Under a bright blue sky and in the warmth of the end-of-summer sun, the Point Hudson marina was bustling with activity on the afternoon of Sept. 6. 

Boaters, sailors, marine-trade workers, students, volunteers and tourists coming from near and far were working up a flurry of activity: setting signs, erecting tents, parking boats into slips, placing stacks of informational brochures underneath antique rigging parts, so that the ocean breeze would not blow them away. 

The anticipation was tangible as Port Townsend’s marine-trade workers and boat enthusiasts prepared for one of their most important weekends: The Wooden Boat Festival.

Across the street from the Northwest Maritime Center, members of the Port Townsend Marine Trades Association watched the flurry with hopeful eyes. For the PTMTA, and for many marine-trade workers and moorage tenants in Port Townsend, the weekend was the start of a new era for the Port, one the PTMTA hopes will bring the marine community in Port Townsend closer together. 

A Fresh Start

The past year has not been without its difficulties for the Port of Port Townsend. Tensions have been high between Port commissioners and stakeholders, such as the PTMTA and moorage tenants. Moorage rates in Port Townsend caused concern in the local boating community, while a switch to month-to-month leases at the Port caused marine-trade workers who lease buildings at the Port for their businesses to feel insecure about the future. Not only that, but the Port was having a hard time deciding the best avenue for renovating the Point Hudson breakwater, which was built in 1934. 

This culmination of events led to a replacement in leadership at the Port. Executive Director Sam Gibboney resigned in August, and since then, Port commissioners have named Jim Pivarnik as the new interim executive director. Pivarnik, who has a history of working as the deputy director at the Port from 2001 to 2016 and was most recently the executive director of the Port of Kingston, will begin work Sept. 18. 

According to Pam Petranek, a board member of the PTMTA who works with Cape Cleare Salmon, the PTMTA is ready to put the past behind them and work hard for a better future with the Port. She feels Pivarnik’s history in Port Townsend has already opened up an avenue of communication between the PTMTA and the Port.

“This is the start of a new beginning. We’re looking forward and we’re super excited,” Petranek said. 

Importance of Marine Trades

In June, the PTMTA funded an Economic Impact Study of the marine trade industry in Jefferson County. The study found marine trades in Jefferson County provided more than 2,343 jobs in 2016, accounting for nearly 20 percent of all employment in the county. According to Petranek, the goal of the study was to show not only the Port commissioners but the entire Port Townsend community the amount of revenue marine trades bring to the county, and the number of local individuals who rely on marine trades for their livelihood. 

“The question we need to ask is, what kind of community do we want to live in?” said Robert d’Arcy, executive director of the Schooner Martha Foundation and PTMTA board member. “We want cultural stability instead of transformational change.”

Bryan Hayes, PTMTA board member and owner of Bryan Hayes Woodworks, echoed D’Arcy’s hopes for the future of the Port, emphasizing the importance of communication with all possible stakeholders when it comes to development. He hopes marine-trade workers, local citizens, the city, county and Port commissioners can all work together to come up with a plan for future development of Point Hudson that does not put the Port in debt and looks at the breakwater project from a historical point of view. 

“We are all the Port, including the commissioners and the management, the citizens and the marine-trade workers,” Hayes said. “We have to work together.”

Moorage Tenants Unite

While the PTMTA has been working to unite marine-trade workers and present a cohesive voice at Port commissioners’ meetings, Bertram Levy, an organizer with the Moorage Tenants Union, is hoping to unite his fellow tenants to do the same. 

“This is a special moment in the history of the Port, where the commissioners and administration are actually listening to stakeholders,” Levy said. 

Levy organized a Moorage Tenants Union meeting set to take place at 7 p.m. on Sept. 11 at the Marina Room at Point Hudson in the hopes of debunking some common myths about the Port management, revenue and rates, and bringing moorage tenants together to form a stronger coalition. 

Currently, Port Townsend has some of the highest moorage rates west of the Puget Sound, except for Eagle Harbor Marina on Bainbridge Island. Monthly permanent moorage for a 30-foot slip in Port Townsend’s Boat Haven is $299. In Port Hadlock, monthly moorage for a 30-foot slip is $277, and for a resident in Port Ludlow, it is $250. At Port Angeles Boat Haven, monthly moorage is $210, whereas at John Wayne Marina it is $263. 

“Rates started to go to where local people couldn't keep their boats in the marina anymore,” d’Arcy said. “Along with the marine trades are the folks who want to enjoy the waterfront, and they’re unable to afford moorage here, even though they are taxpayers here.” 

Levy, who has worked with the Moorage Tenants Union for the last 12 years, has recently been acting more as a concerned citizen. Even though moorage rates are a worry, his main issue is preserving the culture of Port Townsend and bringing moorage tenants together. 

“My hope is that the moorage tenants will form a more cohesive voice,” Levy said. “I want people to be motivated to jump in with the kind of force that the marine trades did.”

According to Petranek and members of the PTMTA, “togetherness” will be what helps the Port in the upcoming year. They see the Wooden Boat Festival as the perfect example of how the Port can be a place of dreaming, education, building business (and boats) and having fun. 

“This becomes a maritime educational campus,” Petranek said, gesturing her arms out toward the bustling preparations of the Wooden Boat Festival. “It’s bigger than just a job, it’s our culture.”