Retired Commander Chuck Garrett shares tips about boat building with his children, Roland and Maggie.
Retired Commander Chuck Garrett will graduate from the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding in Port Hadlock on Wednesday, September 17 at 3 pm. The ceremony will be held at H.J. Carroll Park, 9884, SR 19 in Chimacum and the public is welcome to attend.
Chuck’s motivation to enter Boat School was inspired years ago by his uncle. He stated, “When I was a teen I worked in my uncle’s cabinet shop for a whole summer. It was something I really enjoyed and wanted to get back to someday.” He studied woodworking in high school, but dropped this interest after entering the military.
Chuck was in the Army for eight years and went on to complete a 19-year career in the Navy as a fleet pilot, operational test and evaluation pilot, adversary pilot and flight instructor. He started his training at Officer’s Candidate School in Pensacola, Florida. Then, after becoming a Strike/Fighter pilot, he was stationed in mostly desert locations in the southwest, including NAS Lemoore and NAS China Lake in California and NAS Fallon in Nevada. His last duty station was on Whidbey Island, which was his first tour of the Pacific Northwest.
“When we saw that I was going to retire and there was an opportunity to use the GI Bill®, I saw a link to the boat school online. It included Yacht Interiors instruction and that got my attention. My wife, Amy, thought it was a great idea. In fact she said,” You have to do this!” I guess the stars were aligned.”
“I came to the school not knowing much about boats except that they were previously something I had to land on. My initial interest was in marine surveying. Now I know that there are many opportunities to pursue with these woodworking skills – marine tech, boat building, boat surveying and even aerospace industries.”
Now Chuck’s life has entered a new phase. He will be home-schooling his 8-year old daughter, Maggie, and 5-year old son, Roland, through Home Connection. He is planning to home-school them for the next 12 years and will be staying busy with a combination of teaching, marine surveying, woodworking and boat building with youth.
For questions you can contact the boat school at 360-385-4948 or [email protected].
