Beyond the Boat

In this episode of Beyond the Boat, Leroy talks with Christine and Jeffrey Smith of the David B, a nearly century-old wooden vessel carrying guests through Southeast Alaska.Their story begins with a boat they believe may have chosen them: a weathered vessel with an original Washington Iron Works engine, hidden craftsmanship, and enough promise to inspire years of restoration. Today, the David B is more than a charter boat. She is a home, a workplace, a companion, and the center of a community that includes crew, returning guests, mechanics, shipwrights, and people whose lives have been changed by time aboard.Christine and Jeffrey share what passengers often do not see: the winter maintenance, the constant responsibility, the long season, the food planning, the weather decisions, and the quiet pressure of caring for both people and vessel. They also describe what the boat gives back: adventure, companionship, connection, and the rare chance to slow down in a wild landscape.This conversation explores wooden boat stewardship, old engines, wood-fired cooking, Alaska’s living landscape, and the way a boat can become part of the family.Learn more at:https://northwestnavigation.com/Beyond the Boat is an independent, listener-supported project. Support sustains the listening, but it doesn’t steer the stories.  You can help keep the show alive, as a one time Supporter, as a continuous Member, or Steward, at:www.buymeacoffee.com/beyondtheboatNote: "Stewards" are "Members" who will be periodically mentioned outside episode stories.Support is voluntary, there are no paywalls, and the stories are always free to listen to.Have feedback or know someone who should be on the show?Reach me at:   [email protected] thanks to Todd Power of Chuck Hovey Yachts for ongoing support of Beyond the Boat, and to Peter McGraw and Charlie Seberg for generous one-time contributions helping sustain the project.

There’s a moment when a boat stops being just an object—and starts becoming something more. In this conversation, Tucker Piontek, lead instructor at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding, reflects on how that shift happens. His path into the world of boats wasn’t direct. It moved through design, fabrication, and composites before a project on the schooner Adventuress changed how he saw the work—and his place in it.What begins as a story about learning a trade becomes something deeper.Tucker shares what it feels like to take apart and rebuild a historic vessel… to recognize the hands that came before you… and to realize that you are now one of them. He talks about the pride and weight of that work, and how it eventually led him to teaching—where the goal is not just to build boats, but to shape how people think. At its core, this episode explores what wooden boats give back.Not just skills or craftsmanship, but presence, perspective, and a connection to something that carries forward through time—through hands, through care, and through shared experience.Tucker Piontek is the lead instructor at the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding in Port Hadlock, Washington. With a background in industrial design, fabrication, and composites, he brings a broad perspective to the craft—one that blends traditional skills with modern realities, and emphasizes problem-solving, curiosity, and the human side of making.Find out more about the NW School of Wooden Boat Building:https://nwswb.edu/about-us/Beyond the Boat is an independent, listener-supported project. Support sustains the listening, but it doesn’t steer the stories.  You can help keep the show alive, as a one time Supporter, as a continuous Member, or Steward, at:www.buymeacoffee.com/beyondtheboatNote: "Stewards" are "Members" who will be periodically mentioned outside episode stories.Support is voluntary, there are no paywalls, and the stories are always free to listen to.Have feedback or know someone who should be on the show?Reach me at:   [email protected] thanks to Todd Power of Chuck Hovey Yachts for ongoing support of Beyond the Boat, and to Peter McGraw and Charlie Seberg for generous one-time contributions helping sustain the project.

