Teaching With Small Boats

Last month Inka Petersen and I attended the Teaching With Small Boats Conference outside of Seattle hosted by Center For Wooden Boats. We started out at CFWB's incredible facility in downtown Seattle drooling over their collection of beautiful vintage sail, rowing and powerboats; most of which are available to rent.

Then we were bussed up to Cama Beach State Park. This is a revitalized fishing camp from the early 20th century right on Saratoga Pass of Puget Sound and consists of about 30 cabins on the water, a boathouse, classroom space, workshop, and large meeting hall with food service. It was pretty impressive! An $18m partnership between CFWB and the Washington State Park system… that makes California closing State parks, look pretty sad.

The 85 conference participants represented 45 programs across the US and Northwestern Canada. Programs ranged in size from several hundred students to start-ups like we were three years ago. There were full-fledged vocational schools, public schools, museums and everything in between represented.

It was a very encouraging atmosphere…everyone was sharing ideas, experiences and resources. The tone and focus of everyone was  “ How can we help each other?”

In addition to presentations and workshops there was a full schedule of hands on activities. I attended session on the art of native canoe carving led by John Mullen, a member of the Swinomish, a local native tribal group. The canoe building traditions of this area are renown and we were lucky to have two of the great canoe carvers on hand to learn from. Saaduuts, program coordinator for the CWB's Carving Cultural Connections, was also on hand and guiding workshops in how to carve native canoe paddles.

I had wanted to attend the conference, both to see what other programs were up to and share ideas, but also to find curriculum resources for our program.  Since we started, I have wanted to integrate science and math into our program; both for its own value and so we could attract interest and possibly work with the public school system.

We got all I wanted and more:

We met Joe Youcha from BuildingTo Teach at the Alexandria Seaport Foundation who provided a wealth of information and access to his website which contains hundreds of curriculum ideas, lesson plans and 8 hours of video tutorials. That alone was worth the trip. We also learned alot about how to work with schools and shared our knowledge with other programs just starting out.

It was an inspiring and fun weekend and I hope to attend again.

Click here for more photos.

A pirates life for me

On March 31, the students and instructors from the Youth Boat Building Apprentice Program got a special treat. We spent the afternoon sailing aboard the Lady Washington, a restored 18th Century privateer, and did mock battle with her sister ship the Hawaiian Chieftain on the San Francisco bay. It was windy and a little cool but a fun day for all.
The first Lady Washington was built in the British Colony of Massachusetts in the 1750s, the original vessel carried freight between colonial ports until the American Revolutionary War, when she became an American privateer. In 1787, after the war, she was given a major refit to prepare her for a unprecedented trading voyage around Cape Horn. In 1788, she became the first American vessel to make landfall on the west coast of North America.
We sailed on a full scale replica that travels from Seattle to San Diego each year making educational stops along the way. You can get more information on their website.

Check a video of our day on YouTube.

Bob Darr demonstrates bronze casting

In March,  Bob Darr, the director of the Arques Wooden Boat School demonstrated the traditional bronze casting process for the students in the Youth Boat Building Apprentice Program.
The tool he cast is called a "dolly" and will be used by the students when they start to rivet together the boat they are building this year.
The demonstration took place over three weeks.
Step One was creating a sand mold using a wooden model of the tool.
Step Two was melting the bronze, which was recycled from old boat propellers, and pouring it into the mold.
Step Three was cracking the mold and releasing the rough tool. The tool is then cleaned up and is ready to go to work!
 

Pouring hot bronze into mold.

Bob melting bronze in a crucible

The open mold with raw Dolly

Raw & finished Dollys and wooden master