Week Zero – Introduction

I am about to begin a year long program at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding.  I have been asked by a number of different people to document my experience, either because they have an interest in boats or because they don’t understand what “I am going to boat school” means.  I am also interested in keeping record for myself so I can see how my goals change over time.  My plan is to start out by writing commentary that best communicates my experiences.  This will not be instructional, conversely it will be my impressions of the experience and what I find interesting or thought provoking.  Currently, I hope the experience will further develop my skillset as a craftsman and I hope to become a professional (i reserve the right to that definition) boatbuilder or shipwright.  With the ultimate goal of being a mentor or teacher of this craft.  I fully expect these desires to change as I move through the program.

Cleanup day

Being the imposter overachiever that I am I volunteered to go into school for 2 days to help get things ready.  It was mostly clean up stuff but I did get to meet some of my classmates and instructors..  We sanded and painted all of the bench tops and we did other general cleanup around the shops.  The lower and older shop spaces are a version of my dream shop.  They have wooden floors, tall ceilings, tons of natural light, and they overlook the water (both buildings are pretty old).  Based on the map I believe the shops overlook Port Townsend bay.  The coolest part was that I was able to spy on all the boats that are in progress in the shops.  I will put some pictures below and post some of them on my Instagram stories. I don’t know much about them yet.

Nordic Folk Boat

Marsh Cat (Designed by Joel White)

Lobster Boat (i think someone called it a lobster boat?)

Another sweet carvel planked boat i know nothing about

McPherson Shop

Meeting people on the clean up days has made me work on my “Elevator Pitch” for the “why boat school” question.  I have always been interested in cars, boats, planes and trains.  I “did” the car thing for a number of years as a career.  Woodworking has always been a hobby and wooden boat building is the ideal way to bring these things together.  I have been talking about participating in a program like this for many years.

Tools

I got my tools that I ordered this week.  It was probably one of the easiest tool purchases.  I just showed up to Edensaw and they had a box of goodies with my name on it waiting for me.  Without using anything yet, my favorites were the Japanese slick and the “nickered” Lie Nielson block plane.

So that’s week zero, if you find this content useful or interesting I would love to hear about your thoughts.

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