Video interview with Kaci Cronkhite, Wooden Boat Festival director, by multimedia journalist Nina Jurczynski
at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVNkrdvtLRY
PORT TOWNSEND — An Advent quilt with a maritime theme will be raffled off Sunday as part of the Wooden Boat Festival, with the raffle’s proceeds going to the Wooden Boat Foundation.
This year’s Wooden Boat Festival, the 35th, takes place from
9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at the Point Hudson Marina festival grounds in Port Townsend.
The festival will feature more than 300 wooden boats, an abundance of boat experts and hundreds of indoor and outdoor presentations and demonstrations.
The raffle will take place at noon Sunday at the Wooden Boat Chandlery inside the Northwest Maritime Center, 431 Water St.
Lynn Boettcher of Port Townsend designed and made the quilt, which is intended to mark the 25 days preceding Christmas, with each day commemorated by a different vessel.
These include a Washington State Ferry, a schooner, a fishing trawler and a yellow submarine, among others.
Boettcher said the approximately 40-inch-by-47-inch quilt took about 21⁄2 months to complete.
Advent calendars traditionally have a small pocket that holds each day’s gift, but Boettcher crafted a nautical “ditty bag” for that function.
Boettcher has been quilting since 1976 and made 450 twin-sized quilts that were given to children with cancer under the auspices of the Ronald McDonald House.
She no longer involves herself in large charity projects “because I can never say no” but instead takes on more finite commitments such as the Wooden Boat project.
She teaches quilting formally but coaches quilters informally and said she is happy to provide advice to anyone who asks by phoning 360-385-3959.
“This is challenging, peaceful work that makes me very happy,” Boettcher said of quilting.
She often works from careful patterns developed by her husband, Karl Boettcher, a mechanical engineer, but this particular quilt was a “free-form” project.
Tickets for the raffle are $1 each or six for $5 and are available at the Wooden Boat Chandlery at the Northwest Maritime Center Maritime Heritage Building at 431 Water St., Port Townsend.
Several hundred tickets had been sold as of Wednesday afternoon, according to Karl Boettcher.
The winner does not need to be present at the drawing.
Wooden Boat Festival tickets are $15 for one day or $10 for seniors older than 65 and teens.
Tickets for Friday through Sunday cost $30 or $20 for seniors and teens.
Tickets for the various events will be available at the door or by order online at http://tinyurl.com/3dr883d.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
