Full Sail For Shipwrights' Co-op
Dissatisfied
working for others,
craftsmen are now
the bosses of
boat-repair
business
By Stephen Thompson, Assistant Editor
ort Townsend is a picturesque, Victorian town at the
tip of Washington’s Olympic peninsula in Puget
Sound. Once a bustling commercial port, it now
serves fishing and pleasure boats. With a lovely
setting, thriving arts community, mild climate, upscale shops and
restaurants and beautiful, well-preserved old architecture, the town
is a gracious place to live and a popular tourist attraction.
It’s also well-known as a center for wooden boats and ships, due
in part to a shipyard with a well-established reputation for building
and repairing wooden vessels: the Port Townsend Shipwrights
Cooperative.
With 12 members, 11 of them skilled shipwrights, the
cooperative is capable of building a 60-foot or larger boat from the
keel up. Most of its work, however, is repairing and refitting fishing
and pleasure boats — both powered and sailing vessels.
The shipyard takes on not only wooden-hulled craft, but also
those made of steel, aluminum and fiberglass. It can repair hulls
and superstructures, rebuild diesel engines, install or refurbish
electrical wiring and hydraulic systems, refinish or install luxury
interiors and handle all the other myriad tasks a small shipyard is
called upon to do.
In its 28 years in business, the co-op has built a reputation for
excellent workmanship and contributed to Port Townsend’s status
as a favored destination for those interested in maritime history and
tradition.
The cooperative began in 1981 after some marine
carpenters and boat builders in the port began discussing
their dissatisfaction with working for other people, which led
to open meetings held to discuss solutions. As skilled
craftsmen, they felt more than capable of running a boatrepair
business; the problem was just how to get that business
started.
One of them, who had worked in a plywood-making coop,
suggested the cooperative business model. Others had
noted local groups of tree planters doing work for the USDA
Forest Service who also used the cooperative business model.
Networking with other co-ops
Soon, members of the group held talks with members of a
local workers cooperative that ran a restaurant, and then got
in touch with the Puget Sound Cooperative Federation, a
Seattle-based organization dedicated to promoting co-ops.
They also became interested in the Mondragon Cooperative
Corporation in Spain, and based their co-op’s structure
loosely on that of the Spanish co-ops.
The Puget Sound federation put them in touch with an
attorney with co-op experience, who helped them develop
bylaws for their new cooperative. The success of their
business model has attracted the interest of other worker
cooperatives in the area, some of whom have adapted the
shipwrights’ bylaws for their own businesses.
Leasing some property in the port wasn’t difficult. The
cooperative started working out in the open, with a small 8-
by-10-foot shed serving for office space and tool storage.
“We’d pull the boat out of the water and set it down in the
yard, and just work on it in the open,” says Jim Lyons, the
only remaining original member.
The Cascadia Revolving Fund, a local philanthropic
organization, later provided a loan to build a proper shop.
The 60-by-70-foot, heated, metal building can hold two or
three vessels at a time for repair. The cooperative also has
two smaller buildings that serve as a tool shop and joinery
shop, as well as a roofed open-boat shelter.
The co-op originally consisted of 15 members. After an
initial shake-out period, “It fell down to eight people and a
band saw,” says member Curtis Schloe. That band saw, a
necessity for repairing and building wooden boats, is now
part of the co-op’s logo.
Working in a shipyard, especially on wooden vessels,
requires workers to be jacks of all trades. It calls for expertise
in carpentry, joining, metalworking, mechanics, pipefitting
and a score of other skills, many of them unique to the
maritime world.
The cooperative does have specialists: Schloe, who joined
in 1991, brought the board his experience in marine
refrigeration systems, which he’d gained from years working
in the Alaskan fishing fleet. The same year a welder and a
caulker joined also.
Today, three members perform full-time specialty work: a
diesel mechanic, a welder and a certified electrician. Others
have skills in rigging, caulking, design, cabinet-making,
finishing and other fields, but turn their hands to whatever
jobs need doing at the moment. The only non-shipbuilder is
Suzie Barnes, the co-op’s bookkeeper.
Self-motivation critical to co-op
In addition to being adaptable, co-op members must be
self-supervising. The cooperative’s success depends on the
initiative and craftsmanship of every member. “Slackers,”
people who aren’t self-starters, loners and clock-watchers
can’t make it.
“We don’t have any bosses,” Schloe says. “Everybody is a
boss. Some people can do it, and some people can’t.”
