DENNIS ARMSTRONG, Marlinspike Artist. It all started with a kid who didn’t know how to tie his shoes until age five. He joined boy scouts where they attempted to teach him knots to be used around camp. For his first wedding anniversary, his bride gave him a book on knots, two balls of twine and a fid and said "Here, make something". One thing that is for sure: Dennis is an experience. He is a walking reference on things made of rope.
COURTNEY BARTLETT jumped into sailing with both feet - she learned to sail one month, started teaching the next and within 6 six months had bought her very own down and out classic wooden boat. After a year and a half restoring Eleanora to racing condition, she became CWB’s fi rst El Toro instructor. Courtney now manages our Youth Programs and can often be found paddling an umiak full of kids around Lake Union.as sailed and taught sailing on boats of all sizes: 8' El Toros to 180’ three masted squareriggers.
JOHN BELLI studied Art and Architecture at the University of Arizona and graduated with a degree in Fine Art. For the past fifteen years, he has been designing and building furniture professionally using both traditional and contemporary techniques.
WAYNE CHIMENTI has 30 years of experience with tall ships as master, mate, rigger and sailmaker. He has rigged five tall ships. With his wife Nicole, he currently runs Force 10 Sailmakers, making traditional sails.
OLIVER DAVIS is a Coast Guard licensed captain and a US Sailing certified instructor. At The Center for Wooden Boats, he teaches One-on-One lessons, Docking Under Sail, and the RaceNOW! program. Olly has been racing since age 11 and most recently spent four years doing the bow for Paul Cayard on the Farr 40 Samba Pa Ti, with a team that won three National and North American championships. In his spare time, he enjoys hopping freight trains up and down the west coast, and has logged about 3,500 miles between Tacoma and Los Angeles.
SAM DEVLIN is a strong proponent of “Stitch and Glue” boat construction and has used this method to build over four hundred wooden boats since 1974, all but four of them of his own design. He is the author of a book titled “Devlin’s Boatbuilding” and has produced a Video/DVD titled “Sam Devlin on Wooden Boatbuilding”. Sam’s articles on Boatbuilding and Boats are published in Woodenboat, Sailing, Pacific Yachting, Northwest Yachting, Norwesting Magazine and others. www.devlinboat.com
JACK DORSEY has been a life-long resident of Washington state and received his BA degree from Seattle Pacific College. He is a former art educator in the Highline School District and a professional artist for over forty years He as to his credit two one-man shows at the Frye Art Museum and a solo show in Tokyo, Japan. He currently resides on Camano Island and is represented by the Gunnar Nordstrom Gallery in Kirkland, Art in the Loft on Camano Island, and the La Conner Seaside Gallery in La Conner, WA. www.gunnarnordstrom.com
COREY FREEDMAN has diligently researched the literature and museum sources for the specifications and construction methods of native craft and has actively shared this material as an instructor and lecturer. For the past decade, he has overseen the building of over 800 skin boats. He has been an avid paddler for over twenty years and is an experienced sea kayaking instructor. He is also the founder of Spirit Line Kayaks, The Skin Boat School, and Umiak Adventures. www.skinboats.org.
PATRICK GOULD is a licensed captain and US Sailing Certified powerboat instructor. He has taught Family Boat Building and Sailing since he joined CWB in 2001. Nowadays he manages our Boats for Sale program, but in all other matters defers to his 4 year old daughter Ella.
JOE GREENLEY founded Redfish Custom Kayak & Canoe Company in 1992 as Pacific North America’s first established strip-built kayak company. His company, located in Port Townsend, WA, has been featured on both Public Television and in notable magazines such as Architectural Digest, Town & Country, Lexus, and Sunset Magazine - where Redfish Kayaks was prominently profiled as the “Best of the West”.
