On Wednesday February 4th at 6pm at the clubhouse Ernie Baird will be talking about building his boat Grace B and sailing/rowing it to Ketchican in the 2017 R2AK, the year he turned 70. It was epic. You won't want to miss this one. Here's a bit of Ernie's bio (from his Northwest Maritime Lifetime Achievement Award): In September of 1978, Ernie went to work for Mark Burn at Port Townsend Boatworks. Ernie says he was hired because he could lift an eight-by-ten, ten-foot-long, and could pull a trigger on a Skilsaw, but Mark could see the potential [...]

This week’s speaker in the Winter Wednesday Program series is Blaise Holly, PTSA board member, master shipwright, and owner of Haven Boatworks. Blaise grew on the other side of the country where he studied literature at Middlebury College. That somehow eventually landed him at Mystic Seaport where he worked on the topsail schooner Amistad, the first and largest vessel ever constructed there. He then spent some years fishing salmon and halibut on the 48-foot FV Alaska. Since 2006 he’s worked at Haven moving his way up until 2022 when he bought the business. He and his team of 35+ [...]

This week (January 21, 2026) the speaker at our Winter Wednesdays series is Captain Richard McCurdy. Captain McCurdy was born in Port Townsend, as was his father and father’s father. He had a childhood dream of sailing his own boat to the South Pacific and beyond. His father, who Richard characterizes as a “vicarious sailor,” told him that if he got an advanced degree, he would help Richard build a boat to take on this long voyage. So after getting a Masters’ degree in carbohydrate and polyphenolic chemistry he spent 1974-1976 finishing the bare hull of a Cape George [...]

As you may know, PTSA hosts programs at the clubhouse every Wednesday in January through March. We have a great lineup of speakers planned for 2026. The first one is on January 7th at 6pm and features long time sailor and PTSA board member Piper Dunlap. Over the last few years he has competed in both the Pacific Cup and Transpac races from San Francisco or Los Angeles to Hawaii. Piper will tell us what it's like to race full-on for 2,225 nautical miles including what it's like to steer, at night, in thirty knots of wind, and other stories.Additional [...]