All Abbey Molyneux ever wanted was to be good at something.
She found it in a boat yard on the east coast of England, where a team of shipwrights showed her how to repair, restore and build wooden boats using traditional woodworking, joinery, caulking and lofting skills.
“I just know how to do it,” said Molyneux, 33. “You put a boat in front of me, and I can just build it.”
She was an apprentice for seven years at a yard on the River Thames in London, where she lived on her boat because she couldn’t afford anything else. Finally, three years ago, with just a “tenner” in her pocket, Molyneux established her own boat yard in Norfolk. She’s completed more than 50 restorations and has more work than she and two apprentices can handle.
Molyneux will talk about her journey, “Fight or Float: A story of true grit, passion beyond reason, scuffed knuckles, bruised knees and broken hearts,” at the 47th Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival that runs Friday through Sunday, Sept. 6-8.
This year, 300 vessels will tie up at Point Hudson for the largest festival of its kind in North America.
Beyond its focus on the vessels themselves, the festival celebrates workers in the maritime trades who, like Molyneux, have a passion for working on classic wood vessels.
Eight stages will showcase different elements of the maritime world: adventure, cruising, technical, discover, boatbuilding, innovation, boat yard and marine science.
Topics will cover subjects of interest to seasoned mariners (“Marine Weather in Electronic Charting Systems,” “Reefing in Five Minutes or Less”) as well as general audiences, who can enjoy demonstrations of Haida sail making and boat carving, and presentations on orcas and seabirds.
Among the hands-on activities will be wood turning for adults and gyotaku fish printing, a ship simulator tour and paddlewheel rides for children and families.
More than 20 bands will provide music during the course of the festival. Food will be available from vendors and alcohol will be served at dedicated sites on the festival grounds.
A special photography exhibition curated by Caroline Collins, assistant professor at the University of California, Irvine, “Take Me to the Water: Histories of the Black Pacific,” will be on display in the Northwest Maritime bookshop, 431 Water St. Collins will speak about the exhibition and the cultural history of mariners at 9:30 a.m. Saturday.
Lifetime achievement awards will be presented to Margie Abraham, Dave Thompson and Jim Tolpin on Thursday at 5:30 p.m.
Molyneux will be among the speakers participating as part of Women in Boatbuilding, the festival’s spotlight on women from around the world working in maritime trades.
Women in Boatbuilding, which promotes and supports women in working the maritime sector, and Women of the Working Waterfront, a project of Diana Talley to advocate for and document Port Townsend women in the maritime workforce, will have booths at the festival.
“We are so diverse and accomplished,” said Talley, who established one of the first women-owned shipwright businesses in Port Townsend. “We’ve got welders, boat builders, we have shipwrights, we have riggers and finishers and sail makers.”
Talley said the maritime community was very supportive when she arrived in Port Townsend in the 1990s, but it still wasn’t easy establishing her own business. Opportunities and resources that were not available when she was starting out, such as those offered by EDC Team Jefferson, had made entrepreneurship more attainable, she said.
Molyneux said learning the craft of traditional boatbuilding was particularly difficult in Great Britain, even though there was a great demand for people with those skills. Formal training was extremely expensive, and the apprentice system, she said, fell short of providing the kind of support and training that was needed.
“I didn’t go to school, so I had had no education, no formal training or anything,” Molyneux said. “I couldn’t afford to fund my boat building through any of the private colleges that are available.”
One of her goals in arriving in Port Townsend three days before the festival was to visit boatyards and talk to everyone she could to learn how to build a more robust traditional maritime training system in England.
“What are you guys doing that that we aren’t?” Molyneux said. “I want to know. I want to come over and I want to find out, and I wanna do it here.”
Women in Boatbuilding presentations, events
Friday, 1-1:45 p.m. — New Sparks: Tales from a Young Marine Electician with Sydney Fassam
Friday, 2-3 p.m. — History of Ropemaking in Scandinavia with Sarah Sjøgreen
Friday, 3-4 p.m. — Maritime Matriarchs: The Women Shaping the International Marine Sector Panel
Friday, 5-6 p.m. — Women in Boatbuilding Tea Social and group photo
Saturday, 11-11:45 p.m. — Boatbuilding in Italy with Gaia Brojanigo
Saturday, 2-3 p.m. — International Women Boatbuilding Panel
Saturday, 4-4:45 p.m. — Fight or Float with Abbey Molyneaux
Sunday, 10-10:45 a.m. — Sustainable Boatbuilding: BlueTree Boatbuilders and Women in Boatbuilding with Obioma Oji
Sunday, 2-3 p.m. — Entering Boatbuilding as a Woman Leater in Life with Heike Lowenstein