In this episode of Beyond the Boat, Leroy Lewis talks with writer Lisa Nickel, who grew up aboard a 42-foot wooden tugboat in Tacoma, Washington. What began as a family boat soon became something much deeper — a place of work, adventure, pride, and belonging. Lisa shares what it was like to grow up as part of a working tugboat family: learning lines and dock duties, helping with meals during overnight tows, hauling out each summer for paint and repairs, and joining the close-knit community of wooden tugboat owners at Olympia Harbor Days. Along the way, she reflects on how the tug Teal became, in her words, a “fifth member” of the family.The conversation also explores Lisa’s later path from teacher to writer, and how her book Tugboat Sandman became a way to preserve a disappearing part of Puget Sound history. Together, Leroy and Lisa talk about stewardship, memory, work, pride, and why some boats continue to live on long after they leave the water.This is a warm and thoughtful conversation about wooden boats, family life, and the stories that keep maritime heritage alive.Beyond the Boat is an independent, listener-supported project. Support sustains the listening, but it doesn’t steer the stories.  You can help keep the show alive, as a one time Supporter, as a continuous Member, or Steward, at:www.buymeacoffee.com/beyondtheboatNote: "Stewards" are "Members" who will be periodically mentioned outside episode stories.Support is voluntary, there are no paywalls, and the stories are always free to listen to.Have feedback or know someone who should be on the show?Reach me at:   [email protected] thanks to Todd Power of Chuck Hovey Yachts for ongoing support of Beyond the Boat, and to Peter McGraw and Charlie Seberg for generous one-time contributions helping sustain the project.

Aaron LaPointe grew up around the water—but it was wooden workboats that pulled him in for good. Now he’s the Executive Director of the Historic Maritime Foundation, stewarding a growing fleet of historic vessels and building a hands-on pathway for young people and career-changers to enter the maritime trades.In this conversation, Aaron and host Leroy Lewis talk about the quiet honor of workboat careers, why the “historic” side of tugboating is disappearing even as modern tugging booms, and what it takes—money, community, and stubborn love—to keep big timber boats alive. They dig into Aaron’s personal roots of responsibility, the legacy of his grandfather’s tugboat career, and the foundation’s “history in motion” model: getting these boats off the dock, into people’s hands, and back into the world where they belong.This is an episode about stewardship as privilege, preservation as community work, and the kind of joyful responsibility that makes people show up—again and again—for boats that can’t survive without them.https://www.historicmaritimefoundation.org/Beyond the Boat is an independent, listener-supported project. Support sustains the listening, but it doesn’t steer the stories.  You can help keep the show alive, as a one time Supporter, as a continuous Member, or Steward, at:www.buymeacoffee.com/beyondtheboatNote: "Stewards" are "Members" who will be periodically mentioned outside episode stories.Support is voluntary, there are no paywalls, and the stories are always free to listen to.Have feedback or know someone who should be on the show?Reach me at:   [email protected] thanks to Todd Power of Chuck Hovey Yachts for ongoing support of Beyond the Boat, and to Peter McGraw and Charlie Seberg for generous one-time contributions helping sustain the project.

In this episode of Beyond the Boat, Leroy Lewis talks with Jamie Trost—Senior Captain, manager, and co-owner of the Traverse Tall Ship Company—about what it really means to operate traditional sailing ships in the modern world.Jamie has served on an extraordinary range of vessels—including the Lady Washington—and he describes the unseen reality behind a “simple” day sail: hiring and training crews, balancing maintenance triage with public programs, reading weather like a second language, and delivering an experience that’s exciting without ever compromising safety.Along the way, we explore why tall ships still matter: for most of human history, five to seven knots was the fastest way a person could travel for days on end—and the teamwork required to do that hasn’t changed. These ships don’t just preserve history. They create it—every time a crew learns to work together, and every time a passenger steps aboard and feels what it means to rely on other people.www.tallshipsailing.com, https://www.facebook.com/TraverseTallShipCompany, https://www.instagram.com/schoonermanitou/Beyond the Boat is an independent, listener-supported project. Support sustains the listening, but it doesn’t steer the stories.  You can help keep the show alive, as a one time Supporter, as a continuous Member, or Steward, at:www.buymeacoffee.com/beyondtheboatNote: "Stewards" are "Members" who will be periodically mentioned outside episode stories.Support is voluntary, there are no paywalls, and the stories are always free to listen to.Have feedback or know someone who should be on the show?Reach me at:   [email protected] thanks to Todd Power of Chuck Hovey Yachts for ongoing support of Beyond the Boat, and to Peter McGraw and Charlie Seberg for generous one-time contributions helping sustain the project.

