Coast River Business Journal

When Dave Green visits the Astoria docks while the fishing fleet is in port, he can point out the wooden boats he’s repaired or restored over the course of his nearly 30-year career. The list is a lengthy one, since he’s worked on most of the wooden boats in the area at one time or another.

"After all these years, I guess I’ve worked on quite a few," said Green, 61.

Shipwright Dave Green repaired or restored many of the wooden fishing boats in the Astoria area over a career spanning nearly 30 years. Photo: Greg Cohen

Green, who followed in his father’s footsteps as a carpenter, spent more than 20 years working as a shipwright for Astoria Reconstruction.

"I hired on as a ‘go-fer’ and then completed my four-year apprenticeship in 2-1/2 years," he said.

During those years, he worked on more mahogany "runabouts" (pleasure boats) and Columbia River "bowpickers" (gillnetters) than he can remember.

In 1989, he was approached by officials at the Columbia River Maritime Museum to build a 26-foot sailing gillnetter, a boat that is powered either by sails or oars.

"I spent six months building a new boat to look old in front of 6,000 people inside the museum from plans that were drawn up by a naval architect," Green recalls. "I think it’s the only one in the world like it."

Green said the problem with past generations of shipbuilders was that they never retained copies of their designs on paper for fear someone would steal them. That makes the task of trying to construct a replica exceedingly difficult, he said.

He credits the numerous volunteers who lent a hand on the boat building project with helping to finish the work on time.

The museum boat is the only complete vessel Green has built from top to bottom during his lengthy career.

"It’s more fun to rebuild existing ones – to put them back the way they were supposed to be," he said.

After finishing the boat project for the museum, Green worked for a year for another shipwright before starting his own boat repair yard in Warrenton.

"I got a building without any power or heat," he recalls. "We had an old wood stove from an old plywood plant and guys used to come in and we’d sit around the stove drinking coffee and telling stories. Those were some of the best times."

Green operated his one-man shop for 12 years. But all those years of crawling around in tight places working in all kinds of weather finally took their toll on his body. Arthritis in his shoulders forced him to look for a less physically demanding job. In 2003, he went to work for Englund Marine & Industrial Supply.

But Green still takes on special projects from time to time – and not all boat related. In 1995, he built the framework for the doors on the Astoria Column. In 2009, he built a replacement for one of the doors that vandals had damaged. "I had shoulder surgery during the work so I delivered the door late," he said.

Green says he misses the creativity that went into remodeling boats.

"Seeing your work on a mahogany runabout completed and then varnishing the wood and not finding one run in the whole thing – that’s what was most rewarding," he said.

Green, who still offers his expertise on boat work as a consultant, fears that old-style boat-building may be a dying art, as more older shipwrights retire and few younger people seem interested in learning the profession.

"There are a lot of carpenters around, but very few shipwrights. I can think of only three or four left in the area," he said. "You can learn about 20 to 30 percent of what you need from taking classes. But you really need the training that someone who’s done the work can give you."