The small community of Cedarville has come together to keep boating history alive.

TV6 Contributor Jade Olds, Sault Ste. Marie
Saturday, April 11, 2009 at 4:33 p.m.

Great Lakes Boat Building School-Cedarville, Michigan -- A school that teaches the art of wooden boat building may sound more like something from the 1930s, but the Great Lakes Boat Building School opened in 2006. It was only four years ago that the facility was just an idea.
Today, it's fully operational, offering a nine month program during the school year and week-long workshops during the summer months. In addition to boating classes, students can also take general education course through North Central Michigan College, which may open the door for even more career choices.
"When I'm done here, I'd like to go work for someone for a couple of years, possibly go and start my own business," said student Jeremy Labore. "I think there's a lot of options open for students to do what you, as an individual, want to do with this."
The school focuses on giving their students a hands-on learning experience. This year's group of eight students has two instructors working closely with them in the classroom and the workshop.
"The most enjoyable part of the whole thing is seeing them going through the program and really grow," said executive director Dave Lesh. "If you look around here, what they start building on day one versus what they graduate building, it's pretty remarkable how much they've learned."
School officials hope to double enrollment for next year.  As for the impact on local commerce, the staff is working to conduct a study to show just how much the Great Lakes Boating School has affected Cedarville's local economy.

Great Lakes Boat Building School

J-Star Boat Services

http://www.j-starboatservices.co.uk/
For the last three decades, J-Star Boat Services has been synonymous with genuine craftsmanship of the highest quality.

A family run company founded in 1981 by Simon Papendick & his parents,. Now Simon is running the company since his parents retired.

He still & always will believe that having traditional family values is the best of keeping his clients happy & returning to have more work done on their boats.

After all our clients being our most important asset.

My aim is take the stress out of getting your vessel build or repaired at affordable cost to the boat owners.

The main boat builder at J-Star Boat Services is Simon Papendick & is a time served boatbuilder with over 30 years experience in the industry & having built or repaired many types of traditional wooden vessels (carvel, clinker & double diagonal) as well modern plywood and epoxy craft.

At the same time as using Traditional Tools in all his work he uses modern methods during his restoration work on owner's boats the work is carried out by a long serving dedicated and passionate person.

The company's position in Essex gives us access to all local marinas within a 25-mile radius of the company's base as well as places around the country.
Our sister company J-Star Sea School is an accredited RYA Training Centre & Sea School, based at Clacton-on-Sea Essex.

Wooden Boat Launch @ Boat Building Academy

News item covering the launch of 6 wooden boats built by students of the Boat Building Academy. Reproduced with permission of ITV Westcountry.
Origin: YouTube - charliehussey001

Boat building courses ( long post)

So I stopped by the boat building workshop at Cape Fear Community College to see what they were building and chat with the instructors. I saw some great stuff, and learned about some neat things.

First off, the stuff they were building looked great. They have a 23' CC plank on frame that is currently upside-down getting faired. It has a gorgeous "Carolina" bow that should deflect the spray quite well. I talked to the owner/builder, and he's getting near to putting on a nice paint job and setting up a 150HP 4-stroke on the back. It should be just the ticket for fishing the waters around here. They are also building a couple 14' skiffs for rowing and OB use. They are turning out very nice too. After speaking to the instructor for a while I got an idea of how their course progresses. A student has to take a Marine Drafting class and the "lab" part concurrently. There is something like 3 hours of class time and 9 hours of lab/shop time per week. The instructor said that for the first semester of the course (it's a 2 semester program) the shop time is mostly concerned with the proper use and care of the hand tools used most for boat building. The drafting part is actually not named correctly, as it's mostly about lofting techniques. The second semester is when the class gets to actually build the boats that were decided upon by the class and approved by the instructor. Apparently when the class is completed the boats are then offered to the students who wish to buy them for the cost of the supplies that went into them. Seems like a nice deal.

The second thing that caught my attention is that while you're a student in the program you get a discount at a local lumber yard. This sounds like a nice perk for building your own boat at home!

The course is offered both days and evenings. I think I know what I'll be doing come this Fall semester....

If you look in the back of WB magazine in the instruction section you'll see the college listed. If you want to learn more you can also check out the school's website at www.cfcc.edu .

DISCLAIMER: I am affiliated with the school, but I am not an instructor, and I have no "stake" or personal gain in this program except to inform other boatbuilding enthusiasts about the course.

Matt
Wilmington, NC