In 1931, an elegant 87-foot motor yacht was designed by Callis and built in San Pedro, California as Holiday for William Morris Jr. of the William Morris Talent Agency. She cruised the West Coast from Mexico to Alaska and hosted dockside gatherings filled with actors, musicians, and cultural figures of the era—her teak decks and mahogany salon reflecting a time when craftsmanship meant pride in artistry.Over the decades, that same yacht lived many lives. Purchased by a Seattle family, commandeered during World War II as U.S. Navy picket ship Q-136, later serving the federal prison system, and eventually donated to the Bellingham Sea Scouts—where she was renamed Discovery.Today, Discovery is owned and operated by Ben Swanson, who grew up aboard wooden boats and followed Alaska north long before it became a destination brand. In this episode, Ben shares how a childhood on the water shaped his instincts, how independence came through conflict and hard-earned authority, and why he chose stewardship over scale.We talk about the unseen labor required to run a wooden vessel, the judgment calls made in remote waters, and how small-group voyages turn guests into lifelong friends. This is a conversation about responsibility, patience, legacy—and what it means to carry not just people, but history, forward.https://alaskacharters.com/Beyond the Boat is an independent, listener-supported project. Support sustains the listening, but it doesn’t steer the stories.  You can help keep the show alive, as a one time Supporter, as a continuous Member, or Steward, at:www.buymeacoffee.com/beyondtheboatNote: "Stewards" are "Members" who will be periodically mentioned outside episode stories.Support is voluntary, there are no paywalls, and the stories are always free to listen to.Have feedback or know someone who should be on the show?Reach me at:   [email protected] thanks to Todd Power of Chuck Hovey Yachts for ongoing support of Beyond the Boat, and to Peter McGraw and Charlie Seberg for generous one-time contributions helping sustain the project.

In this episode of Beyond the Boat, Leroy talks with John W. Clauson, Executive Director of Kitsap Transit, about an unlikely centerpiece in a modern public transit fleet: M/V Carlisle II, a 1917 wooden ferry still serving the Port Orchard–Bremerton run.John shares how Kitsap Transit first partnered with a private ferry operator across Sinclair Inlet, why Carlisle II became the one vessel worth keeping when the system acquired the operation, and what it means to steward a wooden boat that’s still working for the public. Along the way, we explore what it takes to keep a century-old wooden ferry in service—from Coast Guard inspections and plank replacement to Port Townsend yard traditions to the powerful role of community attachment in keeping history alive.www.kitsaptransit.com/static/483/our-ferry-fleethttp://www.kitsaptransit.org/Beyond the Boat is an independent, listener-supported project. Support sustains the listening, but it doesn’t steer the stories.  You can help keep the show alive, as a one time Supporter, as a continuous Member, or Steward, at:www.buymeacoffee.com/beyondtheboatNote: "Stewards" are "Members" who will be periodically mentioned outside episode stories.Support is voluntary, there are no paywalls, and the stories are always free to listen to.Have feedback or know someone who should be on the show?Reach me at:   [email protected] thanks to Todd Power of Chuck Hovey Yachts for ongoing support of Beyond the Boat, and to Peter McGraw and Charlie Seberg for generous one-time contributions helping sustain the project.

Brian Harte lives on Ireland’s south coast, in the fishing village of Glandore just northeast of Skibbereen, where boatbuilding has followed the river inland for generations. A shipwright since 1998, Brian talks about learning from master craftspeople, now mostly retired, the slow satisfaction of timber work, and what it feels like to bring a weathered wood back to life—hand-planed, sanded, and varnished to a mirror finish. He reflects on the shrinking number of traditional wooden-boat builders in Ireland, the pride of “keeping up” with the people who built the boats before him, and why he’s committed to passing those skills on.  Beyond the Boat is an independent, listener-supported project. Support sustains the listening, but it doesn’t steer the stories.  You can help keep the show alive, as a one time Supporter, as a continuous Member, or Steward, at:www.buymeacoffee.com/beyondtheboatNote: "Stewards" are "Members" who will be periodically mentioned outside episode stories.Support is voluntary, there are no paywalls, and the stories are always free to listen to.Have feedback or know someone who should be on the show?Reach me at:   [email protected] thanks to Todd Power of Chuck Hovey Yachts for ongoing support of Beyond the Boat, and to Peter McGraw and Charlie Seberg for generous one-time contributions helping sustain the project.

