port townsend | The Filson Journal

Northwest Maritime: A Connection to Craft and Sea

Northwest Maritime was born from the wooden boat renaissance of the 1970s, we connect people to craft, place, and sea. What began as a campfire gathering of boatbuilders is now the largest wooden boat festival in North America. Through programs, classes, and events, we immerse people in hands-on experiences that reconnect them with the natural world.

For the Love of Wooden Boats: Port Townsend’s Shipwrights Co-Op

Southeast of Port Townsend is a gravel yard where large boats balance on blocks of wood and slender steel stands. Removed from the water, the vessels reveal pleasing, functional curves. Inside massive sheds, deliberate Lilliputians in warm and dusty clothing crawl in and out of the leviathans to a symphony of hand and power tools.

Soul of a Boat

Over the past four decades, Port Townsend, WA has become an important hub for the building and maintenance of wooden boats on the West Coast. It is there that the history and skills of wooden boatbuilding are still taught, shaping the souls of those that go to sea. Video by Brother for Filson.