger and other designs with whatever materials the class could scrape together. After attending college for a couple years studying history, Tyson realized he really wanted to work with youth and boats. He was able to land a volunteer position at the Center for Wooden Boats in Seattle and for 9 months engaged in youth programs centered around boats and life learning (in addition to being the night watchman).

Next, it was off to finish college and then on to work as a youth mentor at Lutherwood Camp for 9 months of the year, with 3 months each year working on his Captains license aboard the Lady Washington tall ship (check out HOWB 003 for an interview about her). In 2011, Tyson came full circle and landed at the Center for Wooden Boats as their Youth Program Manager.

Tyson has had some really awesome experiences with boats, youth, education, and the high seas.

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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 069 – Interview | Nat Howe of NW Seaport – Wooden Boat Guru and Museologist - 01.10.13 Oct 30, 2023

Show notes

Nat grew up in Seattle and as a young kid was building boat models out of milk cartons, wood, and assorted other materials he could scrounge up. His parents and grandparents owned (and still own) an Allied Seawind 30’ which the family used to explore the Inside Passage around Vancouver Island and the San Juan Islands. When Nate was 10 years old he discovered the 1897 three masted 165ʹ schooner Wawona on Lake Union in Seattle. He fell in love with her and at age 11 built a 5’ model of Wawona. He also built a radio controlled model of the Arthur Foss tug after discovering that historic vessel in Seattle.

Nat attended Beloit College in WI to get his undergraduate degree in Museology. During his college program, he spent one semester at Williams College studying at Mystic Seaport Museum and living on the grounds.

Besides learning about sea shanties and celestial navigation he gained valuable knowledge about museums and historic vessels.

After college Nat was awarded the highly coveted Fulbright Grant to study at the Vasa Museum in Sweden – regarded by many as the premier maritime museum in the world. On display is the Swedish Gallion Vasa – built in 1628 as a double gun deck war boat. She sank 15 minutes into her maiden voyage.

Nat loves his current position as the vessel manager at Northwest Seaport in Seattle, WA. The Seaport’s mission is the: “......preservation and interpretation of maritime heritage of Puget Sound and the Northwest Coast, and the development of maritime-based educational programs and opportunities for the community.”

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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 068 – Highlights of 2012 and Plans for the BEST YEAR EVER in 2013 - 01.03.13 Oct 23, 2023

Show notes

Thanks to your support and the support of hundreds of other wooden boat lovers, HOWB has completed its first full year with flying colors. This Episode is dedicated to looking at the HIGHLIGHTS of 2012 and my Plans for 2013!

Here’s Top Ten HIGHLIGHTS of 2012:

1. 52 HOWB weekly episodes were published (67 total now).
2. HOWB podcasts have been downloaded over 35,000 times by folks in 82 different countries.
3. I conducted more than 50 interviews – from wooden boat rock stars, to back yard builders to instructors, captains, Designers, a Viking ship builder, blue water gurus, authors, and expert craftsman.

4. I received “attaboy” emails from HOWB listeners all over the world – Poland, Australia, South Africa, Aruba, Sweden, and Great Britain to name a few

5. The first ever HOWB Meet-up happened at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival in September thanks to Korey Rubin, Christina Cogan and Ralph Duncan.

6. I met and interviewed Si Miller whose claim to fame is putting 50 coats of varnish on his vintage 1967 Century ski boat (one coat per day for 50 days – seriously!). This boat is gorgeous!

7. I had the privilege of meeting and interviewing sailing legends and authors Lin & Larry Pardey – WOW!

8. I got to yak each week about the 12’ lapstrake canoe I started building this year – 90% done now! I thought I would finish in 2012 – but won’t quite make it

9. I made dozens of new friends, learned a ton about wooden boats, and got to hear fascinating life stories.

10. I was a presenter at the 36th Annual Wooden Boat Festival in Port Townsend, WA for the first time! I also had the priviledge of attending several events for the first time: Olympia Wooden Boat Fair, Pocket Yacht Palooza, SCAMP Camp and the Maritime Heritage Festival.

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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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