Scoop: On Deck

Erik Neumann, the Center for Wooden Boats' dockmaster, dishes on smooth sailing

Erik Neumann is perhaps more confident than anyone else that his summer will be a breeze. That’s because he’s the full-time livery lead and dockmaster at the Center for Wooden Boats (1010 Valley St.; 206.382.2628), which means he ensures the center’s rentable sailboats are in shipshape condition (and that landlubbers don’t fall overboard). The 27-year-old Bainbridge Island native and sometime musician (he previously played bass in Seattle bands Grand Hallway and The Maldives) has worked at CWB for three years. So if you attend the 33rd Annual Wooden Boat Festival July 4–5, you’ll likely find him on the dock, sporting a cowboy hat and plenty of sunscreen.

SM: How did you first become interested in boating?
EN: I started around 12 years old. I was in the Boy Scouts and went on a lot of canoeing trips. My dad also had a sailboat for a couple of years when I was growing up, so I was steadily exposed to boating in small doses.
SM: Would your Boy Scout leader be surprised to find you’re still working with boats?
EN: Probably. When I first started taking sailing lessons, I was pretty terrified of sailboats and how they leaned over. It always made me feel like it was going to flip.
SM: What’s the most important thing a novice should know about sailing?
EN: It’s not the kind of thing that you can force. You have to learn to work with nature rather than overpower it. You have to pay a lot of attention to your environment and what’s happening around you. It teaches you a lot about patience.
SM: What are some of your favorite events at the July 4–5 festival?
EN: In the “Quick and Daring Race” people make a boat over the course of a day and are judged on things like how well it can complete a course or the smallest amount of cost involved in building it. I’ve seen boats made out of chicken wire, papier-mâché, cardboard and more. Of course, a lot of them sink. It’s pretty entertaining to watch.