PORT TOWNSEND — Dozens of activities will be featured during the 43rd annual Wooden Boat Festival this week, which has the theme of Japanese boatbuilding.
Pre-festival events begin today at the Northwest Maritime Center, 431 Water St., and Point Hudson, with the festival officially starting Friday.
It will offer free paddleboard rides, presentations, special events and, of course, dozens of wooden boats.
Tickets are $20 for adults for a single day or $40 for a three-day pass. Tickets for seniors 65 and older, active military members and students ages 13-18 are $15, or $30 for the three-day pass. Children 12 and younger get in for free.
Four people will be given lifetime achievement awards — one posthumously — at 5:30 p.m. Thursday on the maritime center meeting room.
The award ceremony is open to the public.
George Buehler will be honored posthumously for boatbuilding and design, a process he began in the 1970s.
Carl Chamberlain, who has had projects built by the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding in Port Hadlock, will be honored for yacht design and construction.
Jim “Kiwi” Ferris, who started the Edensaw Woods company with the late Charlie Moore in Port Townsend more than 30 years ago, has worked to supply boatbuilders and others the wood from which they’re built. He will be honored for community spirit and culture.
Brion Toss, a master rigger and author, will be inducted into the Maritime Hall of Fame. His best-known work, “The Complete Riggers Apprentice,” was first published in 1984.
Pre-festival events also include several workshops, all offered for a fee.
Several events will be presented in keeping with the theme.
They include:
• The Merry Chase, built by immigrants of Japanese descent in 1929 in B.C., and the Silver Ann, the last Japanese-built Gillnetter in B.C, will be on display.
• Japanese ship models and a Japanese river boat will be on display in the boatshop inside the maritime center. Specialized tools will be on display and for sale at the boatshop, and several events will share the culture.
• Tad Roberts will present the “History of Japanese Boat Builders in British Columbia” at 1:15 p.m. Saturday at the Discovery Stage.
• Taiko drumming will offer a rhythm at noon Sunday at Bar Harbor.
• Shinto launching is set for 12:30 p.m. Sunday at the basin of the marina.
Throughout the weekend, children can make T-shirts or tea towels with fish painting.
Participants can enter the Kerzurokai USA Planing Content in an attempt to make the thinnest shaving.
Other highlights will be:
• Bruce Halabisky and Tiffany Loney, recipients of the Cruising Club of America’s Blue Water Medal, will be back at the festival.
They recently completed an 11-year circumnavigation aboard Vixen, a 1952 John Atkin-designed wood gaff-rigged cutter Halabisky bought in 2002 in Port Townsend.
Two years later, the husband and wife set sail, and they had two daughters, Solianna and Seffa, along the way. They returned to the Wooden Boat Festival in 2015 to finish their goal.
The festival website credits them for crossing the Pacific and Indian oceans, and with three trans-Atlantic sailings.
• Paddleboard pool will be on the Point with free rides starting at 10 a.m. Friday through Sunday. Martha J motorboat rides from the longboat dock on Jefferson Street from Friday through Sunday. Additional opportunities for sailing and racing all weekend.
• For additional tickets, participants can sail aboard either the Schooner Adventuress or the Schooner Zodiac. Tickets can be purchased for the Adventuress by calling 360-379-0438, or for the Zodiac by calling 206-719-7622.
• Live music on the main stage is set starting at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, noon Friday, 11 a.m. Saturday and 10:45 a.m. Sunday. Different bands will play about every hour.
• The Race 2 Alaska Blazer party will be at 6 p.m. Friday at the maritime center; admission is $30. This serves as a reunion and provides an awards ceremony for the annual race from Port Townsend to Ketchikan, Alaska. Details for next year’s race will be announced.
• The Bell Tolls ceremony at 10 a.m. Sunday will be in the commons outside the Northwest Maritime Center. The festival honors mariners each year who have died. Eight bells signify the end of the watch.
To purchase tickets or see a full list of events, visit woodenboat.org.
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Jefferson County Managing Editor Brian McLean can be reached at 360-385-2335, ext. 6, or at bmclean@peninsuladailynews.com.
