Harbormaster has reason to love new job

If ever someone was destined to be harbormaster at La Conner Marina, it's Charlie Knapp.

And not just because he has an uncanny knack of finding smooth sailing after entering uncharted waters.

"I've always enjoyed challenges," said Knapp, who grew up in Atlanta and launched his current gig with The Port of Skagit in mid-March.

"I like trying new things," he told the Weekly News on Saturday. "That's how you grow."

Consider that the graduate of Samford University in Homewood, Ala., has taught English in Spain and Chile, lived and worked at marinas in Portland, studied marine maintenance technology at Skagit Valley College, and for four years was part of the Washington State Department of Natural Resources wildfire resources team based in Bellingham and on the Olympic Peninsula.

But La Conner Marina might be his best fit yet.

That's because Knapp first visited here two decades ago on a family vacation and as a grade school student found himself enamored with La Conner.

"Even then, it stuck in my mind that this is a special place," he said.

The cross-country trip was his mother's idea, he said. She had just recovered from a bout with cancer and wanted to see the Puget Sound area.

"She had never been to the Pacific Northwest," Knapp said. "She researched the region, and La Conner was one of the places that really stood out for her."

The visit involved sightseeing in Seattle and Vancouver and Victoria, B.C. An overnight stay in La Conner is what perhaps impressed Knapp the most.

"We just loved it here," he said.

Back home, Knapp took up sailing off the Georgia coast, getting on the water every other weekend or so. It was a lifestyle that followed him through college and beyond.

"I did a lot of boating in my 20s," he said.

At one point, after he had completed his teaching assignments and settled on the West Coast, Knapp owned three boats. He lived aboard one while working as a harbormaster for Columbia Crossings, which maintains several moorage facilities in northwest Oregon.

Knapp sold two of the vessels when he hired on with DNR, initially working out of Port Angeles. After rising to the rank of engine leader, he ­returned to school to study marine tech before seeing a new opportunity that couldn't be passed up.

It was an advertisement for the harbormaster position at The Port of Skagit's La Conner Marina.

"I felt very drawn to it," said Knapp. "I'd been here before as a kid. It was very inspiring to see that ad."

Knapp said his role here has thus far focused on hiring summer help and getting up to speed on plans for the annual Hometown Independence Day celebration at the south basin.

He does daily "dock walks" on marina floats, engaging boaters and townspeople alike, gleaning what information he can to further familiarize himself with the community.

"I look forward to that," he said. "I like hearing everyone's sailing stories and life stories."

Knapp, who looks much younger than his 31 years, said that in addition to the locale he was attracted to the La Conner harbormaster opening by The Port of Skagit's long-range strategic plan for modernizing and re-developing the marina.

"There's some really good things happening here," he said. "It's something I want to be part of."