“This kind of business appeals to people who are
independent, but appreciate a little structure,” says Lyons.
“Everybody’s the kind of person who can lead, but can follow
too.”
Today, the co-op’s 12 members all sit on the board, which
meets monthly to vote on housekeeping decisions. The
business operates as a corporation for tax and licensing
purposes, but it is run as a cooperative.
Prospective new members are approved by vote; members
who aren’t working out can also be voted out. Share prices
are $100, refundable when a member leaves.
The members determine the current wage rate, and are
each paid according to the number of hours worked.
Everybody is paid the same per-hour rate. The co-op
occasionally hires an employee on a temporary basis;
otherwise, the work is generally done by members.
Those jobs for which the shipyard is not equipped, such as
fiberglass repair or upholstery, are contracted out to nearby
firms. The business model hasn’t changed since the
cooperative’s founding.
Eighty percent of any yearly profit above wages and
expenses is divided by hours worked and then distributed as
dividends the next year. Twenty percent of the profit is held
back as a cash reserve.
In the beginning, says Schloe, almost all of the
cooperative’s work was on fishing boats, which traveled to
Port Townsend from as far away as Alaska and California for
repairs and refitting. In recent years, the number of
commercial boats coming in has decreased, but the yacht
trade has grown to fill the gap.
Wooden pleasure craft have a beauty — and connection to
the past — that metal or fiberglass boats can’t match, many
believe. The use of new epoxy coatings make wooden boats
more durable and practical than they used to be.
They still cost more to build, repair and maintain, but
wooden boats have become fashionable with enthusiasts who
have the funds to own them. Many old fishing boats are now
being restored and modified for use as pleasure craft.
The cooperative also restores historic vessels. A few years
ago, it completed the keel-up restoration of an old wooden
tugboat, the Sandman, for the City of Olympia.
“She’d just been sitting for a long time,” says Lyons. “So
she was in pretty bad shape. When they towed her over here,
she started taking on water and they had to beach to keep her
from sinking.” Restored to new condition, the boat is now
docked in Olympia and on display to the public.
Emphasis on pleasure craft
“Today, pleasure boats are about 80 percent of our work,”
says Schloe. “The jobs tend to be smaller, but there are more
of them.” The growth in yacht work also means more
emphasis on fine finish work, such as cabinetry and interior
work.
Wooden fishing boats are still being used for their original
purpose. Schloe says an Alaskan fishing family recently
purchased an old wooden purse seiner, a fishing boat that
uses a special type of net, to fish for salmon.
“The father already has one, and now the son is getting his
own. They’re bringing it down here for a refit.” Repairs on
commercial fishing boats focus less on appearance and more
on keeping the craft seaworthy and productive. “Some of
them get a full refit, with engine work and everything, and
some come down just to get a few planks replaced.”
Although the cooperative does most of its work on
wooden boats, it can handle steel and aluminum boats as well.
A recent project involved converting a steel trawler to a
yacht. To lengthen the hull, it was cut in half ahead of the
wheel house, and an eight-foot section fabricated and
inserted into the gap. The result looks and performs as if it
were the original design.
And the shipyard occasionally builds a new boat, too. “We
might build one every 2 or 3 years,” says Schloe. “It keeps
our license up.” The yard even builds a small skiff every now
and then.
The recession has slowed things down slightly, but Schloe
and Lyons say the yard is staying busy. “We took a little
downturn,” says Lyons, “but the business kept coming in.”
The co-op has a website and exhibits at Seattle’s yearly
Pacific Marine Expo, a huge commercial fishing trade show.
It also advertises in yachting and other periodicals. However,
Schloe says that most of their business comes in by word of
mouth. “The fishing industry has changed,” he says. “But the
old-timers still remember us.”
Lyons agrees. “Oh yes,” he says. “Nothing beats
reputation for attracting business. The boys in the fishing
fleet are always talking on their radios, and I expect the
recreational boaters do too.”
The latest new customer, the owner of a wooden fishing
boat in Half Moon Bay, Calif., apparently learned about the
cooperative the old fashioned way.
And the old-fashioned way seems to have a lot of life left
in it. The traditional virtues of self-reliance, good
craftsmanship and pride in a job well done are still paying
dividends. The co-op is continuing to expand: it’s planning a
new building to serve as a shop for electrical and hydraulic
systems.
“We didn’t think of it as something that would last nearly
30 years,” Lyons says of the co-op. “But it’s been a good fit
for me. It’s been good all along.”
