Interviews with the people from Port Townsend, WA and the Olympic Peninsula who have unique and interesting maritime related stories. We interview shipwrights, voyagers, sailmakers, fishers, designers, and more. If you are not familiar with the Pacific Northwest of the United States, the Olympic Peninsula is at the very northwest corner of the lower 48 states. Port Townsend has been a sailing hub since the 1850's and is currently the home to a vibrant community of marine trades people and sailors. The Wooden Boat Festival has been going on in PT for over forty years and has become one of the largest celebrations of wooden boats in the country.
Margie moved to Port Townsend when she was 3 years old. There’ve been a lot of changes since then. She met her life-long best friend Donna, in first grade, at the same time as her future husband Glenn who was in second grade. In 1962, the Abrahams, the Daubenbergers and the Scheyers ordered 3 Thunderbird sailboats which became the foundation of the nascent sailing and racing culture that Port Townsend is now known for. Sailing was a family passion. They cruised extensively and raced competitively, often inviting school friends of their daughter’s to be crew. Active in the yacht club, the events were legendary. In this conversation, we sat down with Margie, her daughter Annie and granddaughter Glenna and caught a glimpse into a different time. I’m Diana Talley.
19 Jan 2024
Jim Tolpin
Jim Tolpin is a renowned woodworker and author. He grew up in Western Massachusetts, and after getting a degree in geology, found that he preferred working with wood rather than rocks. Early on, he got to know the famous boat builder and designer Budd Macintosh, who became a mentor for both woodworking and writing. Later, he worked at the Penobscot Boat Company in Rockport Maine. He also got to know the founder of Wooden Boat Magazine and wrote a column for them in its early years. After moving to Port Townsend in the late 1970’s, Jim specialized in building one-off custom cabinets and furniture while also working (and living on) boats from time to time. After ten years in Port Townsend, he thought he’d try his hand at writing, and now has written 18 books which have sold close to a million copies. He also wrote articles for many other magazines. Late in his career he has focused on using hand tools. Most recently, he has been rediscovering preindustrial woodworking and design techniques. In addition to these topics, in this interview he discusses what Port Townsend was like in the 70’s and 80’s, his experiences camp-cruising in a 14-foot open boat with his wife Cathy, he gives advice for people entering the trades, talks about the importance of efficiency in making a living in woodworking, and tells us about a hitchhiking dog and much more. My name is Jim Heumann. If you want to learn more, Jim Tolpin posts often on Instagram (@jimtolpin), and has a web site (https://www.byhandandeye.com (https://www.byhandandeye.com/)), and a YouTube channel (@jimtolpin1).
10 Jul 2023
Dick McCurdy
Dick McCurdy always just wanted to be on the water. He grew up in Port Townsend, WA, sailing and racing with friends. At the University of Washington he was captain of the sailing team. After finishing graduate school he bought the bare hull of a Cape George 36 sailboat, finished the boat himself with help from friends and sailed it around the world. He then had a ten-year stint on tug boats, working his way up from deckhand to captain. That experience allowed him to transition to becoming a Puget Sound pilot, a position he held for twenty-five years. He still cruises in a 32ft aluminum powerboat. As you might imagine he has a lot of stories! We talk about growing up in Port Townsend, circumnavigating in the 70’s, running tug boats up to Alaska and down to California, what it is like being a pilot, sneaking onto a cruise ship to take a bath, facing down a young man with a machine gun in Egypt, sailing with a parrot, cruising the Red Sea, voyaging with a baby on board, and much more. I’m Jim Heumann – here’s the interview.
24 Apr 2023
Bill Nance
Bill Nance is only the second known person to ever sail alone around the world via the three great capes from west to east, which he did between 1962 and 1965. The book, The Circumnavigators, says he was "...one of the boldest and most competent, but least known of the circumnavigators on the tiny 25-foot Cardinal Virtue". In this conversation, we mostly talk about that voyage, the adventures he had and the people he met, but we also cover how he ended up in Port Townsend and a little bit about what he has done since arriving here in 1979. This interview was recorded in April of 2023. I'm Jim Heumann. I conducted most of the interview, but Bill's wife, Marie Dressler, and my wife Karen Sullivan, were also in attendance and you will hear them from time to time as well. Here's the interview.
15 Mar 2023
Diana Talley
This is Maritime Voices - I’m your host Jim Heumann. In this interview I will be speaking with Diana Talley. Diana believes that she may hold the world’s record for throwing up at sea after getting pregnant on a 106-day engineless non-stop voyage from Panama to Port Townsend, in a boat without standing headroom. She's been a shipwright, an offshore fisher, a racing sailboat captain, and is now a writer as well as a bit of a rabble rouser with a penchant for getting things done. Diana grew up in Vancouver, Canada, and on Lake Washington in Seattle. She also spent time in Sausalito, California in the 70’s, where she first got interested in boats, but then went back to Washington and settled on Bainbridge Island, where she designed and built her first boat. She earned a living as a commercial fisher, sailing a boat she built herself (and it included a bathtub!) In 1990 Diana moved to Port Townsend where she became a full-time shipwright. In this interview we talk about the “funky boatyard,” what it was like being a woman in the marine trades, racing sailboats, commercial fishing, what Port Townsend was like in the 90’s, offshore voyaging, and more. Here’s the interview.
5 Mar 2023
Sean Rankins
Sean is a sail maker and the owner, with his wife Inger, of Northwest Sails & Canvas in Port Hadlock, Washington. He grew up in Southern California and started working for North Sails in San Diego in the late 70’s. He went on to open lofts and support big regattas all over the world, including a couple of Americas Cups. Durning the 80’s sail making got regularly interrupted by by other adventures like riding a classic motorcycle throughout India, Nepal, and Asia, as well as stints in Europe and Canada. In 1989 he showed up in Port Townsend, Washington riding one of the classic motorcycles he had sent home from India, and fell in live with the place. Soon he had a job with Port Townsend Sails then went on to do several other things, like timber framing, before settling into his sail loft in Port Hadlock, WA. He talks about Port Townsend in the 1990’s, the “funky boatyard” that is now the Boat Haven shipyard, the wooden boat racing series that took place in Puget Sound in the 90’s, the Wooden Boat Foundation, the Sea Dog Regatta, racing on Maxi boats, working with Lowell North, almost sinking on a boat delivery, and much more.
20 Nov 2022
Leif Knutsen
Leif was born in 1943 and grew up in Connecticut and Oregon. He got first got involved with boats while living on the Columbia River in his youth. He spent a number of summers in Alaska fishing and fixing boats, and some time working at Fisherman’s Terminal in Seattle before moving to Port Townsend in the early 1970’s with his soon-to-be wife Joan. He was one of the founders of the Port Townsend Shipwright’s Co-op. We talk about the boats he built, working as a shipwright in Alaska, what Port Townsend was like in the 70’s and 80’s, one of his boats almost sinking in Coos Bay, being dyslexic, the Shipwright’s Co-op, and much more.
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