Meet Joel Arrington: Boatshop Manager, Class Instructor, and Fly Fishing Extraordinaire
Joel Arrington is the instructor of our Boatshop Workshops at the Northwest Maritime Center. We sat down with Joel to learn a little more about him, what drew him to boatbuilding, and get the inside scoop on this year’s Boatshop offerings…
Tell us about your experience as a boatbuilder and instructor.
My experience as a boatbuilder started at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding (NWSWB). It was a redirection of career and refinement of skill set. I went to the boatbuilding school with a fairly deep knowledge of fine woodworking and carpentry, but I wanted to develop those skills further by working with the complex shapes and lines of boats. There was a uniqueness of the composite, more contemporary, boatbuilding program that they offer at NWSWB. I was intrigued by vacuum infusion, carbon fiber, and all that fun fancy stuff.
I got a job at a custom composite shop in town straight out of school. I worked there for a couple of years on a variety of things from one-off boat builds to carbon fiber, fiberglass, and vacuum infusion—kind of space-age technology really.
My first day at the Northwest Maritime Center was the first confirmed COVID case in the US. It’s been a roller coaster, for sure, but it’s also been interesting because it’s allowed us to think outside the box, build new ideas, and refine old ones. I never would have thought that we could teach a fully virtual wooden boatbuilding class that served nine different states. It’s been great to be able to see how things are waking back up and the excitement of people who want to get in the shop and make things.
What sets our boatbuilding and woodworking classes apart from the rest (besides your charming southern accent, of course)?
I would say the experience is what sets our classes apart, especially our build-your-own-boat classes. We offer a more boutique setting that allows the builder opportunities to come in early or stay late—it’s a fully encompassing workshop experience. Because of that, we often get longer engagement with the students, allowing them to build a relationship with our organization and provide them with additional opportunities like, “You signed up to learn this, but did you know you can also learn this, plus this, and this, and this?” I think that that has served to the retention of builders. In fact, we’re even coming up with the serial boatbuilders club because we have people that continue to come back time after time and take new workshops. NWMC Boatshop classes are special because they offer more engagement than you can get in other classes. And the fact that we have the best view doesn’t hurt either.
Which class are you most excited about teaching this year and why?
For me, the marquee workshop this year is the Maiden of the Mast, a strip-building construction workshop. We’ll be building a classic design—a Sid Skiff—designed by local boatbuilder Ray Speck, but we’re developing it with a more modern construction technique using strip-planking and fiberglass. It’s going to be a cool and unique class because we’re using the 120-year-old cedar from schooner Martha’s original main mast. It’s the main mast that was stepped in 1907 when Martha was originally launched in San Francisco. So, the mast has been well-traveled throughout the pacific for a long time, and we’ll be able to preserve the history and the story of that piece of lumber. We’re going to mill it up and give it another 100 years, as long as the boat is happily cared for.
What do you want to tell anyone who is considering taking a boatbuilding class with us for the first time?
Just to go for it. There’s a lot of intimidation and a lot of people that reach out to me saying, “I’ve never built anything in my life.” My response is usually, “Great! You don’t have any bad habits.” It’s a great platform to start from scratch, and it’s always a great time to learn new things. The experience you get, especially if you’re someone who likes spending time on the water, is being able to connect yourself to the water in a different way. And to me, it’s a lot more meaningful experience when you can do that in a craft that is built with your own hands and you participated in the entire process. It gets addicting. You build one and it’s like, “Wow, it’s not that hard. I can do this again.”
Our classes cater very well to builders of all skill levels. It’s a great way to develop new skills and step outside the box to do something different.
What technique have students been most excited to learn?
Most students are enthralled by power tools. In most shop spaces, that’s the most intimidating part of the experience. It’s like, “That thing is really loud, and it’s really fast.” We take the edge off the intimidation by introducing processes and steps that students can follow to make sure that it’s all safe, a lot less intimidating, and fairly easy to use safely. It opens up this whole new world of things that they can do once they start to understand how to use these tools and how to use them efficiently.
What is the most interesting or unexpected fact about yourself?
A big part of my job is introducing young people to the marine trades, opportunities, and vocational careers in the marine trades. And at age 30, I had never entertained the idea of a single job in the marine trades. I served as a professional fly fishing guide for a decade and traveled all over the Mountain West in pursuit of elusive trout. So, I always had a connection to the water, and I’ve always done a lot of woodworking and had a passion for being in the shop and using my hands. Once I found the boat school, I realized there’s a way to combine those passions. It wasn’t until I went to school to learn to build boats that I was thought, “Wow, this is a really budding career path; there are a lot of opportunities.”
Joel Arrington is the instructor of our Boatshop Workshops at the Northwest Maritime Center. Click here to view all the workshops we offer.
