Ask an Expert Series - Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival

Join us for Wooden Boat Festival's

'Ask an Expert' Winter Series

Eight behind-the-scenes interviews and demos followed by Q&As!
January–April 2021

When it’s cold and COVID outside join us online for this unique Zoom experience with many of your favorite experts across the country and all over the world! In 8 Zoom sessions, we'll visit with friends on the east and west coasts, pop down to Mexico and Costa Rica, and over to New Zealand. Enjoy these engaging, behind-the-scenes interviews and demos with time to ask your burning questions from the comfort of your home.

Series Pass: $30

Access to all 8 live sessions
On-demand viewing through April 15, 2021

All sales are final.

Get your ticket!

Single Session: $5.99/each

Access to live session only

All sales are final.

Get your ticket!

Make it a gift!

Gift a Series Pass or individual session ticket to a special boat lover in your life. Click the "Get Your Ticket" button, select the ticket type you'd like to give, then input the recipient's email address and information in the checkout form. Be sure to purchase their ticket separately from your own.

Questions?

Please contact us at festival@woodenboat.org or 360.385.3628 x100

Lin Pardey

Up Close & Personal with Lin

Wednesday, January 6, 6:00–7:30 PM
Join Lin Pardey back at home in New Zealand covering the America's Cup, Larry's memorial, and planning her next sailing trip.

Lin has voyaged more than 210,000 miles on boats ranging from 24-feet to more than 60. Her seminars, along with 12 books and 5 videos, the majority written in conjunction with her husband, Larry, have encouraged thousands of potential voyagers to set sail. After 47 years of voyaging together, Larry passed away in August of 2020. Lin is carrying on the legacy they started by continuing to sail and write. Her most recent voyaging has been a circuit of the Tasman Sea, from New Zealand through Vanuatu and around Tasmania on the 40-foot sloop Sahula, owned by David Haigh. She is currently covering the America's Cup for two American media outlets.

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Douglas Brooks

Building a Boat the Japanese Way

Wednesday, January 20, 6:00–7:30 PM
A deeper look into the inside world of Japanese boatbuilding and the apprentice system: learning silently, no written plans, secrets, and the differences between Eastern and Western techniques. Douglas will be interviewed by Japanese boatbuilding apprentice Nina Noah.

Douglas Brooks is a boatbuilder, writer, researcher, and teacher specializing in the construction of traditional wooden boats for museums and private clients. Since 1990 he has been researching traditional Japanese boatbuilding, documenting the techniques and design secrets of the craft. He has built boats with nine boatbuilders from throughout Japan, all craftspeople in their seventies and eighties; he is the sole apprentice for seven of his teachers.

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Behan and Jamie Gifford

Pandemic Cruising in Mexico

Wednesday, February 3, 6:00–7:30 PM
Free to move about! Currently in Mexico, Behan and Jamie share knowledge for cruising during the pandemic.

When Behan and Jamie Gifford sailed south from the Salish Sea in 2008, they anticipated cruising for a two-to-five-year sabbatical. Life had other plans! Nearly a decade later they closed the loop on a circumnavigation aboard their Stevens 47, Totem. While their three children grew up afloat, the Totem family has sailed around 60,000 miles while visiting 48 countries/territories, from Madagascar to Martinique. They planned to head west again from Mexico this spring, but the pandemic forced a change in plans! With an eye on South Pacific for 2021, they're cruising the Sea of Cortez. Together, they offer coach/mentor services to help people realize their cruising dreams.

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Chris Chase & Susan Shillinglaw

Behind the Scenes of the Western Flyer Project

Wednesday, February 17, 6:00–7:30 PM
Behind the scenes of the Western Flyer: the charming backstory about the bandsaw that built the boat twice, partnering with surfboard builders, and more.

Chris Chase, Project Director at the Western Flyer Foundation, brings over thirty years of experience as a shipwright, project manager, and operational director. When the Western Flyer first arrived in Port Townsend, Chris was the lead shipwright and foreman of the Western Flyer restoration. What began as just another restoration for him soon turned into a deep passion and course-changing event.

A Professor of English at San Jose State University, Dr. Shillinglaw was Director of the University’s Center for Steinbeck Studies for 18 years. She has published widely on Steinbeck: A Journey into Steinbeck’s California (Roaring Forties Press, 2006, ’11, ‘19); Carol and John Steinbeck: Portrait of a Marriage (U of Nevada P, 2013) and On Reading The Grapes of Wrath (Penguin, 2014). She also wrote introductions to several Steinbeck books for Penguin New American Library and is currently working on a study of Steinbeck’s ecological vision.

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Chris Chase & Susan Shillinglaw

Behind the Scenes of the Western Flyer Project

Wednesday, February 17, 5:45–7:45 PM
Behind the scenes of the Western Flyer: the charming backstory about the bandsaw that built the boat twice, partnering with surfboard builders, and more.

Get your ticket

Andy Stewart & Paul Bieker

Designing a Performance Daysailer

Wednesday, March 3, 6:00–7:30 PM
From concept to sailing in one year—Paul Bieker of Bieker Boats and Andy Stewart of Emerald Marine take you through the process.

