A New Chapter in Duckworks History

Hi everyone,

Katie here to give you an update on what's happening behind the scenes here at Duckworks. We're closing in on the end of our third year since Gig Harbor Boat Works acquired Duckworks as a sister company, and we've learned a ton since then -- about the business yes, but also about all of you and the close-knit community of people who are passionate about building and sailing wooden boats. 

It has especially been a pleasure spending more time in Port Townsend, and being a part of the various goings on down at the Northwest Maritime Center -- boatbuilding classes, Duckworks takeover, Wooden Boat Festival, and the Seventy48 and R2AK races. If there's anywhere in the world that Duckworks should have a physical presence, it's right here.

And that's why this next bit of news is so bittersweet... 

Duckworks Warehouse is Moving to Gig Harbor

After two years running Duckworks, we've learned that the cost of doing business in Port Townsend is just too high to keep Duckworks in its current space. Duckworks is known for great prices, great customer service, and lightning-fast shipping, and that means we don't make a great margin on the goods we sell. We're not willing to compromise on those core values that have made Duckworks what it is today, but the balance sheet doesn't lie, so we've got to cut costs somewhere.

The good news is, as an e-commerce business, Duckworks has a lot of flexibility in where the business can live. This past summer, Gig Harbor Boat Works moved into a larger manufacturing facility in Gig Harbor, where there happens to be a big room about the same size of the inventory floor in the Port Townsend warehouse. Duckworks warehouse will move to Gig Harbor, and the vacated Port Townsend warehouse will be offered for sale (or possibly rent). 

That said, we ABSOLUTELY want to stay involved in the Port Townsend community, and keep our strong relationship with the NW Maritime Center. In the short term, we'll have scheduled pick up days at the warehouse in Port Townsend on Fridays at least until we sell/rent out the building. Ultimately we want to set up a regular pick-up point in town, and in the future we hope to come back to town with a small storefront in Port Townsend once Duckworks' core e-commerce business is on solid footing. 

And as a consolation bonus, Gig Harbor will be another pick-up option for orders placed online! That could be more convenient for a lot of you who are in the Seattle/Tacoma metro area or the South Sound. 

The New Who's Who at Duckworks

Another factor in our decision to move was a natural staff transition - Scott Jones decided to move on from Duckworks and get back into the hands-on side of boatbuilding. Without our full-time operations manager in Port Townsend, the business could be free to move to a new location without having to lay anyone off. We hired a new Warehouse Manager for Gig Harbor, and the rest of the support and admin team can work remotely. 

Warehouse Manager -  Arelan

Arelan (pronounced "uh-RAY-lan") has been with Gig Harbor Boat Works as an assistant boatbuilder since 2022. When we started thinking about what we needed in a warehouse manager -- organization, teamwork, a positive get-things-done attitude -- we realized that Arelan had all of those qualities. She's been training up at Duckworks for the past month and is getting a handle on how everything works, from working with vendors to order inventory to fulfilling customer orders. 

Admin/Bookkeeper - Tammy 

Tammy is going to stay in the role that she's been in for the past few years now, keeping track of all the outgoing payments to plan designers and suppliers, keeping tabs on customer orders, and helping out with shipping as needed. Tammy will be coming down to Gig Harbor a couple days per week and doing the ferrying of customer orders up to Port Townsend for pick up.

Customer Support:

Chuck Leinweber (original Duckworks founder) has never stopped being involved behind the scenes. He's been fielding customer support questions regularly via email for the past year or so, and we're thrilled to announce that on the heels of Scott's departure we'll have an expanded team joining him now to handle customer questions. 

You might already know Marty Loken, long-time boatbuilder, Port Townsend local, and a regular editor/contributor to Small Craft Advisor. He joins the support team with decades of small-craft experience and a very deep knowledge of boatbuilding. Marty will also be working with us to improve our product pages on the website to have more information to help you find the right plans and parts you need.

For support on our boat kits, there's nobody in the world who's built more of our kits than Joel Arrington, Boatshop Manager for the Northwest Maritime Center. He's graciously offered to help us field customer questions pertaining to the kits. FYI he's the guy who leads the Scout Kit classes and Duckworks Takeover down at the NWMC, so if you want a mega-dose of help getting started and making major headway on your project, check out their classes where you can get hands-on instruction in person building one of our kits or plans. 

Plus, Beth Kennedy is already known to many of you as the friendly voice at the shipping desk. We're happy that now we'll have an opportunity to unchain her from the shipping counter, and get her into a role that is a better fit for her skills and interests on the support team. Beth has personally built a Scamp, a Scout 10, a Portage Pram, and a Wee Lassie skin-on-frame kayak. She is eager to update our existing boat kit manuals, and be our ringleader on creating a manual for the new Scout 14.  

And finally, me, Katie Malik -- General Manager. I'm not a boatbuilding expert myself (I know just enough to be dangerous), but I do know a thing or two about small craft design, and if you need help getting quotes for bigger orders or an oddball shipping situation, I'm your gal (at least for now).  

To reach out for assistance, just email us at support@duckworks.com, and we'll direct your request to the best person to help. Still just one easy point of contact you can use for anything you need. 

Group photo on Scott's last day. (L to R) Brian (GHBW Finance Manager), Beth, Scott, Katie, Tammy, and Arelan. 

A farewell message from Scott...

For 2 1/2 years, I got to talk boats daily dream up and help folks with projects. Find the right boat plan to fit their want and needs. I got to meet many new people from around the world and I got to help folks make their dreams come true, but in the end I felt I wasn't quite a right fit for the position at Duckworks. I needed to get back into building boats. That's where my talents are best suited. So I am moving on. 

I'm still a big believer in Duckworks and the role it fills for the small boat builder and small boat user. We have so much of what you need and an unmatched variety of plans. And the expertise, a real voice on the phone that you can reach and have a conversation with someone that will respond to your email question. I will miss my interactions with all of you and my daily fun of seeing where in the world our customers hail from. Turkey, Mozambique, Australia, South Korea, Brazil and even exotic locales like Canada and Vermont. Duckworks is a little boat supply company with a big heart and more personality than Amazon. 

Thank you so much, 

Scott Jones

"What can I do to help?" 

As we've started to spread the word about the upcoming changes, some of you have asked if there's anything you can do to help us out. There's a short list of ideas here! 

• Do your fall/winter supply stock ups from Duckworks! We're still here online and open for business, just not physically in Port Townsend.
• Leave reviews of your favorite products on the Duckworks website, and encourage your friends to do the same! You can now upload photos and videos on reviews, so you can share your projects and help others get a better idea of what the different boat kits and plans look like. It should be helpful (and fun) to see how people have personalized their boats for their own needs and tastes!
• Come to Duckworks garage sale at the warehouse in Port Townsend on Saturday Oct 5! Everything that we decided not to bring down to Gig Harbor will be offered for sale at steep discounts. There will be overstocked items, discontinued or unusual items that have been here since the original move here from Texas, and leftover goodies from Pygmy boats old building that we took off their hands when they closed up shop. We're talking sails, PFDs, epoxy, hardware, fiberglass remnants... a bunch of cool stuff.