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2017 Wooden Boat Festival has ended
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Howard Rice

Howard Rice is a consummate life long sailor with a penchant for wooden boats and in particular small boats. His experiences afloat span the spectrum of sailing from Olympic race management to racing one design, sail making, design, boat building, boat building instruction, seamanship instruction including instructing US Special Forces combat swimmers and small boat operators to solo voyaging in some of the more interesting places on the planet. He has built a working life around seeking out the remotest and at times the most challenging environments to explore. His work afloat has had him coaching at the US Naval Academy and managing over 165 regattas ranging from World, European, Caribbean, North American Championships down to local fleet racing but he has always had his eye firmly fixed on the development of small wood voyaging boats ranging from his hand built sailing canoe to his latest creation an 11' 11" voyaging dinghy, which he has just sailed south down the Strait of Magellan and into Tierra del Fuego. This was his second foray south, the first being a solo double rounding of Cape Horn in a fifteen foot wood canvas sailing canoe. Howard has spent nearly 20 years as a college professor living on the remote Micronesian island of Pohnpei and has sailed and explored Micronesian waters for all of that time utilizing a clever sleep aboard wood composite sailing canoe of his design and build. He has sailed Yapese voyaging canoes and has had the opportunity to learn from Micronesian voyagers as well as teach Micronesian small boat operators and guides seamanship and small boat handling skills. He recently moved back to the US and has just embarked on "a very different kind of circumnavigation" aboard a highly modified SCAMP sail and oar boat named "Southern Cross", which he will be presenting at this years Festival. We are thrilled to have Howard with us again as Port Townsend has become a second home and his past Festival presentations have always been to packed audiences.