PORT TOWNSEND — Julia Maynard grew up in New York City — and didn’t care for it. She was drawn to the ocean — and ultimately to the far northwest coast, where she belongs to a community of women with a shared passion.
Alongside her boatbuilding sisters Diana Talley and Esther Whitmore, Maynard will appear in a livestreamed program Thursday: “She Builds: Wit & Wisdom from Three Port Townsend Woman Boatbuilders.”
This 90-minute discussion, part of the Northwest Maritime Center’s “Ask an Expert” series, starts at 5 p.m.
Admission is $9.99 via www.woodenboat.org/ask-an-expert, while more information can be found at the maritime center, 360-385-3628, ext. 100.
Maynard was 22 when she built one of her first vessels: a 9-foot tender for a schooner called Brilliant. In the 368-year-old seaport of Mystic, Conn., she worked with cedar, mahogany and oak. Ever since, she’s been building and sailing, from the East Coast to the West Coast to the South Pacific.
“I just tried to do every boat project I could get myself involved with, to learn,” Maynard said in an interview earlier this month.
The “Ask an Expert” programs continue through the winter, with the final installment March 17.
That evening’s talk, “LGBTQ+ and Finding My Way in the Maritime Industry,” will be a discussion with a panel of LGBTQ+ mariners.
Marrowstone Island resident Susan Brittain, a transgender woman in the industry for four decades, will serve as moderator.
While the other programs are $9.99 each, this one is free of charge.
For more about the nonprofit maritime center’s activities, visit www.nwmaritime.org.
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Jefferson County senior reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3509 or durbanidelapaz@peninsuladailynews.com.
