Meet Ashlyn Brown

As a kid, Ashlyn followed her mother’s adventurous moves from a Virginia farm to the mountains, the Caribbean, and Asia. As a teenager in the US Virgin Islands, she was introduced to sailing and love. A strategic parental move sent her to NC School of the Arts and then a year in Central Java with a Batik clothing company. This led to a job in Japan where she married and had a daughter. When that fell apart, she left Japan with her one-year-old and a duffel bag, back to St. Croix hoping to find what was lost.

It was a harsher reality than before, so when offered a position on a 118’ yawl with her toddler, she hoped the sea would save her. She figures the sea did save her, but the skipper nearly killed her. After 19 years and 80,000 sea miles as a live-aboard cruiser and charter host, she miraculously reunited with her soul mate. In Port Townsend, she has found home and friendships, created PT Watercraft with Russell Brown, cruised BC and Alaska, volunteered with the PT Marine Trades Association and Chamber, and loves it all.

Meet Inger Rankins

Inger was born in 1961 in Kristiansand, Norway. It is nearly the southernmost city in Norway. “Tropical Norway,” as it is often called, as the sea can get up to 75°F at the warmest in the summer. She grew up swimming and boating in and on Skagerrak, the sea between Norway and Denmark, and left her hometown when she was 19 years old. After spending two years in Oslo, she moved to Los Angeles for 10 months to work, then traveled the USA by Greyhound for two months before heading back to Norway. Her travel bug was then born, and she was in and out of Norway from 1983 onward.

In 1989, Inger landed in Port Townsend to spend the summer with her then-very-good friend. They were supposed to stay the summer and then head up to Canada, but things happened, and they are still here—34 years later. They have a business named Northwest Sails & Canvas, Inc. Inger spends a big part of her daily life on boats for pleasure or for work. She loves the water, having lived close to it most of her life, and does not think she can ever live without it.

Meet Sarah Kolbeck

Sarah Kulin Kolbeck has come full circle back to her roots. She was first exposed to boat building and repair growing up at Wolf Creek Boat Works in SE Alaska­—the shop and the marine ways her home and playground. That was followed by the family’s move to Port Townsend where she continued to be immersed in the marine trades. After graduating from the University of Colorado at Boulder with degrees in art history and administration, she spent many years managing art organizations and galleries.

Now back in Port Townsend, she has taken on the commitment of managing her family’s yacht rigging and spar building business, Port Townsend Rigging. Project planning for her clients has been particularly satisfying. Her spare time is full: sailing, racing, and tending to her Thunderbird sailboat; climbing and skiing in the mountains; and being grateful that she can share these activities with her daughter, Mya, who is equally adventurous! Sarah’s natural curiosity leads her down many paths, including architecture, boatbuilding, painting, and modern dance. “The creative life is a life worth living“

Meet Erica Lichty

Erica Lichty was born and raised in the PNW. Her father was a boat captain and her mother a designer. After graduating from the California State Maritime Academy and working on oil rigs and supply boats, Erica applied her skills in the yachting world. She has spent 22 years as a self-made interior yacht and residential designer. During that time she has maintained a very healthy involvement in the outdoor community in the Pacific Northwest and currently holds her 100 Ton Masters License. She would like to nurture growth in our community and leave a legacy for her family and others. Her organization, SEASTR PNW, is a not-for-profit organization focusing on socio-environmental advocacy.

In addition to running her non-profit, Erica is also the paddle columnist for 48° North magazine, a Maritime Education Coordinator for the new Maritime High School in Seattle, and is active in the paddle racing community when the time allows. She was the first female to finish the SEVENTY48 race twice on SUP and was also the fastest woman to complete the race on a SUP. Her race story was documented in a 2021 film called Stand Up.

Meet Kathy Pool

Raised on a Georgia coastal island, Kathy Pool has never been far from saltwater. After graduating from college, she gravitated to Lopez Island, WA, where her first employment was crewing on a gillnet boat in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. It was the summer sockeye season where the afternoon westerlies regularly blew. That night she was so seasick, she decided this was her first and last trip. The owner of the boat promised if she returned for the next night’s opening, she would not be sick. He was correct, and she was hooked!

Her maritime career has spanned over 40 years: writing for a fishing publication, gillnetting for salmon, longlining for halibut, and buying gillnet fish. Now retired, Kathy is happy to not be hunkered down in an engine room changing the oil, covered with soot from cleaning the oil stove pipe, nursing her wrist tendinitis after a longline trip, or laying on the gravel under a boat’s keel scraping barnacles. She is, however, grateful for the over 40 round trips on the Inside Passage and is proud to boast that she could sleep between watches, wake up, look out the window, and know where the boat was.

Meet Amanda Thieroff

Amanda Thieroff is a culinary artist, farmer, outdoor educator, and adventurer. Originally hailing from New York City, she got her start sailing and making music on the sloop Clearwater and went on to sail on the schooner Adventuress and Lady Washington before cruising the Inside Passage to Southeast Alaska aboard the motor vessel Delphinus. She has worked several seasons teaching seventh graders how to longboat with the Northwest Maritime Center. Amanda currently lives in Port Townsend with her pup, Finlay, peddling vegan ice cream, growing vegetables, and hiking in her spare time.