PORT TOWNSEND — For the finale of its winter “Ask an Expert” series, the Wooden Boat Festival will offer an online discussion — free — this Thursday titled “LGBTQ+ and Finding My Way in the Maritime Industry.”
The 5 p.m. program will have four speakers, all members of the local sailing and boatbuilding community.
The moderator is Susan Brittain, winner of Tall Ships America’s Lifetime Achievement Award earlier this year and a recent participant in “She Tells Sea Tales,” an evening of true stories told live at the Northwest Maritime Center.
To tune in to Thursday’s presentation, go to woodenboat.org/ask-an-expert. For more details about the series and about the 2022 Wooden Boat Festival planned for Port Townsend’s waterfront Sept. 9-11, contact the maritime center at 360-385-3628, ext. 100.
Brittain, who started a maritime career 42 years ago as a man, has since sailed on a couple of oceans, resided on a couple of continents and now has lived in two genders. Using the pronouns they and them, Brittain now works with Sound Experience, the nonprofit operator of the schooner Adventuress. They now live on Marrowstone Island with their soul mate of 40 years, Cindy.
The rest of the panelists sharing stories at the “Finding My Way” table are:
• Lou Geraghty, an apprentice carpenter at Haven Boatworks in Port Townsend and a graduate of the marine systems and traditional wooden boatbuilding courses at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding;
• Amy Kovacs, program director at Sound Experience, the nonprofit organization that sails the schooner Adventuress;
• Tiffany Krihwan, a tall ship captain for more than 25 years who now captains the schooner Ernestina Morrissey.
Krihwan was named 2019’s Sail Trainer of the Year by Tall Ships America.
Thursday’s discussion will run about 90 minutes, including time to time to “ask your burning questions from the comfort of your home,” as the Wooden Boat website invitation notes.
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Jefferson County Senior Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3509 or durbanidelapaz@peninsuladailynews.com.
