About Us

Gig Harbor BoatShop is a 501(c)(3) non-profit located in the historic Eddon Boatyard on Gig Harbor’s working waterfront. We are a passionate organization with deep community connections to local working waterfront traditions past and present. The Gig Harbor BoatShop is tasked with perpetuating and interpreting the Eddon Boatyard and the local working waterfront by delivering programs that focus on boat restoration and repair, boatbuilding, and boat use. Join us and help provide community access to hands-on working waterfront activities and an intact historic boatyard space that’s been characterized as a “remarkable treasure.” Become a member, volunteer in the shops, visit the boatyard, or engage in a BoatShop skills program - it’s your community boatyard.

The boatyard facility hosts working, hands-on activities for youth and adults like the Family Boat Building Program, where participant families or groups build a skiff in a weekend. To get the community and our guests on the water the BoatShop provides the seasonal Gig Harbor BoatShop Boat Livery Service using classic small boats restored by the BoatShop's Community Boat Restoration Program. Gig Harbor BoatShop is inspired by maritime traditions past and present, and is dedicated to seeing local working waterfront traditions evolve going forward. Drop in and rent a classic boat, saw a board, or just soak up historic Gig Harbor.

Our Mission

Perpetuate working waterfront skills, uses, and traditions at the historic Eddon Boatyard and aboard classic vessels of Puget Sound.

Our Vision

Provide authentic portals for maritime experiences that teach the skills, traditions, and self-reliance inherent in the working waterfront community. 

Working Waterfront

We define working waterfront as the occupational trades and traditions, such as boatbuilding and commercial fishing, combined with the cultural landscapes on which they depend.

Our Purpose

We conserve a vital community and regional resource—the inherent maritime skills and uses of Gig Harbor's working waterfront.

We preserve the Eddon Boatyard and significant vessels of Gig Harbor and Puget Sound—securing Gig Harbor's and Puget Sound's built maritime heritage.

We inspire hands-on learning of maritime skills by offering introductory to journeyman boatbuilding, boat restoration, and boat use experiences for all.

We interpret a multiple-use waterfront gathering space by managing the Eddon Boatyard shops, marine railways, house, and dock for our community.

We promote economic health, vibrancy, and balance on Gig Harbor's waterfront by operating a dynamic and collaborative community organization.