Sam Devlin

President and CEO
Devlin Designing Boatbuilders Inc.
2424 Gravelly Beach Loop N.W.
Olympia, Washington 98502
Hometown: Olympia, Washington
Birthdate: March 27, 1954
Education: B.S. Science, University of Oregon, 1977.

100 ton Masters License (Captain’s License) with
towing and Sailing endorsements.

Career Highlights: Following Graduation from University of Oregon. Started his Boatbuilding Company in 1977 in Eugene Oregon and relocated company to Olympia, Washington in 1982. For the past 47 years he has been a Wooden boat designer and Builder with an international reputation. His company has built over 400 vessels from 8ft. long to 62ft. lengths. Virtually all the vessels built by his company have been designed by Mr. Devlin himself and use a construction method (Stitch and Glue) that he has been a pioneer of for his entire career. Designs done by Sam have now been sold into over 125 countries for both amateur and professional construction, with over several thousand boats now built with the Stitch and Glue method and to designs from Sam’s company Devlin Designing Boatbuilders Inc.

Mr. Devlin has written several books including a book (published by McGraw-Hill 1997 and still in print) Titled “Devlin’s Boat Building” which is currently a Best Seller in its category, “Devlin’s Boatbuilding Manual” 2023 McGraw-Hill, “Building Instructions Booklet for Stitch and Glue construction copyright 2012 and on its 9th printing, and “The Design Catalog” with over 12 printings and 50+ thousand copies sold . He has also written numerous articles for Woodenboat, Sailing, Pacific Yachting, Northwest Yachting, NorWesting, Soundings, Passagemaker, and Professional Boatbuilder magazines. He has taught boatbuilding annually for many years in Brooklin, Maine (Woodenboat School), and has lectured on Boatbuilding at IBEX (International Boatbuilders Exposition) for many years.

Hollywood has used Devlin boats several times, NCIS and the boat that Gib’s “Mark Harmon” ( the shows Main character) had been building in his basement was a Devlin “Arctic Tern” and one of Sam’s “Godzilla” 22 Tugs, and a Polliwog Dingy were used in the movie “A Series of Unfortunate Mistakes (Paramount Studios, starring Jim Carrey and Meryl Streep).

Several years ago, Sam was a participant in the 52nd annual National Security Forum, held at Maxwell Airforce base in Montgomery, Alabama at the Air War College. This was an appointment from the President George Bush and the Secretary of the Air Force and is a Forum of discussion on National Security matters between select officers of the Joint Forces and 140 selected civilian members (of which Sam was a member).

Sam received a “Lifetime Achievement” award in 2012 given by Wooden Boat Magazine and the Northwest Maritime Association for his contributions in the field of Yacht Design and Wooden Boatbuilding, he is to date the youngest recipient of this award.
Sam has sailed to the East side of Greenland in 2020 landing in Kulusuk, Greenland and then exploring the local waters.

Memberships: Advisory Board Member of The Landing School,
Woodenboat Society, SNAME (Society of Naval Architects and Marine
Engineers), Center for Wooden Boats, Wooden Boat
Foundation/Northwest Maritime Center, Founding member of the Olympia
Wooden Boat Association, and Founding member of the Olympia Area
Rowing Association.

Personal: Hobbies—Sailing in his 20ft. daysailer “New Penny”, Cruising
in his 1934 Salmon Troller “Josephine”, Cruising in his 1966 47ft Puffin
trawler, Watercolor Painting, gardening, model boat carving.

Sam’s Family—Wife Soitza Devlin , Two sons, Cooper (41) and
Mackenzie (37), and a Step Daughter Soitzita Sandoval (39),
granddaughter Ivanna Sandoval (11), grandson Max Sandoval (6), and
grandson Rory (5) Devlin son of Mackenzie and Lisa Devlin.