The Center For Wooden Boats

Only for reviews? Ridiculous. This place is a gem. Walk around for free and see beautiful classic boats right on the water nearby a museum and a water park and get a free step away from modern hustle and bustle. One of the most beautiful little notes on South Lake Union. Never a crowd and it makes you feel human again.

Chuck and gang are awesome. Seriously, Chuck is the man. If more businesses had people like Chuck running them, China’s economy would be booming leading to the Dow jones exploding and causing massive positive gains in people’s retirement funds.
Sadly, this is not the case.
The boats here are great for crabbing, they have about four motorboats. You get one free crab pot and can rent additional. You can also rent a rowboat which is much cheaper for the purposes of crabbing. They also have kayaks and canoes and they are all wooden as their namesake implies.
This place would not be whole without Chuck though. He is so friendly and helpful and informative.
Overall, a great place to go on a weekend and go fishing or see some seals. Very peaceful.

I was ready to take a boat out with the fam and give this place 5 stars, I really was. It’s a very cool place — when they decide to be open. My previous experience with CWB was a great one as I purchased a used El Toro sailboat from them from the Lake Union location.
I had this particular trip all planned out; we camped on Camano and then headed down to Cama Beach to rent a boat and go fishing. I triple checked the website and even called the recording (it provides you with no useful info). Here’s an excerpt from their website as of 6÷8÷15:
«JUNE 1 — SEPTEMBER 1
10AM — 6PM
OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK»
Perfect right? Wrong! We arrived at 9:50 am on Monday June 8^th only to be turned away by a nice gentleman (only reason they didn’t get 1 star) who said they were «having a meeting at 10 am and were not open today.» He also explained that they are short-​staffed and hoped to have additional staff soon. Awesome! Thanks for updating your site guys. And thanks for putting it on your phone recording too. Seriously, is it that tough to communicate? In the words of Robbie Hart in the Wedding Singer, «Once again, things that could have been brought to my attention YESTERDAY!»

This is one of the coolest places on earth. Granted, I may be biased. I was interim manager of The Center for Wooden Boats at Cama Beach State Park a couple years ago and am currently a park aide there.
They rent kayaks, a canoe, seaworthy sailboats, rowboats, and motor boats with gas or electric engines. They like to teach sailing and other maritime arts, from boat building to bronze casting. It’s a great way to go crabbing during the season. It’s also a museum, carrying on traditions from the 1930s when the resort was originally built. (The place became a state park in 2008.)
They rent their historic Boatsman’s House, a seven-​guest cabin that sits right along the shoreline. Some people love to get married there. It’s rented to Center for Wooden Boats members and the public, the latter paying a reasonable one-​time membership fee with their first night’s rent.
There’s over 30 more state park waterfront cabins — requiring no membership fee, of course — available almost always on demand in the off-​season. Call Cama Beach State Park (360−387−1550) nine months ahead to reserve those for late spring, summer and early Fall dates. On-​line reservations will be available mid-​2015.
Since weather is not often suitable and The Center for Wooden Boats is nonprofit, the boat rental operation is not open much in the winter. Yet there’s often someone around to open the «barn» doors so visitors can poke around antiques and the current fleet.
Even during the summer, it’s best to call ahead to assure the operation is up and running, and weather conditions are okay.

This is the review for the boating shop on cama beach.
We went crabbing on Cama Beach. The place is great! Very quiet and enjoyable. 5 of us went, There was no boat with engine left. But they found a big enough row boat to fit everybody so that we don’t have to go by turn.
The wind got a lot stronger that afternoon and there was no way for us to row to the middle of the bay to pick up the cage. They provided assistance with their safety boat and we picked up the cages safely.
It was a pleasant trip and we will definitely visit again.