At 89, Larry Benson has lived a full life alongside wooden boats—from a childhood on a 1920s bridge-deck cruiser in wartime Bremerton to his current years aboard Thelonious, a 1953 Ed Monk Sr. design. In this episode, Larry shares how an old family boat reappeared at Expo 86, how a “casual” look at a Stevens picnic boat pulled him back into boating, and how he eventually found—and fell in love with—Thelonious. Along the way, we talk Classic Yacht Association history, Volunteer work on the Virginia 5, meeting Tina, an unforgettable Alaska trip – solo at 79, and why wooden boats still draw people down the dock.Beyond the Boat is an independent, listener-supported project. Support sustains the listening, but it doesn’t steer the stories.  You can help keep the show alive, as a one time Supporter, as a continuous Member, or Steward, at:www.buymeacoffee.com/beyondtheboatNote: "Stewards" are "Members" who will be periodically mentioned outside episode stories.Support is voluntary, there are no paywalls, and the stories are always free to listen to.Have feedback or know someone who should be on the show?Reach me at:   [email protected] thanks to Todd Power of Chuck Hovey Yachts for ongoing support of Beyond the Boat, and to Peter McGraw and Charlie Seberg for generous one-time contributions helping sustain the project.

In this episode of Beyond the Boat, Leroy Lewis sits down with Jim and Margie Paynton to follow the 85-year life of their 1940, 42-foot Chris-Craft double-cabin enclosed-bridge cruiser. One of just 31 hulls built, the boat is still in its original configuration and still running on her original gas engines—now in the care of only her fifth owners.Jim and Margie share how they tracked down the families of all four previous owners, from Great Lakes cruisers with meticulous logbooks to an inventive Seattle bioengineer who owned the boat for nearly three decades. They recount her journey from Algonac, Michigan, to the Great Lakes, onto a railcar west to Puget Sound, involvement with the Classic Yacht Association, and into a life of family cruising from Olympia to Desolation Sound and Princess Louisa.Check out their website to learn more about Marine:http://www.maranee.com/Beyond the Boat is an independent, listener-supported project. Support sustains the listening, but it doesn’t steer the stories.  You can help keep the show alive, as a one time Supporter, as a continuous Member, or Steward, at:www.buymeacoffee.com/beyondtheboatNote: "Stewards" are "Members" who will be periodically mentioned outside episode stories.Support is voluntary, there are no paywalls, and the stories are always free to listen to.Have feedback or know someone who should be on the show?Reach me at:   [email protected] thanks to Todd Power of Chuck Hovey Yachts for ongoing support of Beyond the Boat, and to Peter McGraw and Charlie Seberg for generous one-time contributions helping sustain the project.

In this episode, we’re joined by Blaise Holly, a commercial fisherman turned shipwright, now the owner of Haven Boatworks in Port Townsend, Washington.Blaise grew up back east, studied literature at Middlebury, and detoured through Mystic Seaport to help build the topsail schooner Amistad before spending years fishing salmon and halibut aboard the 48-foot FV Alaska.  For the past 19 years, he’s been at Haven, first on the tools, then leading the crew — and since 2022, he’s owned the yard, guiding a 35-person team restoring some of the country’s most notable wooden vessels.  We’ll trace his path from the fishing grounds to the boatyard, swap a few sea stories, and talk about the realities and deeper rewards of wooden-boat ownership.Contact Blaise @ https://www.havenboatworks.com/Beyond the Boat is an independent, listener-supported project. Support sustains the listening, but it doesn’t steer the stories.  You can help keep the show alive, as a one time Supporter, as a continuous Member, or Steward, at:www.buymeacoffee.com/beyondtheboatNote: "Stewards" are "Members" who will be periodically mentioned outside episode stories.Support is voluntary, there are no paywalls, and the stories are always free to listen to.Have feedback or know someone who should be on the show?Reach me at:   [email protected] thanks to Todd Power of Chuck Hovey Yachts for ongoing support of Beyond the Boat, and to Peter McGraw and Charlie Seberg for generous one-time contributions helping sustain the project.