JOHN GUZZWELL has been building boats for over 50 years. In 1953, he built a 20’ sailboat, Trekka, and soloed around the world from 1955 to 1959, the first Brit to do so and the smllest boat at the time. He then began a boat-building career in Victoria and returned to England where he built a 45’cutter, Treasure. He and his family sailed to Australia via Panama in 1965 - 66 and then settled in New Zealand where he built several cold-molded boats. He built the 65’ Lively, the 130’ three masted schooner Tole Mour, a 23’ modernized version of Trekka called Dolly and Endangered Species a 30’ fractional sloop which he sailed twice to Hawaii in the single-handed TransPac.
ERIC HARMAN builds and repairs wood canoes and boats at his shop in Arlington, Washington. He has paddled canoes and kayaks extensively throughout the Northwest and has led several classes in wood & canvas canoe restoration and building at CWB. www.harmancanoe.com
STEVE HILLreceived his formal education from Boise State University and Washington State University. He is a member of The Puget Sound Group of Northwest Painters, Northwest Pastel Society, The Pastel Society of Oregon and the Pastel Society of the West Coast. As a teacher, illustrator and long-time business owner of Island Graphics & Advertising, he is now an active pleine aire and studio artist. www.windsweptstudios.com
ERIC HVALSOE has been a professional boatbuilder, designer and shipwright for over 25 years. His maritime creations range from the beautiful Hvalsoe 13 and 16, traditional lapstrake rowing and sailing craft, to the stunning Aurora and Little Miss Canada IV, interpretations of 1930’s speedboats combining modern wood technology and high performance. Eric has been teaching traditional boatbuilding skills, lapstrake construction in particular, since the mid 1980’s. www.hvalsoe-boats.com
KIPPIE JOE is a member of the Suquamish Tribe and has been weaving for 10+ years. She began with basket weaving and worked her way up to Cedar Regalia (both Traditional and Contemporary). She was taught to make regalia by the late Bruce Miller, of the Skokomish Tribe. She enjoys sharing her weaving skills with friends and family in the community.
BRIAN JOHNSON started his career as a shipwright in 1973 and founded his company, Ocean Bay Marine, in the mid-1980s. Since then, he has helped maintain and repair Seattle’s fleet of wooden fishing vessels, using traditional shipbuilding techniques. After working on Arthur Foss during the 2007 haulout and survey class, Brian became interested in sharing his knowledge with members of the public in the Hull Repair Workshop.
SAM JOHNSON has taken boat building courses from John Gardner and Barry Thomas at Seaport, built a variety of traditional craft and opened a boatshop at the Oregon Historical Society. Bronze Casting came as a result of needing an opening port-light and finding none available on the market. He has led casting classes for the National Maritime Museum in San Francisco, the Wooden Boat School in Maine, and the Rivers West Small Craft Center in Portland, Oregon.
KEMP JONES is an experienced sailboat racer who has raced competitively on two coasts. For the last few years, he has been leading CWB’s “Team T-Bird,” racing the Center’s 26’ Thunderbird on the local racing circuits.
JEREMY KATICH spent his early years sailing, shipping and marina managing in his Boise, Idaho bathtub. Impassioned by a desire to reclaim his glory days as captain of a fleet, Jeremy turned to building and maintaining traditional small craft vessels, though they definitely do not fit in the tub. He studied at the Northwest School of Wooden Boat Building and currently works as a Boatwright at CWB.
JENNIFER KUHN discovered woodworking through the Historic Boat Restoration Program at Seattle Central Community College. She went on to graduate from the Marine Carpentry program and now works on boats and homes in the Seattle area. A native of Maryland, Jennifer enjoys weekend hikes, friends’ smiling faces and enthusiastic dance floors.
EMMA LEVITT has woodworking in her blood - her mother was a furniture builder. She first came to CWB as a volunteer in the shop. After an undergraduate degree in sculpture, a graduate degree in education, several extended trips abroad, and a year spent living in four states. Emma has “settled down” in Seattle. Now one of CWB’s AmeriCorps volunteers, she teaches youth boatbuilding classes and works with other youth programs at CWB.
