The clock is ticking for the Northwest Maritime Center in Port Townsend, which must raise $130,000 in the next 10 days or lose $1.1 million in funding.

The center is set to receive $600,000 from the Kresge Foundation and $500,000 from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. That $1.1 million in grants would bring to a close the center’s decade-long fundraising drive, but it hinges on the center raising the last $130,000 in matching funds by March 31.

“We’re very optimistic with the response that we’ve had so far,” said Steve Oliver, president of the center’s board of directors. “But we still have to close the deal or we lose $1.1 million.”

The 26,000-square foot center, located on the waterfront between Port Townsend’s historic downtown and Point Hudson Marina, features a public pier, public outdoor space and two buildings. The first of the buildings, the Chandler Maritime Education Building, opened in September amid great fanfare as the annual Wooden Boat Festival got underway.

Now, with the fundraising deadline looming, center staff are intensely focused on securing the final donations needed to complete the center’s $12.8-million building campaign. The efforts got a recent boost with a $75,000 donation from the Camilla Chandler Family Foundation, based in Los Angeles. In 1999, the foundation’s founder, Camilla Chandler, became the first donor to the center with a $1 million gift.

Other donations have been rolling in, from $25 given by an employee at the center to $200,000 from a Port Townsend business owner who asked to remain anonymous. The center’s executive director, Stan Cummings, said he’s encouraged by the number of donations in recent weeks.

“There’s the sense that this is a community project and it’s all in the balance right now,” he said. “We still need the big [donations]. You’re not going to get there without a few big ones. But the numbers that are coming in right now surpass anything in my experience.”

Carol Baker, a retired maritime librarian, sorts and catalogues volumes in the H.W. McCurdy Library, which is set to open May 1 at the Northwest Maritime Center.

Beyond the fundraising push, center staff are also readying for the May 1 opening of the Maritime Heritage and Resource Building, which will have a chandlery, a coffee shop and deli, and a maritime library with items ranging from maritime fiction to charts. The collection also includes books that the Wooden Boat Foundation had stored in boxes in the cupola house next to Point Hudson Marina, where the foundation was located before moving to the Northwest Maritime Center last year.

The opening, coinciding with the official opening day of boating season in the Northwest, will include Port Townsend’s annual boat parade and festivities, and the dedication of a plaque honoring Captain George Vancouver’s 18th-century expedition to the region.

“It’s going to be hopping down here on the waterfront,” said Shelly Randall, the center’s publicist. “This year, all these things will finally be open.”

Since September, Cummings said, the long-held vision for the center has been coming to life. The boatshop is filled with projects and buzzing with activity most days of the week, he said, and the upper-level meeting room, with its spectacular views of Admiralty Inlet, has been used for community meetings and weddings.

The idea for the Northwest Maritime Center started in the late 1990s with the Wooden Boat Foundation, which wanted to establish a facility for year-round education and programs. The waterfront property the center occupies was a former oil terminal that developers had eyed for various proposals, including a condominium development and a drugstore, all of which were vociferously opposed by the community.

A nonprofit group purchased the property in 2000 and began fundraising to build the maritime center. With a population of fewer than 10,000, the community of Port Townsend has managed to raise more than $12 million for the center. Now, with the deadline approaching and the stakes higher than ever, Cummings hopes the community will pull through to push the project over the finish line.

“The time is getting short,” he said. “But if we stay on track and the momentum keeps building like it has in the last couple of weeks, we’re going to make it.”

Donations to the Northwest Maritime Center can be made by calling Cummings at 360.385.3628, ext. 105, or through the Northwest Maritime Center website.

About Deborah Bach

Deborah Bach is the editor and co-founder of Three Sheets Northwest. She is an avid sailor and long-time professional journalist. You can find Deborah aboard Three Sheets, an Island Packet 38, with her husband Marty and their cat Lily.

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