Most of South Lake Union, with its shiny high-rises, is literally in the future — AI giant Anthropic just leased 113,00 square feet of office space here, inside of which it’ll do whatever AI companies do. But right next to the Museum of History and Industry is a pathway that leads to a dock, a cheerful, windworn boathouse, and a fleet of wooden boats — rowboats, canoes, sailboats, and a single small antique steam-powered boat. This is the Center for Wooden Boats, a nonprofit devoted to preserving the arts of sailing and boat-building.
Wooden boats are “easy, in a sense,” says livery manager Kathleen Lothrop (“livery” just means “boat rental place”). The techniques for building and maintaining these boats have not changed all that much over the years — unlike a lot of pieces of disposable technology, they can be repaired pretty much indefinitely.
“You can literally replace plank after plank, rib after rib, thwart after thwart, knee after knee,” says Lothrop. “Does it cost money? Of course it does. Does it take time? Yes. But is the practice of it going to hold up the integrity of that boat? Yes. And can we continue to do it forever? Absolutely. It's never going to change, and you'll always be able to do it.”
The Center was founded by Dick and Colleen Wagner, a married couple who started renting boats from their houseboat in the late ‘60s, an endeavor that eventually became the livery and museum it is today. The Center offers classes in sailing, maritime first aid, boatbuilding, and a variety of programs for children. You can come here to rent or charter boats, or get a free hour on a small “peapod” rowboat. Once a month, there’s a “public sail” where anyone can show up to take a ride on one of the Center’s many boats, including a two-masted schooner and the Puffin, that steam-powered boat. (The next public sail is on August 30.) These programs, Lothrop says, are intended to help Seattleites of all types and all income levels get access to the waterfront. People can learn to sail here, they can take their children out in a rowboat for a blissful hour, they can volunteer, they can fall in love with the water.
“It's funny how many people come down here, and they say, ‘I've lived here for X amount of time, and I didn't know this existed,’” says Lothrop.
