Volunteer

Volunteers support our mission all year long!

We have a dedicated team of volunteers working with us throughout the year, including over 500 volunteers for the Wooden Boat Festival alone. We are always eager to have new folks join us. Explore our volunteer pages to discover ways you can be involved with the Wooden Boat Festival, our adventure races, or year-round at the Northwest Maritime Center. New volunteers, please fill out a Volunteer Application, linked below. Returning volunteers, please make sure to sign our updated waiver each year.

New Volunteers: Fill Out an Application

Returning Volunteers: Sign our 2024 Waiver

Volunteer Highlight

My name is Beth O’Neal. I have lived in Port Townsend for 22 years and raised my two daughters here. I love being surrounded by the water, marine life, and this charming town. After graduating from massage school in Seattle, I moved to Port Townsend and began to build my own practice. The Wooden Boat Festival is something I have always looked forward to; I loved the great music and checking out the beautiful boats many years before I signed up as a volunteer.

My husband, Andi Neisen, took the WSU Beach Watchers class in 2009. He shared what he learned in regards to plastic covering our beaches and... read more.

Volunteer in the Wooden Boat Chandlery!

Get in on the best volunteer gig in town! If you're looking for a spot to volunteer where you're treated like family, this is it. Volunteers in the Chandlery act as ambassadors for the Northwest Maritime Center and help connect visitors with the best outdoor items and apparel. They work on an incredible, fun-loving team of Chandlery staff and other volunteers, and they get to connect with locals and visitor alike. If you enjoy retail, boats, the outdoors, or just chatting with others about our awesome town, you might be a great fit for the Chandlery! If you’re interested, please email volunteer@nwmaritime.org.

Volunteer for the Wooden Boat Festival

September 6-8, 2024

Let's Go!

Volunteer for the Race to Alaska

Race Start: June 9, 2024

Let's Go!

Volunteer for SEVENTY48

Race Start: May 31, 2024

Let's Go!

Volunteer Year Round for the NWMC

Get involved all year!

Let's Go!

Seasonal Volunteer Opportunities

Interested in one of these positions? Please contact the Volunteer Coordinator at volunteer@nwmaritime.org or call 360.385.3628 ext. 115. Orientation for these seasonal summer positions will be at 12:30–3:30 PM on Friday, June 23, meeting at the NWMC totem pole.

Admiral Jack Tours Docent

Do you love history and the natural world? Do you love engaging with people of all ages and backgrounds? Do you want to get out on the water this summer? You may have what it takes to become a shipboard docent!

Thousands of people visit Port Townsend every year, and many of them are seeking opportunities to get out on the water and learn about Port Townsend Bay’s unique landmarks, and history. This summer, like in Summer 2022, we will be offering educational tours on board the m/v Admiral Jack, NWMC’s 40-foot catamaran.

Working with Admiral Jack’s captain and deckhand, Docents will conduct guided tours of Port Townsend Bay and help visitors and locals alike connect with our community from the water. If you enjoy being out on the water, sharing knowledge and history, and providing visitors with a fun and educational experience, we want you to join our team to help develop this program! You will need to provide excellent customer service, and work as part of a team to help visitors enjoy their experience. Docent volunteers will be trained on tour-guide best practices and will receive talking points for the tours.

This is an excellent opportunity to give back to your community and help connect visitors to the sea, the best teacher we know!

Qualifications:

18+
Interest in history and our local area
Must be able to get on and off a boat and move through narrow spaces
Can engage and respond to an audience and point out distant points of interest
Availability during Summer Fridays, Saturdays, and/or Sundays
Love of the sea and NWMC

Tour Slots
Tours are 1-hour in length, offered on Fridays at 12:30 pm and 2:30 pm; Saturdays at 10:30 am, 12:30 pm, and 2:30 pm; and Sundays at 10:30 am and 12:30 pm from June 30, 2023 through September 3, 2023. Docents must arrive 30m before the tour & assist with disembarkation for 30m following; so the shifts are:

Fridays from 12:00 pm until 4:00 pm
Saturdays from 10:00 am until 4:00 pm
Sundays from 10:00 am until 2:00 pm

Ship Simulator Docent

Train with the best of them and run our Ship Simulator for the public! After special training, our Ship Simulator Docent will encourage the public to step up to the helm and take this adult-sized video game for a spin! The idea? Practice driving any vessel, anywhere around the world, in any kind of weather condition. Tours will be held Saturdays, July 1st through September 2nd, every half hour starting at 12:00 pm with the last one starting at 3:30 pm.

Qualifications:

Comfortable with computers and technology Can engage and respond to members of the public
Availability during Summer Saturdays
Love of the sea and NWMC

Ship Simulator Assistant

Assist the Ship Simulator Docent in running our Ship Simulator for the public!

Greet and escort members of the public up to the Ship’s Simulator so they can take the helm themselves and take this adult-sized video game for a spin! The idea? Practice driving any vessel, anywhere around the world, in any kind of weather condition.

