Youth Programs

Over the past few years The Little boat Shop has hosted a variety of programs aimed specifically at young adults. Each program is individually designed based on the students age and abilities.

This is not just a knock together a bunch of boats program but a specifically tailored curriculum. It is a hands on program and not a demonstration where in most cases your audience is yawning after the first half hour.

We start off with basic lofting, which is the process of drawing or drafting a boat out full size on a board. You would be amazed how many adults, not to mention students do not how to properly read a ruler. When you leave The Little Boat Shop, all can understand and read a ruler to the 1/16" of an inch. In addition we teach our class how read the plans to build a boat. All building plans whether for a boat, a house, or a piece of machinery are all based on several universal principles and this is what we teach them. What is the profile view, plan view, section view and what do they all mean?

Then we build!! Proper use of hand tools is stressed. Very few if any power tools are used in our programs with young adults. Boat are wonderful things to build and naturally lead to teamwork. Remember there are two sides to a boat. The students seem to know who to team up with and off we go.

Lofting in the shop	The Gang from Wareham High
Wareham High School Launching	Rob and his Boat
Working on a Nutshell Pram	Checking their work out.

After the boats have been substantially completed we start the finishing phase. Now I realize that all these kids are not going to become wooden boatbuilders. Perhaps a few. But by the time they complete the program they will have the real world skills necessary to confidently get a job as a painter for either a boatyard or a building contractor. They will know the different grades of sandpaper and their proper uses. The differences between oil based paints and latex and their proper uses with the proper tools and technique. They will know how to clean and take care of their tools and properly dispose of solvents and how to use them safely.

In some program we sometimes find an individual with little or no interest in what we are doing. With a little conversation and proper guidance it does not take long to find an alternative interest that we can apply to our boatbuilding. I have had students design logos for our boats as well as write advertising copy, all on the computer for publication either on the web or in a newspaper.

It is a comprehensive program and is generally funded with grants from the city, state or Federal Government. In one program we sold quite a few boats with the proceeds going back into the program to purchase addition material to build more boats. In addition the buyer of the boat realized a tax deduction, as in most cases these organizations are tax-exempt. The sense of accomplishment that these young adults get out of the program is well worth the effort and expense. Without some sort of intervention some of these kids would certainly take the wrong road. We need to reach them at an early age as they approach adulthood or for sure we will loose them forever.

Please feel free to contact me if you are involved in an organization that may be interested. I would be glad to meet with you and see if we could put a program together for you. There have been several articles written in various periodicals about our programs so please be sure to visit the Press Release page.

Bear the dog and The Rosario Family	The Rosario Family hard at work
Planing the bottom	Molly and her Dad
Principal of the school getting ready to shove off	Launching Day