Why would I lead off our School newsletter with a picture of the truck hanging outside of a Tire Warehouse in Portland? Surely there is a professional photo of students sailing on a fleet of wooden boats in balmy weather that would be more appropriate…well maybe, but this photo is even more exciting to me. This is the start of it all. Inside that garage door is the school’s flatbed trailer getting four fresh tires in preparation to picking up a large load of long, clear Atlantic white cedar.
Nothing makes me feel like the season is starting more than when materials start to arrive. Water is being turned on to the campus shortly, and then staff will be claiming their summer quarters in a couple weeks. Little by little doors open, tools get sharpened, and sunlight hits places for the first time in months.
What does this mean to you? If you’re registered for classes already, it means starting to look at the new tool lists on the website, reading those suggested articles in preparation, calling your friends you’ve met over the years to see who brings the drinks for lobster night.
If you haven’t decided what course is right for you this year, then maybe it’s time to visit the website. All the information is there. The class pages will have the number of seats still available, descriptions, bios of the instructors. If you don’t see what you were after, please give us a call, we always have time to talk about wooden boats and how we can get you building or on the water.
I look forward to seeing you on campus.
Michael Gorman
Director, WoodenBoat School
Seats Still Available
There’s still room some of our most popular classes. Click the links to read more, and then register if you’d like to join us.
Build Your Own Points East Pram or Calico Skiff
August 3–9
Build your own skiff and pram in a week! In a week you will build your own boat and while doing so not only leave with a beautiful boat but learn a lot about boatbuilding. Using the precut wooden parts, an assortment of hand tools, quality adhesives, and some great teamwork, we will build a fleet of boats and have fun doing it.
Woodstrip Canoe Construction
July 6–12
Join us for a week of discovery, where we’ll guide you step-by-step to create these beautiful and functional works of art. Working together, our class will build two beautiful designs from Newfound Woodworks: an 11′ 9″ solo “Otter” canoe and a 16′ 1″ tandem “Abenaki” canoe. We’ll use the clever bead and cove strip method, where each cedar strip locks perfectly into the next – like pieces of a puzzle coming together. This innovative technique makes assembly surprisingly straightforward and ensures your strips line up naturally without gaps, creating the smooth, flawless hull that strip-built canoes are known for.
Build Your Own Annapolis Wherry
June 15–21
In this high energy course, each student will build an Annapolis Wherry from a Chesapeake Light Craft kit. At the end of an absorbing week, students will have learned about stitch-and-glue basics, including epoxy work, fiberglassing, and laminating. Building a LapStitch™ boat is easy, but assembling an 18′ boat in a week means a tight schedule, and you’ll be spending plenty of time in our shop.
Restoring a Herreshoff 12 1/2
June 22–July 5
This course is a fantastic opportunity to put into practice so many of the skills we offer in our boatbuilding and woodworking courses. Pat will guide the work as you replace frames, planks, floor timbers and even fashion a new transom.
Core Skills: Rigging Small Boats
July 13–19
Jose Hernandez-Juviel will cover traditional and modern rope, blocks, knots and all the other little things you might need to get your small boat rigged and ready to sail. Throughout the week, you will work on small projects, knot-tying, and rigging one of the school’s sailboats.
Small Boat Repair
September 14–27
Using the WoodenBoat fleet and other small craft selected specifically for this class, instructor Joe Connor will lead the class in ways to diagnose problems, develop a plan and then execute the necessary repairs to get back on the water. You’ll practice various techniques necessary for these repairs, such as cutting scarf joints and fitting dutchmen, steam-bending frames, and laminating.
Instructor Spotlight: Bob Emser
Bob Emser is an artist and boatbuilder who has a passion for teaching. Typically, Bob reaches his students through his weekly YouTube videos. But this year, he will teach at the WoodenBoat School for the first time.
Click here to take a class with Bob
Alumni Launchings
We received so many, we will continue to highlight two builds every newsletter.
Fred Sneider
A Northeaster Dory launched in 2017.
Mark Weber
Rowboat cold-molded over cedar strips. Took both courses at WoodenBoat School. Finished and launched last year. Built the oars, too. Used cherry from my yard for the transom, gunnels, breasthook, and thwarts.
Thank you for all the submissions! We will highlight two every newsletter.
Have you completed a WoodenBoat School project at home or built a boat of your own? Send us a photo at school@woodenboat.com and we’ll include it in our next newsletter.