Beyond the Boat
Beyond the Boat shares the stories of the people and communities who keep wooden boats alive — through ownership, seamanship, craftsmanship, education, operations, and stewardship — and how those paths invite others into a living tradition.
These are not just stories about boats. They are stories about responsibility: the choice to care for something that must be worked, maintained, taught, and passed along. Each episode explores how wooden boats continue to matter because people choose to carry them forward — and, in doing so, make room for others to step in.
Hosted by Leroy Lewis, the podcast centers on lived experience. Some guests are owners. Others are captains, shipwrights, educators, yard workers, volunteers, or operators. What they share is not a title, but a relationship — one that connects craft, seamanship, memory, and community.
Together, these voices reveal a world where meaning lives not just in the boat, but beyond it — offering listeners a way to imagine where they might belong.
Support & Independence
Beyond the Boat is listener-supported, following a public-media model. Support is voluntary, quiet, and never required to listen.
Listeners may choose to support the show as:
- Supporters — contributing occasionally
- Members — offering ongoing monthly support
- Stewards — individuals or institutions providing deeper, sustaining support aligned with the mission
There are no paywalls, no exclusive content, and no calls to action inside episodes. Note: "Stewards" are "Members" who will be periodically acknowledged for their support. Acknowledgments, when offered, appear only outside the storytelling.
Support helps cover production costs and ensures these stories remain independent and freely available.
Beyond the Boat
EP# 11 - Not Just Preserving Boats — Preserving Pathways: Aaron LaPointe and Historic Maritime
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Aaron LaPointe grew up around the water—but it was wooden workboats that pulled him in for good. Now he’s the Executive Director of the Historic Maritime Foundation, stewarding a growing fleet of historic vessels and building a hands-on pathway for young people and career-changers to enter the maritime trades.
In this conversation, Aaron and host Leroy Lewis talk about the quiet honor of workboat careers, why the “historic” side of tugboating is disappearing even as modern tugging booms, and what it takes—money, community, and stubborn love—to keep big timber boats alive. They dig into Aaron’s personal roots of responsibility, the legacy of his grandfather’s tugboat career, and the foundation’s “history in motion” model: getting these boats off the dock, into people’s hands, and back into the world where they belong.
This is an episode about stewardship as privilege, preservation as community work, and the kind of joyful responsibility that makes people show up—again and again—for boats that can’t survive without them.
https://www.historicmaritimefoundation.org/
Beyond the Boat is an independent, listener-supported project.
Listener support helps preserve and share the stories of wooden boats, their caretakers, and the communities that surround them. Support sustains the listening, but it never steers the stories.
If you’d like to help keep the show afloat, you can contribute as a supporter or become a monthly member at:
www.buymeacoffee.com/beyondtheboat
There are no paywalls, no exclusive content, and no obligation to contribute. The stories will always remain free to listen to.
Special thanks to Todd Powell for ongoing monthly support, and to Peter McGraw, Charlie Syburg, and Jim & Margie Paynton for their generous contributions to the project.
Have feedback or know someone who should be on the show? Email me at:
BTBoatPodcast@gmail.com