Kathleen Lothrop

Livery Manager & Boatwright

“Water is for everyone. Across Seattle and other waterfront communities, the water offers space to learn, to heal, and to connect. It invites curiosity, care, and shared stewardship. Through boats and the hands-on work of maintaining and using them, we gain a deeper understanding of the world around us and ourselves.”

Water has been central to Kathleen’s life from an early age. She grew up around lakes, pools, and shorelines and was famously the designated boat driver for family water-skiing and tubing trips long before she learned to drive a car. Her formal sailing education began with Outward Bound at Hurricane Island in Maine and continued through a high school program sailing schooners in Maine and the British Virgin Islands. She later taught sailing on small boats on a river in Massachusetts before heading west and beginning a more self-directed, experiential education in life and work.

Kathleen has spent much of her career in service-driven, community-centered organizations, including AmeriCorps, the YMCA, and the National Ability Center, with a focus on community building, health and wellness, and adaptive fitness. Her sailing and maritime experience spans the waters of New England, Florida, the British Virgin Islands, the west coast of Mexico, and the entire West Coast of the United States. She expanded that experience further through commercial fishing, working as both deckhand and skiff driver during summer purse seine salmon seasons in Southeast Alaska.

Driven to deepen her craft, Kathleen attended the Wood Technology Center in Seattle to train as a boatwright, formally grounding her hands-on maritime experience in boatbuilding and repair. From there, she found her way to The Center for Wooden Boats, where she now brings her skills, curiosity, and commitment to stewarding boats and welcoming people onto the water. Kathleen delights in solving the many challenges boats present, and she is here for all of it, especially if it means helping others find their place on the water.

What is your favorite tool?

Folding 5" Pocket Rule, but ask me again tomorrow, I have a rotation of favorites depending on the day and project at hand.