ADRIAN LIPP started his engine repair career as a Tacoma Sea Scout at the age of 14, and for two years lived and worked in the Arthur Foss engine room. A USCG licensed engineer, Adrian has worked on tall ships, mud boats, fish packers, charter boats, and started his own diesel repair business “Old Tacoma Marine” which works nearly exclusively on antique diesel engines. Keeping old diesel engines running is his self-identified life passion. www.oldtacomamarine.com
TED NUTTALL, a graduate of Colorado Institute
of Art, is a figurative watercolorist with exceptional talent. With a keen eye for detail, an amazing ability to capture the essence of people and his twenty-five year career in graphic
design, he has become one of the premier watercolorists of our day. He is a signature member of the National
Watercolor Society, American Wotercolor Society, Transparent Watercolor
Society of America, and a Royal Honor Society
member of the Arizona Watercolor Association.
www.tednuttall.com
EDEL O’CONNOR first learned to sail in wooden boats off the Atlantic coast of Ireland. She is a graduate of the Marine Carpentry program at Seattle Central Community College and has been with CWB since 2003. She manages Maritime Skills Workshops and teaches Family Boatbuilding. She has always loved messing around in boats.
THERESA PARKER is Vice President of NNABA and is a cultural instructor. She has taught basketry, traditional foods and traditional clothing for over thirty years and has shared her skills nationally and internationally. She enjoys sharing her knowledge of the western red cedar and its uses.
INGER RANKINS moved to Port Townsend in 1989 and went to work for The Artful Dodger, a local canvas company. There she learned to sew canvas work for sailboats. In 1999, she started her own business, North West Sails and Canvas with her husband, Sean Rankins, who is the sailmaker in the family. Inger makes custom canvas covers and cushions for all types of boats. She loves to sew and looks forward to sharing her knowledge with students.
SEAN RANKINS has been teaching sailmaking for 17 years, has traveled the world building sails and worked alongside many great sailmakers. A large part of his career has been in the study and building of traditional sails. Sean teaches and practices the practical hands-on skills that are slowly disappearing from our maritime culture and offers a different approach to keeping our sailmaking traditions alive and healthy.
TIM REAGAN is a renowned caulker of traditional boats. He has been working on projects throughout the world and knows traditional caulking as well as anyone. Tim has taught caulking workshops at CWB for over twenty years.
GREG REED manages the SailNOW! program and is dockmaster at CWB. His early sailing experiences were more about trailing toy boats behind his parent’s CAL22 than technique, but he did manage to learn to sail and then spent several years successfully racing dinghies in California and the Northwest. His ideal boat trip involves many musical instruments, too much good food, great friends, and epic wind.
CHRIS REITZ learned to sail in Germany, grew up sailing small boats in the prairie winds of Iowa and Minnesota and has taught sailing in Massachusetts, Washington DC, and San Francisco, before coming to CWB in 2007 to manage the Youth Sailing Program. Chris also has a background in natural history education. As an experiential educator, Chris is particularly interested in helping students develop skills in observation and leadership.
CHARLES REID studied art at the University
of Vermont, Montpelier, and the Art Students
League of New York. His numerous awards
include the Childe Hassam Purchase Prize
at the American Academy of Arts and Letters,
the National Academy of Design and the
American Watercolor Society. In 1980, he
was elected an Associate of the National
Academy of Design. Reid has written eight
books on painting in watercolor and oil.
www.charlesreidart.com
STEVE ROGERS studied at the Harold Stevenson
Fine Art Academy as well as with Robert E.
Wood. In addition, he graduated from Monmouth
College in 1969 with a BA degree. Steve was
the 2007 NWS Purchase Award Winner, adding
to hundreds of other awards. He is a signature
member of the AWS as well as the NWS and
the Florida Watercolor Society. He has painted
professionally for 32 years.
www.watercolorsbyrogers.com
SĀĀDŪŪTS (Robert Peele) is a Haida Carver and is our Artist-in-Residence at The Center for Wooden Boats. Previously, Sāādūūts carved a 16' canoe, River Echo, with students at Kilo Junior High and a 40' Haida Canoe, Siigaay Gāahlaandaay (Ocean Spirit) with students of Alternative School #1. Sāādūūts enjoys sharing the canoe journey with people of all cultures.
JEFF SANDERS founded United States Maritime Academy in 1987 and has trained thousands of students for their Coast Guard Captain’s License. USMA now has branches throughout the country which use texts and exams written by Capt. Sanders and are approved by the U.S. Coast Guard. He is the author of numerous navigation manuals, has been a sailmaker and has delivered sailing vessels worldwide for over twenty years. Capt. Sanders resides on Marrowstone Island with his dog Newbe and his vessel Orpheus beckoning him from his beachfront.www.usmaritime.us
HERON SCOTT grew up in Alaska surrounded by
fishing boats. After graduating
from the Northwest
School of Wooden
Boatbuilding, he worked
for two years at the
Chesapeake Bay Maritime
Museum. He currently
is Lead Boatwright
and Boatshop Manager
at CWB. His hobbies
include pumpkin carving,
dodge ball, knitting, and
playing in boats.
HIROKO SUGIYAMA is a sailor who owns a sail
boat, Dolly, built by John Guzzwell, as well as being
a cooking teacher for the past 23 years. She has
studied cooking in Japan, France and USA, and is
a CCP (Certifi ed Culinary Professional) designated
by IACP (International Association of Culinary Professional).
She has her own private home cooking
school in Sammamish.
www.hirokosdolly.com
DAVE THACKER became a recreational varnicologist by necessity 10 years ago, and is currently employed by a yacht finishing company on Lake Union. Dave is a licensed Captain and currently a student of the Marine Carpentry program at Seattle Central Community College. He raced Tartan 10’s and Lightnings on the Great Lakes.
ALAIN VILAGE is an accredited marine surveyor
and owner of Port Townsend Marine
Survey. Alain brings a wealth of experience to
his surveying, including a professional yacht
captain career on both sides of the Atlantic with
hands-on & oversight responsibility for major
maintenance, repair/refi t & construction of recreational
vessels. His expertise with all types of
boats, especially wooden boats, is highly valued
in the region by shipwrights, boat owners/buyers,
and organizations such as The Center
for Wooden Boats.
www.ptmarinesurvey.com
JOHN WATKINS learned to sail at age eight in Maine, and started instructing when he was 17 at a summer camp for the blind. He helped Vern Velez start SailNOW! in 1989 and did a stint as director of the program. He frequently leads Cast Off, CWB’s public sails in sharpies and other boats.
DOUG WEEKS has been involved with boilers and steam equipment since the beginning of his career as a mechanical engineer. He has operated stationary, locomotive, and marine boilers, and has managed the Center’s steamboat program for the last 9 years.
ERIC WIEGARDT Is a native of Washington state. Following a degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Washington, he graduated from the American Academy of Art in Chicago, studying under Irving Schapiro. He is a member of AWS, NWS, Allied Arts of America, Int'l Society of Marine Painters, NWWS and TWSA. He has been featured in Int'l Artist, The Artist's Magazine, Watercolor, Watercolor Magic and nine books on watercolor, as well as his popular book, Watercolor Free & Easy. www.ericwiegardt.com
CATHY WOO graduated from the University of Cal-Berkeley, with a degree in Psychology and a JD degree from the University of Washington. She has been painting and teaching art professionally for over 25 years. Cathy is a signature member of both the National and Northwest Watercolor societies, as well as past president of the NWWS and Women Painters of Washington. Her articles and work have been featured in The Artist's Magazine, Watercolor Magic and the Artist's Sketchbook. www.alkiweb.com
