PORT TOWNSEND — To celebrate the deep love underlying wooden boats, organizers of the 2021 Wooden Boat Festival are inviting the public to check out a raft of free video content from the 2020 event, all online now through next Sunday at nwmaritime.org.
The hundreds of hours of programming are part of the Virtual Wooden Boat Festival last September. Categories of free videos include:
• Feature presentations including the Wooden Boat Festival Origin Story, the Viking Ship Draken and the Ceiba.
• Small boat adventures around New York City, in Australia and in the Northwest Maritime Center’s Seventy48 race.
• Boat shop tours including behind-the-scenes tours from Australia to Japan, the East Coast and the Pacific Northwest, including Brion Toss Yacht Riggers, Hereshoff, Devlin, Seiichi Nasu and others.
• Boat tours of tall ships and small boats from around the globe.
• “COVID Builds,” aka the projects that happened when craftspeople were stuck at home.
• Short and longer features about people such as 2020 world standup paddling champion Fiona Wylde, the women shipwrights of Port Townsend and the members of Team Sail Like a Girl, winners of the 2018 Race to Alaska.
The 45th annual Wooden Boat Festival, which was to bring hundreds of boats, presenters and volunteers to Point Hudson and environs this weekend, was canceled Aug. 27.
“We’ve decided canceling is the only responsible way forward,” the Northwest Maritime Center board wrote in a statement.
“The decision to cancel was due to the increasing volatility of the public health environment, as well as increasing COVID anxiety in our participants, exhibitors, and community.
“Even with the measures we put in place, every day has brought new cancellations from vendors, presenters, and wooden boat owners who remained uncomfortable with the potential risk,” the statement continued.
“We respect and support everyone’s decision to do what’s right for themselves.”
The nonprofit maritime center, at 431 Water St. in Port Townsend, welcomes donations on its website while offering Wooden Boat Festival T-shirts and hoodies.
The center also continues to offer virtual and experiential programs for youngsters and adults year-round, based on the motto of the sea being “the most powerful teacher we know.”
For details, see nwmaritime.org or phone 360-385-3628.
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Jefferson County senior reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3509 or durbanidelapaz@peninsuladailynews.com.
