Captain's Club

Over the past few years some of our students have expressed a desire to build another boat but have a different design in mind.

This is a special program where you will build the boat from the floor up. That is, if the boat needs to be lofted and most designs are, you will start there. You will build the molds and set the boat up under my direction but I rely more on you as a former student and now considered as alumnus to take on a greater amount of responsibility in the building. It will make you a bona fide boatbuilder when your boat is completed.

Paul Silva - Swampscott Dory
Mitch Mailloux - Rascal
Bill Kiestweter - Pooduck, Canoe, Yankee Tender
Charlie Darcy - Shellback, Peapod

Frame is almost set up with molds installed.	Interior View of the Pooduck.
See more Photos of Pooduck
Bill the proud owner of his hand buit canoe at launching.	Scribing in the frames for his Yankee Tender.

This is not a quick program or inexpensive as it will take up valuable shop space, and instructional time as required by myself. Your schedule is your own. You have keys to the shop and are free to work on your boat as your time permits. When you hit the bumps I will jump in and work them out so you can continue. Some boats will require my assistance full time at some time during the building process, such as planking the boat. But just look what happens!

I am very proud of all their work. Each boat is individually priced and discussed in detail together before we start. The sky is the limit!

It recommended that you build one of our program boats before taking on an advanced design. However, if you have prior boatbuilding experience or have woodworking experience I would be glad to discuss your choice of boats with you. Feel free to call me to make an appointment.

Setting up canoe strip molds	Molds in place
Stripping a canoe	All built and ready for fiberglass
A completed canoe	Pooduck just off the mold. Lots of work still ahead.

Charlie Darcy from Centerville, MA walked into my shop and wanted to know if he could volunteer to help out with building some of the boats we were working on. Charlie is retired and this month he turns 83 years young. I said to him. "Why not build your own boat"? Well he agreed and built a beautiful Shellback Dinghy with us. Charlie is no stranger to Boatbuilding as he has owned, restored, and built several of his own. Charlie, before retiring, was a distributor of marine shafting, and bearing systems for large vessels. He is a wealth of information and I marvel at his enthusiasm. He is currently building Doug Hylan's 13' Peapod for his son in law and when completed it will have it's home port in Newington, NH.

Not sure what his next project is going to be but I am trying to get him to build Joel Whites "Catspaw" Dinghy. I hope he will.