Growing up in the mountains of Colorado, Jordan Primus didn’t discover sailing and boating until he was a student at the University of California, Santa Cruz, but he made up for lost time, competing on the college sailing team and taking care of sailing team boats on weekends. He also enjoyed working as a DJ on college radio stations and was planning to work in the music industry following graduation. Instead he traveled to the Virgin Islands and ended up working at a rigging & hydraulics shop, fabricating and installing rigging. Building on that experience, he worked at a large sailing school / club in Berkeley, CA, maintaining their fleet of 50 boats and managing the service department.
Jordan was a student in the Contemporary Boatbuilding program at NWSWB (class of 2011) and stayed on to work on the Bob Perry-designed yacht Sliver build until the middle of 2013. He honed his skills at CSR Marine in Seattle, WA, working on a variety of boats for six years.
He and his wife have owned Amøbel a Great Dane 28′ sailboat, for almost 15 years, working through an endless list of maintenance and upgrades and living aboard for almost three years. Back on land, he built a PT11 (Russell Brown) from a kit in their one-car garage to use as a tender. He’s currently building a Chesapeake Light Craft Teardrop Camper in the same small garage. “A tight fit,” he says. Working as an instructor in the Marine Systems program at NWSWB is a great fit and he’s looking forward to being back on campus doing what he loves.
