HOWB 073 – Interview | Jim Metteer – Wooden Boat Builder and Restorer Extraordinaire - 02.07.13

Today’s featured interview is with Jim Metteer of Poulsbo, WA. Jim grew up “all over” the west coast as his dad moved from working at one hydroelectric dam to another. In 1965 the family settled in south Seattle, WA where Jim graduated from Tyee High School.

Jim’s dad had a power boat and Jim liked to be “on” the water, not “in” the water. After high school Metteer landed at a local furniture company learning the furniture trade and eventually taking over their finishing department. The advanced coatings skills Jim learned during those 3 years still serve him to this day.

Metteer’s first boat was a 1980 Thistle – a 17ʹ Sandy Douglass one design cold molded planing sloop. Jim sailed her on Lake Washington and Puget Sound. A few years later Jim fell in love with “Vito Dumas” – a Manuel Campos designed Cutter. However, the owner wouldn’t sell to Jim. So Jim decided to build his own Campos Cutter. The Campos cutter is a modified scandinavian rescue boat designed with a shallower for the waters of Buenos Aires in the 1940’s.

Jim read the book – How To Build a Boat by David McIntosh and started building it. It seemed to come natural and took Jim 4 1/2 years to complete. One of his tricks was to go to the boat every day whether he felt like it or not.

Lumiere was launched in 1991. She is Carvel plank, 1.25ʺ Port Orford cedar over 2ʺx2ʺ oak frames with a 1 1/2ʺ teak deck. She has a Honduran Mahogany cabin and 8600 pounds of lead in her keel.

With the encouragement of his wife, Jim decided to build boats for a living, so he joined up with the late Tom Pryor in 2000 to take over the work Tom had been doing in Poulsbo. Tom rented him the barn and Jim helped Tom live out his last years out in the neighboring farm house.

Metteer’s first project was restoring the friendship sloop Puff. This was a 2 year project. Next was the restoration of a boat gifted to him – Fokus III, a classic 6 meter racing boat. Fokus III was launched 1948 in Norway and was scheduled to race in the 1952 Olympics (for reasons unknown, she didn’t go to the Olympics). Jim has done a beautiful restoration on Fokus!

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You can contact me at woodenboatdan@gmail.com to share your comments, feedback, stories, and wooden boat adventures.

Keep the bright side up and the barnacled side down - Wooden Boat Dan over and out :D

PS Please note this podcast was recorded several years ago - some of the links, email addresses, phone numbers, and promos mentioned are outdated and no longer valid.