PORT TOWNSEND — The Northwest Maritime Center gradually is coming to life.
Rob Sanderson, programs manager, said the center has opened a few sections of the two new buildings in a staggered step fashion during the past week.
The first stage, the kayak and boat storage house, opened Sept. 1 as rowing teams walked their long boats into the giant storage house overlooking the Port Townsend Bay.
“It’s kind of the beginning for this building,” Sanderson said.
“The town has never had a boat house like this, and to have all the rowing clubs move inside is a great first step.
“It’s just another chapter in this story. Another step toward getting this to the full opening.”
The center opens to the public for the first time Thursday, at 5 p.m., linking together the new center with the first day of the 2009 Wooden Boat Festival — which runs Thursday through Sunday in Port Townsend.
On Monday night, the first classes were held in the Chandler Maritime Education Building — which represents about half of the $12.5 million Northwest Maritime Center complex.
“It’s our first time up here even,” said Pete Fronst, head sailing instructor for the center.
“It’s so nice, too. So much open space and glass.”
Fronst and instructor Caroline Spragg are christening the new classroom with a two-week beginning sailing course.
“We won’t spend a ton of time in the classroom,” said Spragg.
“But having it here is much better than a small room at the old office.
“And being right on the water is great because you can look out at the other boats in the water and learn from that as well.”
Sanderson said all but the chandlery store and the administration loft will be up and running Thursday night.
The 27,000-square-foot waterfront maritime heritage and educational complex built on an old oil depot at the end of Water Street and adjacent to Point Hudson Marina should be fully finished by the end of the year.
Courtyard done
The Compass Rose public space courtyard, with a stairway embedded with boulders and leading down to the shore, is also completed and has been laid with paver bricks engraved with project donors’ names.
“I think it will be a very welcoming beach,” said Stan Cummings, Northwest Maritime Center executive director.
The wide stairs also improve public access at what was once an empty lot, he said.
The Northwest Maritime Center and Wooden Boat Foundation is building the center with the future in mind. Already, the center is creating more marine trades and educational programs.
Formal ground-breaking for the project took place in July 2008.
As a result of a cooperative agreement with the city of Port Townsend, more than 60 percent of the waterfront location will be available for public use 24 hours, seven days a week.
That includes the courtyard and second-story decks from which all commercial vessel traffic crossing Admiralty Inlet will be visible.
Cummings calls the view the newest wonder of the world.
It will be the first non-governmental building on the North Olympic Peninsula to have a “gold” certification from Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, a voluntary, national rating system for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings.
The goal of the Northwest Maritime Center and Wooden Boat Foundation is to engage and educate people of all generations in traditional and contemporary maritime life, Cummings said.
The 30-year-old Wooden Boat Foundation is the maritime center’s key collaborator and partner for on-the-water programs, school field trips, demonstrations of boat building and other traditional hand crafts, maritime skills classes and youth mentorships.
The Chandler Education Building will allow many of the popular features of the 33-year-old annual Wooden Boat Festival, such as boatwork and instructional presentations, to take place year-round.
The maritime center has hired Kees Prins, boat shop educator, to work with the local marine trades businesses to showcase their work to the public.
The upcoming festival typically attracts an international audience of about 25,000 and brings more than $2 million into the community.
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Port Townsend/Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew contributed to this report.
Reporter Erik Hidle and Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at erik.hidle@peninsuladailynews.com.
