Ask an Expert Winter Series - Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival

Join us for Wooden Boat Festival's

'Ask an Expert' Winter Series

Six behind-the-scenes interviews and demos followed by Q&As!
January 6–March 17, 2022

Back by popular demand, our Winter Series brings your favorite experts from all over the region to you in a unique and engaging Zoom experience. In 6 Zoom sessions, we'll learn from a variety of authorities in the boating world on topics ranging from ancestral voyaging and green boating to vessel stewardship and more! Enjoy these behind-the-scenes interviews and demos with time to ask your burning questions from the comfort of your home.

When you buy a ticket for the Ask an Expert Series you’re supporting a bold maritime organization making a difference in the region.

Series Pass $35

Access to all 8 live sessions
On-demand viewing through April 15, 2022

All sales are final.

Ticket Sales Ended

Single Session $9.99

Access to live session only

March 17 session is free. Ticket still required.
All sales are final.

Ticket Sales Ended

Click here for instructions on installing and using Zoom.

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 x117

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.

Get your ticket

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.

Get your ticket

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.

Get your ticket

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.

Get your ticket

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.

Get your ticket

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.

Get your ticket

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.

Get your ticket

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.

Get your ticket

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

NIGEL CALDER

Can We Electrify our Boating to Reduce our Carbon Footprint?

Thursday, January 6, 5:00–6:30 PM PST
Join Nigel Calder as he explores the different duty cycles in marine applications and investigates how far we can take electrification with existing and foreseeable technology.

Ticket sales ended

WOMEN'S BOAT BUILDING PANEL

SHE BUILDS: Wit & Wisdom From Three Port Townsend Woman Boatbuilders

Thursday, January 20, 5:00–6:30 PM PST
Woman boatbuilders Diana Talley, Esther Whitmore, and Julia Maynard share their experiences, inspiration, apprenticeships, mentors, wins, and fails. Moderated by Kaci Cronkhite.

Diana Talley, Julia Maynard, and Esther Whitmore range in age from late 30s to near 70. They were born from as far away as New York and Boston and close as Seattle, and all moved to Port Townsend to work on boats.
Their education ranges from apprenticeships with some of the region's most respected shipwrights (John Gardner, Bob Perry, Ray Speck) to training in tall ships. Some have been independent contractors while others are employed by big shops like Haven Boatworks, and/or founded their own boat shop in the Port.
The panel will be moderated by Kaci Cronkhite who, as a cowgirl turned circumnavigator (with Nancy Erley and their all-woman crew), former Wooden Boat Festival director, international author, and wooden boat owner employing women shipwrights and trades, has been a worldwide advocate for women and girls’ competence at all levels of the maritime industry.

Ticket sales ended

Photo of Esther Whitmore by Jeremy J Johnson

MIMI GEORGE

Voyaging Revivals of Oceania: How Ancient Navigation and Boat Building is Useful Today

Thursday, February 3, 5:00–6:30 PM PST
A deeper look into ancient navigation and boatbuilding. Cultural anthropologist and sailor Mimi George will be interviewed by Lisa Werner.

Marianne “Mimi” George, Ph.D., is a cultural anthropologist and sailor who supports training youth to apply ancestral voyaging knowledge to current problems, such as youth unemployment, biodiversity loss, and climate change.
Over the course of her career, she has documented voyaging traditions of Austronesian people in Papua New Guinea, a small mixed-gender crew wintering a sailboat in Antarctic sea-ice, sea-hunter and reindeer herder networks across Bering Straits, and Polynesian islanders in SE Solomon Islands who build vessels and navigate by ancient designs, materials, and methods.
Mimi has responded to requests for help by communities attempting to perpetuate or revive their voyaging lifeways. In papers, presentations, and books, Mimi describes the prominent roles of women and children in voyaging cultures, and how the revival of ancestral voyaging networks creates sustainable and resilient communities and ecologies.

Ticket sales ended

ANDY STEWART & ZACH SIMONSON-BOND

Creating a Vessel Stewardship Plan: Planning Your Boat's Future

Thursday, February 17, 5:00–6:30 PM PST
In this engaging, live presentation, Andy and Zach will detail how to develop a “vessel stewardship plan” in order to manage competing interests of ownership.

Andy Stewart is a shipwright and the owner of Emerald Marine in Anacortes, WA. He has more than 35 years of experience building, repairing, and caring for wooden vessels. He is a licensed captain and sails Windsong a locally built Winslow-designed yawl.
Zach Simonson-Bond, NAMS-associate, is the owner and lead surveyor at Kingspoke Marine Surveying. He is a graduate of the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding, cut his teeth on the schooner Adventuress, and holds his 100-ton Inland Master's license.

Ticket sales ended

DANIEL EVANS & JESSE WIEGEL

Northwest Maritime Center Adventure Races: 2022 Is Not Going to Suck

Thursday, March 3, 5:00–6:30 PM PST
The Race Boss and Race Marshal for the NWMC Adventure Races will be presenting the races, racers, defining failure, and setting the odds for the 2022 Race to Alaska and SEVENTY48 races..

Race Boss, Daniel Evans, and Race Marshal, Jesse Wiegel, make up the Adventure Races team for the Northwest Maritime Center. They’re in charge of Race to Alaska, SEVENTY48, and WA360, and combined have over half a century of water work, collision avoidance, and love affair with the sea. Geographically, they’ve worked a triangle of adventure bounded by the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, St. Petersburg, Russia, and Ushuaia, Argentina to the south.

Ticket sales ended

SUSAN BRITTAIN

LGBTQ+ and Finding My Way in the Maritime Industry—free event

Thursday, March 17, 5:00–6:30 PM PST
Susan Brittain, a transgender woman who has been in the maritime industry for over 40 years, moderates a panel of LGBTQ+ mariners as they share their stories.

Susan has lived on two continents, sailed on two oceans, and lived in two genders. Their journey on tall ships started in 1980 when they signed on as a deckhand on the first Pride of Baltimore. From there, they spent the next 30 plus years working as a captain on various schooners and wooden workboats, in addition to working as a carpenter, calker, and rigger on the building restoration of several ships. Susan now lives on Marrowstone Island with their soulmate of 40 years, Cindy, and has been working for Sound Experience since 2018.

Lou Geraghty – Lou is an apprentice carpenter at Haven Boatworks, LLC. Lou is a graduate of the Marine Systems and the Traditional Wooden Boatbuilding Courses at Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding and lives in Port Townsend.

Amy Kovacs – Amy is the Program Director at Sound Experience. Amy first came aboard Adventuress in 2009 as an Educator/Deckhand and moved up to Program Coordinator and now supports the crew and shipboard community while working with schools and educators to facilitate life-changing programs aboard Adventuress.

Tiffany Krihwan – Captain of the schooner Ernestina Morrissey, Tiffany has been a tall ship captain for over 25 years. She’s worked on many tall ships including the schooner Roseway, chief mate of the Pride of Baltimore II, relief captain of brigantine Exy Johnson and captain of the tall ship Unicorn. Tiffany was the 2019 Tall Ships America - Sail Trainer of the Year.

Ticket sales ended

March 17 session is free. Ticket still required.

Questions?

Please contact us at festival@woodenboat.org or 360.385.3628 x117

Join us for Wooden Boat Festival's