Sailswoman

The rapid thwack-thwack-thwack of an industrial sewing machine and the crackle of woven polyester being yanked and stretched across the wood floor fill the loft where Carol Hasse has built an international reputation for making some of the finest "blue-water voyaging" sails in the world.

"A lot of things you see here were done 200 years ago," said the 49-year-old sailmaker, who is called Hasse (pronounced "HOSS-ee") by her dozen employees and just about everyone else in the sailing world. Her company specializes in cruising sails - ones used on trips that last a few months to a few years. Among world voyagers, Hasse sails are known for their extra detailing, hand-stitching and durability to withstand lashing storms, searing sun and months on end of rocking-horse motion.

It's a small niche compared to today's mass market for lightweight sails to power just-for-fun craft such as Hobie cats.

The old, rambling building that's been home for more than 20 years to Hasse's firm, Port Townsend Sails, looks out onto Point Hudson Harbor. Past the slips where boats of various sizes sway on blue-green water is Admiralty Inlet, the waterway where the Strait of Juan de Fuca becomes the portal into Puget Sound.

Beginning tomorrow, Hasse's view of the marina will be transformed into a bustling sea of people who will descend on Port Townsend for the annual Wooden Boat Festival, held every second weekend in September. Hasse was one of the founders of the festival in 1976.

The festival is now the biggest event in town, drawing 25,000 to 30,000 people every year. Close to 200 wooden boats, anchored in the marina or brought ashore, will have their decks open to the public. Most will come from Washington and British Columbia, but others will sail from as far away as Hawaii and New Zealand for the festival, which attracts a veritable who's-who of wooden-boat sailing.

Seminars, guest lecturers and schooner and rowboat races, along with crafts for the kids, bawdy sea-chantey-singing musical acts and barbecued salmon, are all part of the festival, which injects nautical education into its party atmosphere.

A link to town history

In its heyday, Port Townsend was among the larger seaports on the West Coast, second only to San Francisco. Capt. George Vancouver named the harbor in 1792 for Britain's Marquis of Townshend. Founded in 1851, the town was once an unsavory hive of saloons, brothels and gambling halls. That all changed by the 1890s, when the railroad came to Puget Sound; it terminated in Seattle, stranding Port Townsend.

After years of economic and cultural languor, Port Townsend saw an influx of new residents in the 1970s, drawn to the town's geographic location and maritime history. A few old-timers, still plying their boat-building trades, became teachers for a new generation in love with the ideals of independence, self-reliance and craftsmanship found in sailing.

At the time, fiberglass dominated boat building but was too expensive for most of these aspiring mariners. The only boats they could afford were ones they built themselves or used vessels, usually made of wood and often in need of repair. Though wood had fallen out of favor with the affluent, the mid-'70s saw the beginning of a preservation movement that culminated in the resurgence of wooden boats.

Hasse was part of this crowd. Though she was raised in the town of Camas on the Columbia River, just east of Vancouver, Wash., Hasse wasn't from a maritime family. She got her first taste of ocean sailing at age 20 when she persuaded her family doctor and his wife to take her with them on a voyage down the coast to Mexico. From there, she worked her way from boat to boat, continuing on to Costa Rica, the Galapagos Islands, the Marquesas in French Polynesia and Hawaii.

That first trip fueled her passion for sailing.

A vital maritime community

When Hasse returned to Washington, the state's communal boat-building movement was in full swing. She joined a collective based in Bellingham and then apprenticed with a master sailmaker in Seattle. She came to Point Hudson with a group of friends in 1975 and helped restore the Bolin, a wooden powerboat.

A year later, she helped launch the Wooden Boat Festival, and then the Wooden Boat Foundation. In its inaugural year, the festival attracted 3,000 boatwrights, sailmakers, blacksmiths, riggers and other saltwater hippies for a Woodstock-esque celebration of wooden boats. Now, the annual event is the biggest fund-raiser for the foundation, which runs year-long sailing programs for youths and adults. The Northwest School of Wooden Boat Building was another festival spinoff.

"We're internationally known. The festival and school are both large on the global map of wooden-boat culture," said Chris Kluck, who became the foundation's executive director seven months ago after spending the bulk of his 35 years at sea. "They're what brought and developed the core of craftspeople here in Port Townsend."

Kluck speaks about the town's collective appreciation for wood and the traditions of boat building with the passion of a religious convert.

Wooden-boat lovers, he says, have to "suspend . . . reason since there are cheaper, faster, quicker ways" of sailing and maintaining boats. But unlike vessels made from metal or polychemicals, wood has soul, he insists.

"Wood breathes, and like any living thing, it requires a lot of maintenance and nurturing," Kluck said.

"When wood moves from timber through the care of a craftsman's hands and finally is moving on the water with the wind, well, that's one of the most beautiful things you can create."

That combination of wood, wind and water makes sailing such a boat a spiritual experience.

Every chance she gets, Hasse is on her 25-foot wooden folk boat she named Lorraine, after her mother. Now a mom herself to 5-year-old Grayson, Hasse says her son "is already a sailor" who is well-versed in the language of the sea.

"It's magical. There's no other way to describe it," Hasse said. "I fell in love with it all - the beauty and the power of living with nature's rhythms."

Sara Jean Green can be reached at 206-515-5654. Her e-mail address is sgreen@seattletimes.com.

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IF YOU GO:

The Wooden Boat Festival at Point Hudson Marina in Port Townsend starts tomorrow and runs through Sunday. Hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Daily admission is $10 for adults and $5 for children and seniors. A three-day pass is $20 for adults and $10 for children and seniors.

For more information, call the Wooden Boat Foundation at 360-385-4742 or 360-385-3628, or see the Web site at www.woodenboat.org.

The sail loft for Hasse & Co., Port Townsend Sails, is at 315 Jackson St., adjacent to Point Hudson Marina in Port Townsend. Phone 360-385-1640, or e-mail ptsails@olympus.net.

To get there:

From Seattle, take the ferry from Colman Dock (Alaskan Way at Marion Street) to Bainbridge Island. Follow Highway 305 west and then Highway 3 north, following signs to the Hood Canal Bridge. Cross the bridge on Highway 104; after approximately five miles , turn right onto Highway 19, which eventually merges with Highway 20. Continue into Port Townsend.

Or: Ride the ferry from Edmonds to Kingston. Follow Highway 104 north to the Hood Canal Bridge, then follow directions above.

Washington State Ferries sail daily on both routes. Fares vary. For fare information and schedules, call 800-843-3779. Web site: www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries/.

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