Over the Bar: Remembering Norm Blanchard

Norm Blanchard passed away July 9. He was 98. Blanchard sailing and work vessels put Seattle on the map for their outstanding quality sailing and motor vessels. The nearly 2000 boats they built, designed by Geary, Seaborn, Coolidge and Garden, were works of art. The lining of the planks, joinery of decks, rails, knees, overhang of bulwark caps, tapering of guards raised the craft of boatbuilding beyond the usual and expected standard of excellence. They were Blanchard built!

Norm’s father, N.J. Blanchard, and the Johnson Brothers opened a shop on the Duwamish River in 1905; a new Blanchard Boat Company shop was built on Lake Union in 1923. That year Norm, age 12, began his after-school boatbuilding apprenticeship; in 1928, at age 17, he lofted and built the first Geary-designed Flatties.

I first met Norm in 1967 when I was planning to open a traditional small craft livery. I asked if he could build some classic sailing dinghies. He gracefully demurred; he saw the era of production wooden boats had ended. Two years later he sold Blanchard Boats.
Norm came to The Center for Wooden Boats many times to sail our boats. He would invite anybody he found on the docks – a practice he continued until he was 95. He needed a lookout passenger then because of failing eyesight but with Norm at the helm the boat was always trimmed to perfection.

Norm’s character was a model to be followed for a better world. He always was polite, respectful, a good listener, a positive thinker, had humor, honor, integrity, initiative and intellectual curiosity.

They don’t make many like Norm.

-Dick Wagner