In this episode of Beyond the Boat, host Leroy Lewis speaks with Todd Powell about the complexities of owning, buying, and selling wooden boats. They explore the myths surrounding wooden boat ownership, the changing attitudes of buyers, and the unique challenges faced by sellers in the current market. Todd shares his extensive experience in the boating world, discussing memorable trips, the importance of community, and the role of brokers in navigating the wooden boat market. The conversation highlights the passion and practicality that come with wooden boat ownership, as well as the need for proper maintenance and care.Contact Todd Powell at [email protected] the Boat is an independent, listener-supported project. Support sustains the listening, but it doesn’t steer the stories.  You can help keep the show alive, as a one time Supporter, as a continuous Member, or Steward, at:www.buymeacoffee.com/beyondtheboatNote: "Stewards" are "Members" who will be periodically mentioned outside episode stories.Support is voluntary, there are no paywalls, and the stories are always free to listen to.Have feedback or know someone who should be on the show?Reach me at:   [email protected] thanks to Todd Power of Chuck Hovey Yachts for ongoing support of Beyond the Boat, and to Peter McGraw and Charlie Seberg for generous one-time contributions helping sustain the project.

David Miller—longtime steward of Sea Nymph II, a 1946 Monk Senior 46-footer—joins Beyond the Boat to trace a Puget Sound classic’s lineage and life. We cover the Coast Guard roots behind the name, decades with the Wilhelm family (including escorting the USS Missouri), and the careful restorations: mahogany cabinetry, Port Orford cedar planking, and period-true upgrades. David shares the learning curve of early dockings, the hunt for covered moorage, and favorite stops from Clam Bay to Fossil Bay. Now at 80, he and Karn are ready to pass the baton to the next caretaker of this storied Northwest cruiser.  For photos of David’s boat, go to ClasicYachts.org, CYA Yacht Register.  Sea Nymph II is currently listed with NW Yacht net at www.nwyachtnet.com.Beyond the Boat is an independent, listener-supported project. Support sustains the listening, but it doesn’t steer the stories.  You can help keep the show alive, as a one time Supporter, as a continuous Member, or Steward, at:www.buymeacoffee.com/beyondtheboatNote: "Stewards" are "Members" who will be periodically mentioned outside episode stories.Support is voluntary, there are no paywalls, and the stories are always free to listen to.Have feedback or know someone who should be on the show?Reach me at:   [email protected] thanks to Todd Power of Chuck Hovey Yachts for ongoing support of Beyond the Boat, and to Peter McGraw and Charlie Seberg for generous one-time contributions helping sustain the project.

Jeff shares the story of his family’s 1935, 18-foot Reinell runabout—its history, their adventures aboard, and the famous guests who once joined the previous owners on guided fishing trips.Beyond the Boat is an independent, listener-supported project. Support sustains the listening, but it doesn’t steer the stories.  You can help keep the show alive, as a one time Supporter, as a continuous Member, or Steward, at:www.buymeacoffee.com/beyondtheboatNote: "Stewards" are "Members" who will be periodically mentioned outside episode stories.Support is voluntary, there are no paywalls, and the stories are always free to listen to.Have feedback or know someone who should be on the show?Reach me at:   [email protected] thanks to Todd Power of Chuck Hovey Yachts for ongoing support of Beyond the Boat, and to Peter McGraw and Charlie Seberg for generous one-time contributions helping sustain the project.