Tours will be held Saturdays, July 1st through September 2nd, every half hour starting at 12:00 pm with the last one starting at 3:30 pm.

Qualifications:

Can engage and respond to members of the public
Able to guide others on a brief walking route including two flights of stairs
Availability during Summer Saturdays
Love of the sea and NWMC

While our peak season is during the summer, we have a bustling campus year round that relies on the support of our volunteers. Whether you're interested in helping out in the Boatshop, bartending at an event, salvaging hardware for Marine Thrift, or helping out in the office, we have a place for all skills, interests, and schedule preferences.

Take a look below at the volunteer opportunities we have going year round; then fill out a volunteer application to let us know how you want to be involved.

Questions? Contact the Volunteer Coordinator at volunteer@nwmaritime.org or call 360.385.3628 ext. 115

Year-Round Volunteer Opportunities

Chandlery

Get in on the best volunteer gig in town! If you're looking for a spot to volunteer where you're treated like family, this is it. Volunteers in the Chandlery act as ambassadors for the Northwest Maritime Center and help connect visitors with the best outdoor items and apparel. They work on an incredible, fun-loving team of Chandlery staff and other volunteers, and they get to connect with locals and visitor alike. If you enjoy retail, boats, the outdoors, or just chatting with others about our awesome town, you might be a great fit for the Chandlery!

Marine Thrift

Office Assistance

Office volunteers help keep us organized, responsive, and professional. If you have experience in an office setting, or if you want to build your skills in this area, we want your help! Examples of office administration tasks: • Greeting the public and answering phones • Helping with bulk mailings and other general office duties • Sharing Maritime Center information with the public • Archiving NWMC photos • Serving as NWMC Docent Historian (requires knowledge of local maritime history) • Stewardship of the Maritime Center archives • Photographing NWMC annual events

Boat Donations Transport

Tours (boat, docent, Pilothouse)

Volunteers who give tours help connect people with our mission in a very direct way, whether that's showing someone around our campus as a Maritime Center Docent, giving motor boat tours of the Port Townsend waterfront on Martha J, or showing people our state-of-the-art marine simulator. We need folks with a knowledge of our programs (or a willingness to learn!) who want to represent the Maritime Center to the public.

Youth Programs

Boatshop

Registration Desk

We are seeking weekly volunteers to register people for our Youth & Adult Maritime Programs. If you enjoy interacting with others in an exciting environment, feel comfortable with computer basics, and have been looking for a way to get involved with the Maritime Center on a weekly basis, this is the opportunity for you! You would be helping people choose classes, using a computer to register class participants, selling memberships, collecting payment, and distributing paperwork for registrants. We need volunteers on these days: Wednesday–Saturday, 10–2 during the summer.

Glean Team

Interested in something a little more hands-on and have a general knowledge of boats? Become a part of our Glean Team! This is an on-call group of volunteers that helps salvage reusable parts from old boats. This position involves irregular hours, so flexibility with scheduling is important. You don’t need to be a boat expert, but you shouldn’t be afraid of a drill, either! Work parties will be once or twice a month, from 1-3 hours each time.

Year-Round Event Support

The NWMC hosts various community and fundraising events throughout the year that rely on the help of our volunteers. Our events include the Classic Mariners’ Regatta, Shipwrights’ Regatta, Speaker Series, Navigator Brunch, She Tells Sea Tales (a fundraiser event for the Girls Boat Project), various community events in the Chandlery, and the Maritime Swap Meet. Opportunities for volunteering include: • Bartending and ticket-taking • Assistance with planning, marketing, and day-of tasks • Help distributing posters, flyers and programs for Maritime Center programs and events

Building & Docks Maintenance

You don't have to have a captain's license to help us maintain our facility, fleet, and docks! If you love a good day of hard work and enjoy all things boat-related, we could use your help! Facility maintenance tasks include painting, sanding, refurbishing, and more! Boat and docks maintenance tasks include haul-outs, cleaning, and painting, to name a few! Any necessary training, tools, and safety equipment will be provided.

Maritime Library

On-the-Water

Audio/Visual Team

Each year the Wooden Boat Festival draws thousands of people from all over the world, who attend the presentations at the Northwest Maritime Center. The experts assembled for this event know the Northwest Maritime Center is a great venue with a state-of-the-art audio/video system, and have come to rely on the AV Team to run all of their events, from simple PowerPoint presentations to feature movie presentations and multi-media panel discussions. In addition, the NWMC hosts speakers throughout the year that rely on the AV team's knowledge and expertise. You don't need any experience to join the AV team, just an interest in AV and a willingness to learn! Our AV captain will teach you all you need to know.

Fill Out an Application

Already submitted your 2023 volunteer application, signed the waiver, and just need to update your information? Please email volunteer@nwmaritime.org

Questions?

We’d love to help make volunteering easy for you. Call our volunteer coordinator at 360.385.3628 x115 or email volunteer@nwmaritime.org.