The Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding
Founded in 1981, the mission of the Northwest School of Wooden
Boatbuilding is to: Teach and preserve the skills and crafts associated with
fine wooden boatbuilding and other traditional maritime arts with emphasis
on the development of the individual as a craftsperson. While we teach
traditional boatbuilding crafts, we also strive to preserve the unique
wooden boat building style of the Pacific Northwest.
The Pope Marine Building (The VF ticket sales location) will be abuzz with demonstrations of fine wooden boatbuilding skills shown by the students of the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding.
While the buzz excludes electrical saw noises it will include the demonstration of old-time wooden boat-building techniques as practiced in the late 1800s, working with period tools.
Walking outside the Pope Marine building and towards the water, Victorian Festival participants will find
the extraordinary M. V Lotus, an Edwardian luxury vessel built in 1909. Participants may board the vessel, meet the crews and take a tour. Knot-tying demonstrations, sea shanties,
and live narratives about life aboard-ship will sequence through the day.
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The MV Lotus
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Lotus was built for Maurice McMicken, attorney and legal counsel to the legislature of the State of Washington,
and also the publisher Seattle Post Intelligencer Newspaper. Designed by the naval architects Lee and Brinton, she was built in the Sloan Yard, at Seattle, Washington. Her length is
92 feet, Beam 18 feet, Draft 5.5 feet, 102 tons. Built to cruise the Inside Passage of the Pacific Northwest she is a gorgeous rarity that still maintains her complete Edwardian decor and furniture.
For more information on the M. V. Lotus, check their website at The MV Lotus.
If the weather cooperates, the large M.V. Lotus will be at the dock.
If the weather is not good the Lotus will have to remain in her very
protected moorage in Mystery Bay near Marrowstone Island.
The MV Lotus is operated by a nonprofit organization that would appreciate any donations that Victorian Festival participants can give for its upkeep.
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The Northwest School of Wooden Boat Building will be presenting live demonstrations of traditional wooden boat building such as were practiced in the late 1800's.
Students will be working with period tools showing some of the techniques used to build the many wooden sailing ships that visited Port Townsend in the Victorian era.
