San Diego Maritime Museum Store
At an "Author's autograph session" of the new book "BUILDING KETTENBURGS" in San diego at the Maritime Museum on the 17th.
Author Mark Allen, shown here on the left, spent countless hours with the Kettenburg family, former yard staff, current and former Kettenburg boat owners, and various collections of Kettenburg material such as business records, sailing publications, yacht club records and more in order to compile the needed background for the breakthrough book “BUILDING KETTENBURGS: Premier Boats Designed and Built in Southern California”
Tom Kettenburg, a college history
major with a career in banking, contributed heavily to the
research
and
gathering
of
information about the Kettenburg
yard and family.
Much of
his
research
work
enabled
the
book
BUILDING KETTENBURGS to be
written. Today
he
serves
as a principal
contact point between this
website
and Kettenburg
owners in
their
search for
background information
about
individual
boats during
their
construction.
In addition to family and staff many current Kettenburg owners contributed to author Mark Allen’s research efforts. Here, Neil Atwood and his sailing colleague Patrice Kilroy (KIALOA) are caught on camera in a conversation with Jean Kettenburg Miller (George Jr’s daughter off camera). Neil restored PCC #1 EULALIE and sails her frequently near his home in Puget Sound.
A Kettenburg Boat Works staffer from
1964
to
1988, Gary
Prior,
worked in
the
Chandlery.
The
Kettenburg
company
became a major
presence in
the
supply stream
of marine
parts
and materials to
each and
every boat yard
on the
west
coast and even world wide.
Thanks to
the efforts of
people like
Don
alongside Bill Kettenburg
the
company
became the
model to be
duplicated by
West
Marine, Port
Supply, and others in later
years.
Bill Kettenburg, shown here putting
his autograph to a copy of BUILDING KETTENBURGS, spent
hours with author Mark
Allen, the
research material, and
family
members helping to craft the
“behind
the scenes”
understanding
and
narrative
that
makes the book such a
potent
historical
document.
The San
Diego
Maritime
Museum, in cooperation with
Mystic
Seaport in Maine, tapped
author Mark Allen to
research
and
pen this important book about a
significant
West Coast
boatbuilding
heritage.
In BUILDING
KETTENBURGS we
finally have a book that can
sit
side
by side with the
many
historic
records of East Coast
icons in
the
sailing/boatbuilding
world.
Mark’s
research
and
writing style makes the
history
of this
significant
yard
come to life and
contextually
relevant.
One of the many Kettenburg yard
employees interviewed for BUILDING KETTENBURGS was Bud
Caldwell. Still
sailing and
surfboarding in his 90s
Bud
Caldwell, along with Charlie
Underwood
and others is
a
principal
figure in the innovation
and
integrity which
characterizes each and
every
Kettenburg.
George Kettenburg Jr’s son, Bill,
signs his
autograph.
Kettenburg Boat Works partner in
ownership, Morgan Miller, puts his “john Henry” on the
flyleaf of the historic
publication
about the Kettenburg
yard.