Another successful Wooden Boat Festival

The weekend was perfect for the 39th Wooden Boat Festival here in Port Townsend. Warm temperatures, cool ocean breezes, pretty wooden boats and reconnecting with old friends as well as meeting new ‘friends’ who share in our passion for wooden boats. 

Wooden boats are special. They’re living crafts, planks swelling and shrinking as they adjust to warm sunlight and icy morning fog. Aboard I’m intoxicated with that mystical elusive smell, a combination of saltwater, cedar, linseed oil, varnish and diesel fuel. Attention to detail was everywhere from gold paint to lines carefully coiled and sails properly stitched.

We’ve owned several wooden boats. ‘Rumpy,’ a 45′ 1941 Monk Sr. cabin-cruiser (which we lived aboard for 6 years), ‘Sea Witch,’a 30 sailboat, 1939, also a Monk Sr. design and now this little 19’ 1959 Lighting appropriately named ‘Thriller.’ She’s Larry’s mistress and a ‘thrill’ to sail.

Thanks for reading.
Nancy Cherry Eifert