Shipwrights News & Stories

Lacey is back in the water and underway on the Great Loop. Follow Demian’s first miles down the Mississippi, from reassembly in Grafton to the Clark Bridge at Alton.

Port Townsend Shipwrights 3D scanned a wooden Pocock shell to help Steve Chapin recreate the boat frame from a historic 1923 photo of George Pocock’s UW workshop.

From Forest Service Scaler's Boat to the Great Loop Lacey was designed to work. Her design dates back to 1953, when Seattle naval architect H.C. Hanson created a 25-foot Forest Service scaler’s boat for the U.S. Forest Service. Scalers determine the amount of lumber in each log cut by a timber crew, and boats like these were used by the Forest Service in the western United States. Three vessels were built commercially to Hanson’s design in the mid-1950s. More than half a century later, the design found a new life in Port Townsend. Lacey’s hull construction began in 2013 at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding, with Tim Lee overseeing the project as instructor. For this build, Lee redrew the design to 28 feet to get the engine out of the cabin. Today, Lee is a partner at Port Townsend Shipwrights. After the hull was completed, the boat spent 11 months on the hard. In 2019, Demian Detweiler purchased Lacey and brought her to the marina, where he finished the cabin, interior, systems, and mechanical work himself. He completed the boat in 2020.  Now, more than a decade after her build began, Lacey is preparing for a very different kind of working life: a journey around the Great Loop.

Discover the story of Isswat, a 1948 wooden salmon troller restored by Jeff over years of hands-on work at Port Townsend Shipwrights.

Meet Tawaki, a Truant sailboat restored by Brad with 300 hours of work, from rebuilding the centerline to refinishing the boat and getting her back on the water.