Andy Stewart has been working on wooden boats professionally for over 30 years. As a craftsman, his passion is to use tradition and appropriate innovation to keep wooden vessels and his trade alive.

Paul Bieker is the founder and owner of Bieker Boats, which recently relocated from Seattle to Anacortes, WA. He is one of sailing's most revered and prolific performance boat designers, and has drawn everything from the fastest International 14s in the world to the hulls of the most recent America's Cup multihulls, and many things in between.

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Andy Stewart & Paul Bieker

Designing a Performance Daysailer

Wednesday, March 3, 5:45–7:45 PM
From concept to sailing in one year—Paul Bieker of Bieker Boats and Andy Stewart of Emerald Marine take you through the process.

Andy Stewart has been working on wooden boats professionally for over 30 years. As a craftsman, his passion is to use tradition and appropriate innovation to keep wooden vessels and his trade alive.

Get your ticket

Ernie Baird & Diana Talley

Estimation and Precision in Boatbuilding

Wednesday, March 17, 6:00–7:30 PM
When to go fast and when to go slow. Ernie and Diana share their boatbuilding wisdom and experience: when you can estimate and when precision is imperative and non-negotiable.

Ernie Baird started his wooden boat career in 1978 as a laborer, then lead shipwright, eventually owning Baird boat Company. He worked for many years prior to that as a merchant seaman, as deck crew on fishing boats and square riggers. Ernie has mentored and taught many students through teaching positions and volunteering. He completed the Race to Alaska in Grace B, his classic open wooden boat that he built in 1985. He has served his community through many organizations, from the Planning Commission to Jumping Mouse, setting up Big Brothers and Sisters program in Jefferson County, and being on the advisory board to the Coast Guard for inspecting wooden charter vessels. He and his wife are avid tango dancers and enjoy gardening.

Shipwright, finisher, raconteur, and straight-talking mentor to countless women entering the trades, Diana owned the first and longest-run woman-owned boat shop in Port Townsend. From sleeping in the back of a pickup truck in Sausalito—inspired to the trade by Ray Speck—to salting her skills fishing with a husband and baby in Alaska, setting up her boatshop Taku Marine with partner Rick, and co-founding the Port Townsend Marine Trades Association, Diana has generously, doggedly, honestly, and often hilariously contributed to what most people love and admire about Port Townsend’s passionate maritime culture—authentic wit, grit, and passion.

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Ernie Baird & Diana Talley

Estimation and Precision in Boatbuilding

Wednesday, March 17, 5:45–7:45 PM
When to go fast and when to go slow. Ernie and Diana share their boatbuilding wisdom and experience: when you can estimate and when precision is imperative and non-negotiable.

Diana Talley is the former co-owner of Taku Marine in the Boat Haven, Port Townsend, now retired.

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John Welsford

Turning a Dream Into Reality

Wednesday, March 31, 6:00–7:30 PM
All about boat design—from working up a design brief to translating that into plans to produce a craft that will fit the clients needs and resources.

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Danielle Doggett

Ceiba: Building a Cargo Ship in the Jungles of Costa Rica

Wednesday, April 7, 6:00–7:30 PM
The amazing story of building Ceiba: carbon-neutral shipping, sustainability, and making the world a better place.

SAILCARGO INC. CEO Danielle Doggett has 16 years of experience on traditional ships, and specific project management for SAILCARGO initiatives. Growing up just north of Kingston, Ontario, she began her sailing career with the St. Lawrence II, moving onto larger ships at age 16: Swan fan Makkum. Founder of Topsail Rigging Ltd., she has focused her attention in recent years on gaining knowledge of the build stage of large-scale projects, including working alongside Sailmaster B.V. in the Netherlands. She is an adviser to the Caribbean Sail Training Association, and was Captain of the flagship of Barbados, sailing cargo schooner Ruth for the rigging, launch, and sea trials.

Get your ticket

Questions?

Please contact us at festival@woodenboat.org or 360.385.3628 x100

Join us for Wooden Boat Festival's

'Ask an Expert' Winter Series

Eight behind-the-scenes interviews and demos followed by Q&As!January–April 2021

Series Pass: $30

Single Session: $5.99/each

Make it a gift!

Questions?

Lin Pardey

Up Close & Personal with Lin

Douglas Brooks

Building a Boat the Japanese Way

Behan and Jamie Gifford

Pandemic Cruising in Mexico

Chris Chase & Susan Shillinglaw

Behind the Scenes of the Western Flyer Project

Chris Chase & Susan Shillinglaw

Behind the Scenes of the Western Flyer Project

Andy Stewart & Paul Bieker

Designing a Performance Daysailer

Andy Stewart & Paul Bieker

Designing a Performance Daysailer

Ernie Baird & Diana Talley

Estimation and Precision in Boatbuilding

Ernie Baird & Diana Talley

Estimation and Precision in Boatbuilding

John Welsford

Turning a Dream Into Reality

Danielle Doggett

Ceiba: Building a Cargo Ship in the Jungles of Costa Rica

Questions?

Eight behind-the-scenes interviews and demos followed by Q&As!
January–April 2021