and you still can't learn 'em nothing - that's what my grandfather used to say. But this time it's the Beginning Boatbuilding class at the Harvey W Smith Watercraft Center at the Maritime Museum in Beaufort, NC. They put on the class once a month and it was the best $135 I've spent all year. The kids are in a year-round school, so they had the entire month of September off and that's when we like to take our family vacations anyway. So I took Friday and Monday off from work, and we did a long weekend on the coast.
Beaufort is a fantastic small coastal town. It's the very lower end of the southern outer banks of North Carolina. The waterfront is a marina with some amazing boats. That's my kind of beach town - no sand and lots of boats. We saw some wild horses roaming the islands across the bay! It was beautiful. A bit warm, perhaps, but overall the weekend was amazing. We started by getting down there Friday.
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| The first beer of vacation! Actually got that in before leaving the office |
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| The kids picked this room in the hotel |
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| Awaiting the pirate adventure |
Our first stop was the Pirate's Revenge - a boat tour of the bay. The kids got to fight off the attacking pirate bad guys with water cannons. It was fantastic fun. The pirates were hilarious, and I highly recommend taking the tour if you get the chance.
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| Water cannons capable of fending off pirates |
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| The evil attacker |
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| They drove him away! |
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| Ella wants me to build a sailboat that looks like the Black Pearl. Addons like this might be the closest I can get |
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| a 50' sailboat called the Miniskirt |
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| The Maritime Museum |
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| In front of the Watercraft Center |
Day 1:
We started with lofting, and I finally got it! I had read through the lofting process a few times but it took an in-person explanation to finally get the finer points through my thick skull. Buttock lines, waterlines, frames, how to read the table of offsets and turn it into actual drawings. We also got to cut some molds from the drawings and get the body assembled. It's amazing how much stuff you have to build before you actually start building the boat.
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| Interior of the watercraft center with a restoration in progress and some show-off boats |
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| The center is right on the water |
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| This years volunteer built boat |
Day 2
On the second day we were able to focus more on building techniques. Spiling planks, laying both Carvel and Lapstrake planks down on the frames that we built on Day 1, that kind of thing. We went through in detail about finishing techniques & materials as well.
Overall the class was very informative and the center was amazing. Really grateful that my family was able to take this adventure with me and that it turned out so well. Here's some other pictures of stuff around the center, including the frame & techniques we built.
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| spiling a plank with a batten and the icepicks |
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| carvel planking with cotton caulking |
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| lapstrake and carvel planks over a keelson |
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| Next years volunteer giveaway boat |
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| and older restoration project in progress |
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| The front end of a kayak that we used Stich & Glue to build |
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| whale weights & half models |
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| the finished lofting boards |
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| that white film is caused by an epoxy condition on solid wood |
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| cool canoe with a motor! |
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| The 2017 volunteer built boat up for raffle at the museum |
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| The watercraft center is a really amazing place |
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