Center for Wooden Boats and Northwest Seaport Maritime Heritage Center

View of boats at the Center for Wooden Boats, Lake Union, Seattle, Washington
Center for Wooden boats on Lake Union

Center for Wooden Boats

During our short 2011 visit to Seattle, we spent a few hours at the Center for Wooden Boats located on Lake Union. We spent quite a bit of time at the Center during our last visit to Seattle (in 2002) and were interested in seeing what changes had been made.

View of boats at the Center for Wooden Boats, Lake Union, Seattle, Washington
Center for Wooden Boats on Lake Union

We found that the Center had a few new boats and offered additional classes on various aspects of small craft sailing, paddling, boatbuilding and boat maintenance. The staff was as friendly and as helpful in 2011 as they were in 2002.

The Center for Wooden Boats is located on Lake Union in Seattle. The Center is dedicated to preserving the rich small craft heritage heritage of the Northwest.

Sailboat
Center for Wooden Boats on Lake Union

The center rents sailboats and rowboats for those interested in exploring Lake Union and Lake Washington. The center also has classes on boatbuilding. Many of the activities at the center remind me of the activities at the Maritime Museum in Beaufort, NC.

Maritime Heritage Center

Boats at Seattle Maritime Museum
Boats at Seattle Maritime Museum

The Naval Reserve Armory at Lake Union Park is being converted into a maritime museum. This is a major change since since our visit in 2002. If all of the funding is worked out, this should be a major addition to Seattle. We're looking forward to visiting it during our next (when ever it is) visit to Seattle.

Wooden Tug Author Foss
Wooden Tug Author Foss
Author Foss
Author Foss

There is a large collection of boats in various states of needing restoration. One of the more interesting is the Wooden Tug Author Foss. This is the last of the wooden tugs that so ably served during the 19th and 20th centuries. The Author Foss still looks in pretty good shape.

Lightship Swiftsure and Tug Author Foss
Lightship Swiftsure and Tug Author Foss

The Lightship Swiftsure is another interesting ship in the Museum's collection. When I was in graduate school at the University of Washington, this decomissioned lightship was often seen in Lake Union with the name Relief. The Northwest Seaport renamed her the Swiftsure.

The one disappointment we had was that the Schooner Wawona that was in drydock for possible restoration in 2002 is gone. The experts determined that she was too far gone to restore. She was in bad shape when we visited in 2002, but the people we talked to then hoped that she could be restored.

Boats at Seattle Maritime Museum
Boats at Seattle Maritime Museum