The Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding is a vocational school located in Port Hadlock, Washington. The school’s mission is to teach and preserve the skills and crafts of traditional wooden boatbuilding and maritime crafts. The school builds both commissioned and speculative boats to US Coast Guard standards while also teaching adult students the skills necessary to work in the marine trades.
The school’s curriculum includes courses in traditional hand-tool skills, blueprint reading, lofting, and vessel construction. Students learn the skills needed to build wooden boats from scratch, including boat design, construction techniques, and how to work with wooden materials.
The school’s most popular boats are Grandy skiffs, which are usually between 9 and 14.5 feet long. These small craft are lapstrake planked in western red cedar, with sapele stems, keels, and transoms. Frames are made of White Oak or Black Locust. The school typically builds one to two boats like this each year, and they are sold to help support the school’s operations.
The Grandy Boat Company, which was located on Lake Union in Seattle, made many boats both large and small from the early 1920s to 1967. The school’s students build boats to the lines and documentation taken by former instructor Tim Lee from an original boat owned by The Center For Wooden Boats in Seattle, Washington.
Overall, the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding is a unique institution that combines traditional craftsmanship with modern vocational training. The school’s commitment to preserving traditional wooden boatbuilding skills is admirable, and its students are well-prepared to enter the marine trades upon graduation.
Posted by Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding on 2014-05-01 16:10:31