Portland Wooden Boat Show

RiversWest 25th Anniversary

Portland Wooden Boat Show
Sept 13-14 2008
at the Boat Shop at Pier 99

Starts at 10am
Food/beverages
Kids boatbuilding
Boat rides
Shop open house
Green boats
Knot tying
Boatbuilding demos

Check back later for more details.

Bronze Casting Workshop at RiversWest

Rivers West Small Craft Center is offering a 2 day workshop in Bronze Casting in the boat shop at Pier 99 in North Portland Harbor, October 18-19.

Sam Johnson from the Center for Wooden Boats in Seattle will introduce the basics of pattern making, sand molding and bronze casting during this engaging hands-on course. Students will make patterns of their design to cast tools, boat hardware and other objects in bronze.

Boat builders in particular often need special bronze fittings which are not available but can be cast without great expense. Anyone who has ever lost an oarlock will appreciate learning how to make copies of original hardware.

Learn how to build an inexpensive furnace and how to use all the tools necessary to cast hot metal using sand-casting technology.

Cost: $250 for members, $300 non-members.

Class size is limited.

To sign up go to Bronze Casting Sign up

Our New Web Page Is Live

The RiversWest Website Committee has been working on getting a better web site that is both accurate and timely. This page is the first phase of a three phase effort. Over the next few months we will fill out the web page to include a calender of upcoming events, a links page, a moorage/dockage page, a currents happening in the boat shop, a RiversWest history page and more.

With any transition of this sort, there will be problems. If you are experiencing a problem or have a suggestion or praise for your long suffering RiversWest Website Committee members, please email us at webmaster_at_riverswest.org. Just change the _at_ to an @ in the email address.

Every Saturday at the Boat Shop

Members and Friends of RiversWest,

There is a lot of activity at the Boat Shop these days. We have members at the shop every Saturday right now, not just first, or even first and third Saturdays. Several members are working on a 12 ft plywood cartopper. Any assistance is welcome, and observers who want to encourage the builders are welcome also! They have cut out the sides and bottom out, next is forming the stem. The instructions for this are missing, so anyone with expertise in this area will be especially welcome!

Another ongoing project is the restoration of an all-wood (ie, NOT plywood) boat. This is intended to be a classic restoration, and the people working on it are ready for consultations from others on how to maintain the classic nature of the boat, or whether that's even a good idea. Maybe it would be better to start mixing epoxy. . .opinions on this topic are being actively solicited.

We are also looking for member's ideas about how best to build a small boat storage structure to span two slips of the Pier99 marina. This is a project that has been in the planning stage for a while now, but it is a big step and we would like as much membership input as possible.

If we have enough people to make it worthwhile we are considering taking out the Hall Templeton for a little cruise in the early afternoon.

We have been organizing out library at the Boat Shop. We have a complete set of Wooden Boat magazines, as well as some extras which are available for members to borrow. In addition there are lots of nautical books and a collection of boat plans.

Thank you,

The RiversWest Board

Website Committee Recommendations

GOALS & OBJECTIVES

• Timely and accurate information

• Attract new members (and keep old ones)

• Look clean, simple, consistent, and nautical!

• Easy access to info that our members and others want

• Easy updating w/o HTML knowledge

• Flexibility in architecture to allow evolutionary changes

CONTENTS AND FEATURES

Phase One

• Home page w/Mission Statement (new photos bi-monthly)

• Calendar of upcoming events page

• Join page (RW membership benefits and form)

• About page

• Contact page

Phase Two

• Current happenings in shop/Boatshop space page (fees/availability/etc.)

• Links Page (WBF, CWB, WB, Coots, NWSWB, Mother of…, Urban Hardwood Recovery, Rose City Lumber, Crosscut Lumber, TAP Plastics, Woodcrafters, rebuilding Center, ReStore, Sexton’s Chandlery, Columbia River Marine Exchange, Pier 99/Marineland, Columbia Riverkeeper, Willamette Riverskeeper, Tualatin Riverkeeper, Edensaw Lumber, Flounder Bay Lumber, Fisheries Supply, etc.)

• Moorage/dockage page

Phase Three and Beyond

• Livery page (availability and rates)

• Updated photos and descriptions of projects underway

• Post for member items for sale/wanted

• Photo essay of cool RW events and projects

• Forum for boatbuilding questions

• RW history page

• Policies and procedures

• Members only page

• Ferry page

• Green boating page

• Board only page (minutes/issues/etc.)

The 2007 Portland Wooden Boat Show

The 2007 Portland Wooden boat Show, held at the RiversWest shop at Pier 99 was a great success. We had lots of boats, both on the water and on land. The children's boatbuiding tent was a major attraction, and many of the children as well as their parents, enjoyed sightseeing on the river in the Hall Templeton.