Special Honors for Van Cleve, Witt Lifetime Achievement Awards will be held at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 5 in the main meeting room at the Northwest Maritime Center. Hosted by WoodenBoat Magazine and open to the public, this event will present Marci Van Cleeve the Wooden Boat Foundation Lifetime Achievement in Wooden Boat Community Spirit & Culture award, and Glen Witt the WoodenBoat Magazine Lifetime Achievement in Design. “What’s your passion?” is Marci Van Cleve’s first question to students. As expected, passions range from martial arts to computers, but Marci’s role as an educator in the Port Townsend and Chimacum public school districts is the same: Inspire learning by cultivating curiosity and hands-on experience in the student’s interest areas. Marci encourages her students to take an active role in their education by first articulating their passions and then helping them weave their interests into their own, individualized curriculum. This heartfelt and timeintensive approach is the saving grace for many of the county’s youth who otherwise may not have graduated. Marci Van Cleve has been a resident of and educator Marci’s bank of social in Jefferson County since 1974. Here she is (on the capital is an essential in- port side) in May 2013 aboard Dragonheart, on the gredient in her recipe for Puget Sound Voyaging class’s circumnavigation of educational success; in- Marrowstone Island. NWMC photo numerable mentors and community volunteers have been recruited by Marci to invest in youth by imparting their specific skills and knowledge. Marci connects youth and community together, everyone learns while growing as a person. Now in her 30th year of teaching, Marci splits her time between Pi and OCEAN, the alternative public schools she co-founded within the two school districts. But Marci’s classes are just as likely to be held aboard a 25-foot longboat, beside a lively salmon stream, or amongst a string orchestra as in a classroom. In 1996, Marci started the Puget Sound Explorers Program in partnership with the school districts and the Wooden Boat Foundation. With access to the water, she was able to help students develop leadership skills while gaining the confidence and calluses needed to enter the maritime trades. Building on the success of this marriage between public schools and the area’s maritime education facilities, Marci and her co-teaching expanded the curriculum to include boatbuilding as the Puget Sound Voyaging Society in partnership with the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding in Port Hadlock. Always a champion of the underdog, Marci fiercely believes in the importance of a high school diploma and works tirelessly and with phenomenal creativity to help willing students achieve this life milestone. Along with the traditional Washington State learning requirements, Marci teaches the deceptively challenging “soft skills of industry” which start with “show up and be prepared.” She sees firsthand how challenging these critical skills can be to kids without ample resources or support. More immediately, Marci makes it her responsibility to provide “sea stores” (i.e., healthy snacks) to students, especially in the floating classroom where crew morale matters and hungry kids can’t row. Marci’s generosity is selfless, her creativity boundless, and her enthusiasm unflappable. Looking for their own piece of heaven, Marci and her husband Steve put down roots in 1974 on a 20-acre farm on Jefferson County’s Marrowstone Island called Fiddler’s Green. In her time away from school, Marci is a prolific poet and deadly cribbage player. Steve is a retired tugboat captain and a worthy cribbage opponent. 8 • 2013 Wooden Boat FestivaL
Glen Witt and his brother Elbert started building boats when Glen was still in high school. Glen being born in 1918, plywood was virtually unknown in those days. The pair rabbeted stems, spiled planks and used what they thought were proper building procedures. The plans available during that time weren’t designed for the first-time builder. Eventually, marine plywood was developed. But that didn’t mean you could find a set of boat plans that showed how to use it. In fact, many people didn’t believe plywood could be used to build a boat. As there were no guidelines on the “right way” to use this material, Glen and Elbert had to discover them for themselves. They went through a learning curve using prov- Glen Lewis Witt took his experience in plywood boat en or accepted methods of construction and, in the 1950s, developed a system conventional boatbuild- that he felt would enable the first-time builder to ing. Most of these methods build his own boat with little or no experience. At 95, didn’t work for plywood, Glen is still designing boats and is actively involved in plans that enable the amateur to build their as the two brothers often creating dream boat. NWMC photo found out the hard way. By this time, a cadre of pioneer plywood boatbuilders had begun to form. They all built boats, shared experiences and used the craft they had labored so hard to make. Glen worked at a foundry at the time and was able to make much of the hardware needed for these boats from patterns he created. Glen and Elbert then formed Glenwood Marine (combining Glen’s name and Elbert’s middle name of Woodrow) to provide boat hardware, such as manifolds, struts, prop shafts, and rudders and other underwater parts. During this time, Glen had taken up naval architecture and began designing boats that were detailed and easy enough for the first-time builder to complete. Glen-L Marine Designs was formed in 1953 in Bellflower, Calif. Today, Glenwood continues to supply the hardware needed to complete many of the Glen-L designs. Glen took his experience in plywood boat construction and developed a system that he felt would enable the first-time builder to build his own boat with little or no experience. He understood that lofting the lines of a design would be an obstacle to builders, so early on, he decided that full-size patterns would be available for each design. The first patterns sent to customers were hand-drawn on brown butcher paper; later, they were blueprinted, and today, they are printed using a large-format printer. In addition to building numerous boats, as a means of developing plans, Glen has written five books: Boatbuilding with Plywood, Inboard Motor Installations, How to Build Boat Trailers, How to Fiberglass Boats and in 2008, Boatbuilder’s Notebook. In addition, he has produced seven DVDs. Today, Glen-L exists primarily online, offering more than 300 boat designs, fastenings, epoxy and hardware, which continue to be shipped around the world. The Glen-L Boatbuilder Support Forum has blossomed. Various Glen-L boatbuilders organize get-togethers throughout the U.S. (and this year, in Australia). For 60 years, Glen’s plans have touched the lives of builders all over the world. At 95, Glen is still designing boats and is actively involved in creating plans that enable an amateur to build a dream boat. Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader