Interview with Joel Arrington, Boatshop Manager
Over the past few weeks, instructors worked alongside juniors and seniors from the Port Townsend Maritime Academy for an intensive Boatbuilding Unit, a four-week immersion into woodworking, teamwork, and the anatomy of a vessel. Inside our Boatshop in Port Townsend, students learned more than the skills.
Walk us through what you did with PTMA in the past couple weeks. What were you building and what was your approach?
The Boatbuilding Unit is a four-week platform designed for juniors and seniors who are in class here throughout the school year. It introduces foundational woodworking and shop skills through the lens of boatbuilding.
We started with skill building, a week focused on stationary power tools and hand tools where students built 20 sawhorses. That process allowed us to assess proficiency and get everyone comfortable using both stationary and handheld equipment before moving into boat construction.
From there, students built two Point Hudson Dories. Over three weeks they worked through gluing, fastening, coatings, and fiberglassing. The project serves as a broad introduction to materials and methods, including different types of adhesives and their applications, composite work with fiberglass and epoxy, and finishing processes like varnish and paint.
Using TotalBoat epoxy products, including their Metering Pump Dispenser, helped students understand terminology and process while giving them a platform to continue developing these skills if they choose.
What were some of the biggest takeaways for students?
Foundational understanding.
Students learn how to walk into a shop, in this case a boatshop, and understand the differences between screws, woods, and tools. They begin to recognize when to use traditional approaches and when contemporary materials like epoxy and fiberglass make sense.
It also teaches the anatomy of a boat, what the parts are, how they fit together, and how that structure becomes a stable platform that ultimately translates to on-water use.
Did you see changes in students over the course of the unit?
Absolutely. Whether they say it out loud or not, you can watch confidence grow.
Students become more comfortable in the space. Their proficiency builds. Teamwork improves. By the end, there is a noticeable sense of ownership.
Different groups gravitate toward different parts of the build. Some focus on rudders and daggerboards, others on hand-tool work or finishing. Each student starts to find their voice through the part of the project they take responsibility for.
Did any students leave thinking they might pursue this work?
Being in Port Townsend, there is already some awareness of the marine trades because they are such a significant part of the regional economy. But for many students, this is their first real experience working with their hands toward something that ends up on the water.
We often see seniors stay involved, working as shop apprentices, completing senior projects in the shop, and continuing to build on what they started here.
At NWM boatbuilding is more than the boat.
It is about learning how to problem solve, how to work as a team, and how to trust your measurements and yourself. Projects like this create a space where students can try, adjust, and see tangible progress day by day. For some, it sparks a career path. For others, it is the first time they realize they can make something complex with their own hands.
Either way, the impact sticks long after the epoxy cures.
