Don’t Get Caught Playing With Your Dinghy!

Article - February 17, 2014

When I look at a wooden boat, the same thoughts run through my mind as looking at furniture did before I began woodworking – How do they do that? With almost anything that has to do with woodworking, I want to learn more about it, and building my own boat is definitely on the list.

Luckily, Andy Miller’s podcast, Boatworks Today, has been a great resource to learn more about boats, and I haven’t missed an episode of it yet. If you haven’t seen Andy’s videos yet, go check out his site and podcast. To be honest, I’ve been waiting anxiously for Andy to do a full-on boat build so I can figure out how the heck you build a boat that won’t sink. For now, I’ll keep waiting for the build, but I recently stumbled upon a great resource that can definitely help you learn how to build boats: The Great Lakes Boat Building School.

I ran across this video about the boat building school one day while perusing the internet for interesting woodworking videos. The focus on traditions and craftsmanship obviously caught my attention, but seeing all the boats in various stages of being built really got me excited. Check out these videos and tell me that you don’t want to quit your job tomorrow and move to Michigan to learn boat building!

The school offers one or two year certification programs for those who are serious about a boat building career, but after visiting their website I also found out that they offer a “Build Your Own Boat” summer workshop. Although I don’t have any plans to do it for a living, I sure would like to take a workshop about it.

Check out this video and try to tell me with a straight face that you don’t want to build a boat.

So, do you have a boat project on your horizon or have you built your own boat? Let me know what your project is/was. For me, just a little dinghy will do the trick so I can learn the basics of sailing.

Discussion

Steve Wisinski February 17, 2014 12:43 pm

The school is “down the road” from my cabin on Drummond Island. It is set in the beautiful Les Cheneaux region of the UP, which is a lot more like the rocky Maine coastline than a typical Michigan coast. So not only is it a great build experience but it is a beautiful nature experience as well. I haven’t had a chance to attend the class yet, but I’m hoping to in the next couple of years, time willing…

Reply
- Zac Higgins February 19, 2014 6:13 pm
  
  If you get a chance to take a class, let me know how you like it. I was pretty impressed by the school from what I saw in their videos and from the little bit of digging into it that I did for the article. Oh, and if you build a boat, I definitely want to see some pics!
  
  Zac
  
  Reply
- Andy W February 20, 2014 11:27 am
  
  My family has a cabin on Island No. 8, and I had the chance to briefly visit the school. It’s an amazing place. I wish I could move up there permanently – what a dream come true that would be!
  
  Reply
John McKeel February 17, 2014 4:06 pm

We’ve come full circle Richard! I found your website and podcasts because Jan and I own a wooden boat. People ask us if we are going sailing this weekend and we just smile because we are sanding and varnishing. Santa Teresa is 16 tons of mahogany moored in San Diego bay but there is nothing like a wooden boat!

“If God meant for us to build fiberglass boats, He would have made fiberglass trees.”

Good luck on your maritime adventures. We are big fans of your site.

Reply
- Zac Higgins February 20, 2014 4:14 pm
  
  Hi John,
  
  I actually wrote this article, but I’m glad you found The Wood Whisperer site and podcast. I’ve been a huge fan of Marc and all he does for many years, and I help out with extra announcements on his site.
  
  Man, 16 tons of mahogany?? Holy awesome batman! Please share pictures, I’d love to see Santa Teresa.
  
  Zac
  
  Reply
Bud McIntire February 22, 2014 8:50 am

Marc,

I am a staff member at the Great Lakes Boat Building School featured in your recent blob post. I would like to invite you and any of your readers to visit our wooden boat building school, at least when the weather improves a bit! We have a terrific career program in wooden boat building and a wide range of 3-day and 6-day boat building classes in the Summer, both at our campus in the Upper Peninsula, as well as in Traverse City and Charlevoix, MI. Thanks very much for exposing our school to your fine woodworking audience! For reference, our website is: http://www.glbbs.org.

Best regards,

Bud

Reply
- Zac Higgins March 20, 2014 12:38 am
  
  Thanks Bud, I will definitely stop by if I’m in those parts some time. Can’t get there right now, but it’s definitely something I want to do when I get the time away and money saved up!
  
  Reply
Andy Miller February 25, 2014 4:16 pm

Thanks for the mention Zac! I’ve been wanting to do a group build for a couple years now, but an expanding Family and work have always gotten in the way :-( I am going to be making some changes to the site, and BWT in general that I hope will allow me to pull the trigger on this next Winter.

@Bud McIntire if I’m able to scrape together a long weekend this Summer I’d like to head over to your neck of the woods for a few days. I’m in Northern Wisconsin; I believe it would be roughly an 8 hour drive..

Reply
Zac Higgins February 26, 2014 1:07 am

Glad to be able to spread the word about BTW Andy. I hear ya about time… I am just starting to share what I’m up to in the shop too, and keeping up with it all is tough! I applaud you and Marc (along with numerous others) for creating such excellent productions – I don’t even have kids, and I can barely get a blog post, video or anything done on top of actually trying to get work done in the shop.

I’m anxiously awaiting the new stuff at BTW, and I will be looking forward to the group build. That video for GLBBS reminded me how awesome it would be to not only have a boat, but have a boat I made!

Reply
Justin Thiel March 14, 2014 6:44 pm

I was given a couple books on wood strip canoes and kayaks, Canoecraft by Ted Moores, is very detailed and full of great reading material that’ll inspire you to get started right away. The other is Featherweight Boatbuilding by “Mac” Mcarthy and that one is a more straight to the point getrdone type also with good reading material from the experiences you’ll have building and floating your boat,with roughly the same instructions on how to do it, and also has plans in it for two kayaks. I should have my own kayak ready for the water by spring using the patterns and instructions found in those books. It’s built from 1/4″ by 3/4″ strips of pine reinforced with fiberglass cloth and epoxy and should only weigh about 30-40lbs once I put on all the finishing touches. The cloth and epoxy cost about $400 and the wood $130. It’s been a fun project so far and I can’t wait to hit the water! I’ll try to get some pics on the site in the boats section

Reply
Zac Higgins March 20, 2014 12:41 am

That’s awesome Justin! Can’t wait to see the pics, and make sure to include some in use too! Any big plans on where you’re going to take it out first?

Reply
vitalBodies March 30, 2014 10:57 pm

You gotta love that title/subject just for the drama/humor/etc!
And on Marc’s site, oh my!
Love Marc’s humor, thanks for adding to that!

Reply
Zac Higgins March 31, 2014 11:41 pm

Thanks vital, I couldn’t resist being a Tommy Boy fan!

Reply
Christopher Landy March 30, 2015 6:12 pm

Awesome. I have a Chesapeake Boat Building kit –the Eastport Nesting Pram. It’s my next project to build with my son. Terrified and excited!

Reply
- Cheoy December 3, 2019 3:34 pm
  
  you ever finish that Eastport pram?
  
  Reply

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Don’t Get Caught Playing With Your Dinghy!

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