northwest maritime center

What a great glimpse of history and of a art and craft that is quickly passing by. Staff was very friendly and knowledgeable. It was a real treat!

On a recent Saturday walk-about we made another stop at the NW Maritime Center in Port Townsend, Washington. Located on the North end of downtown, this facility is the perfect cap to a walk downtown. It's hard to resist the beauty and grace of well made wooden boat and everything that goes into them. This center serves many purposes. It's a meeting hall. A wooden boat school. Hosts a rowing club and laugh with a boathouse fill with modern kevlar wonders stacked in racks with vintage Pocock cedar shells and sculls. The Chandlery is a great place to buy boat parts, boating fashion or grab a really well done espresso.

Loving to make model wooden boats, this is a place we always visit when in Port Townsand. The new Maritime Center offers such a variety of activities.

Located right on the waterfront in downtown Port Townsend, beside a great view point of Townsend Bay, the architect of the building is gem you don't want to miss.

The NW Maritime Center is a great place to visit and it is free. The complex contains a very nice Coffee shop with excellent espresso drinks and pastries (a little on the spendy side!), a gift store, chandlery and a wooden boat building school. On many days you can watch as wooden boats are being built or restored. The waterfront location is gorgeous as well. Not to be missed!

We missed the Wooden Boat Festival by a week, but had the chance to see where they restore and build wooden boats, with several in various stages of completion. The folks at the center were friendly and informative, and the Center is well worth seeing. Admission is free, and they accept donations.

Fascinating working boat works. We were given a free boat tour of the harbor with lots of historic details from the "captain".

My nephew's wedding reception was here and the setting was delightful! The food was served family style at each table with a "plated-type" set up (assigned seating at round tables). The appetizers were delicious and we loved the oysters on the half shell…most fun was tossing the empty shells back into the ocean water below!

Between the two building are clean restrooms, the other public restrooms are a little nasty. Other than the potties this is a less visited end of town with parking normally available. A newer dock and a cute coffee shop with big windows that open for a cool sea breeze in the summer. Also wonderful space to rent for a party or wedding.

Better yet look on line for classes! When in the area we always go thru here. Wooden boat making, great chandlery for all kinds of supplies, gifts and nautical stuff. Sign up online for classes in navigation at a top notch facility!

It's a nice lil place, in a wonderful area. I don't think the price of admission is right, but interesting.I don't like that you have to have a permit to park, either.

Attended several live jazz concerts here. Nice setting on the water, good views but more importantly, good acoustics

Northwest Maritime Center has a ship chandlery and coffee shop. Wooden boat center included. Good view of marina. Adjacent to Pope Marine Park which has free concerts on Thrursday evenings in the summer from 4:30 to 7:00 p. m.

Very good coffee, nice maritime shop with good stuff for boaters and watchers alike. Set at the end of town, there's a wooden boat center, a ships chandler, a coffee shop, and a rowing venue. All set amidst a small marina.

The view from the upstairs deck is splendid. On a sunny Sunday, we were driving from Chimacum to Port Townsend and happened to see what looked like a sailboat regatta starting to form up in the blue water below. Thinking where we could stop and watch, my sweetheart pointed us straight through town and parked at the NWMC where we had a perfect view of the race from the upper deck. A small handicapped-accessible elevator allowed yours truly to gain the elevation, and a friendly bench was available for sitting. We saw boats of every sort coming in and out of the marina to our left, and watched kayakers, daysailors, the WS Ferries and the occasional cargo ship come and go, while below we saw families playing at the water's edge.The Center has restrooms which are always clean, lots of boats and boat builders to watch, a small-but-cozy coffee shop and a chandlery full of seafarer's delights, not the least of which is a wall of books which is almost always dotted with the pernicious northwest bibliophilious habitué. My favorite feature (besides the books and the brass and the amazing collection of navigational charts) is the wall-size photo of a sailing yacht in full sail. Go anytime, true sailors don't mind the weather.