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Skipjack Restoration Project: Project
Manager His love of sailing increased his respect and appreciation for wood vessels and so he also pursued the trade of boat building. Known nationally as a master of wooden boat construction, restoration, and repair, Mike has shared his skills with hundreds of people through apprenticeship programs, on-the-job training, technical college instruction, community boat building projects, and public maritime demonstrations. He was the cofounder of the Working Waterfront Museum, a grassroots effort to preserve the vessels, skills and stories along the waterfront of his hometown of Tacoma, Washington. He was also the originator and sponsor of Tacoma's first Maritime Fest, an annual regional waterfront celebration.
His present staff position with the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum
draws on the spectrum of Mike's past experience as well as his aspirations
for the future. He has dedicated himself to a vision of maintaining
traditional maritime culture while passing on the techniques of
traditional boatbuilding. |
Captain
Michael Vlahovich began his seafaring career at age 15 by following
his Croatian family heritage of commercial net fishing along the
west coast from Alaska to Mexico. His passion for the sea and love
of adventure has taken him across the Pacific Ocean to New Zealand,
as well as through the Panama Canal and across the Atlantic to Europe.
His
efforts earned him the 1999 Washington State Governor's Art and
Heritage award for preserving commercial fishing heritage/folklore,
and for maintaining the traditional craft of wooden boat building.
His long range goal is to assemble and maintain a small fleet of
classic working watercraft which will preserve a significant piece
of maritime history while providing the public with opportunities
to experience the seafaring lifestyle, to acquire traditional maritime
skills, and to visit the wilderness areas of the North American
coastline. 
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