Jeff's "teaching boat"--a Chuckanut 12--is about half complete. The boys are building a 15-foot (two-man) version of the same boat using plans donated by the designer: Dave Gentry of gentrycustomboats.com
It is a new year with new kids! We at St. Andrew's have partnered with the Saturday Academy summer program, doing boat-building with a talented group of middle-school boys for two week periods.
The program is designed and led by Jeffrey Michals-Brown, assisted by Sanfanity and Saif of Saturday Academy, and Nick and Shane of St. Andrew's. From July 9th through the 19th, the builders will be Devyn, Ethan, Joshua, Adam, Emilio, Etson, Nathan, Nate, Jeremy and Taylor. The boys have learned quickly, cutting-out and sanding nearly all the wooden parts for the boat in only three days' time. On Friday we began the fussy work of assembling those parts into a frame.
This year's boat is a far cry from the "three plank" canoes built with elementary students last year: this year we are building an Arctic native-style skin-on-frame kayak. Native peoples from the Aleutian Islands across Alaska and northern Canada all the way to Greenland once hunted otters and seals from graceful boats framed from driftwood and whalebone and covered with sealskin. In their day, these "hunter's boats" (a translation of the work "kayak") were famous for their speed and seaworthiness when in capable hands. Modern kayaks are adaptations of these designs, but our boat will go one step closer to the originals: it will be framed in wood lashed together with cord, and covered with cloth.
Of course, the program is more than boat-building; the boys have also learned about the balance of forces that allow boats to float, and have studied the Aleut and Inuit cultures (aka Ekimo) who invented and perfected these boats. Finally, there is time to loosen the muscles in games like basketball in the church's basement gym.
I look forward to showing the boys at work, but that will have to await the last one or two signed releases that allow me to display their photos here!
