Students in Michigan take on art of building classic boats

CEDARVILLE – Curls of pale-brown wood shavings fall to the floor as Gus Bell pulls a plane across a piece of African mahogany. He checks its shape, peering at it closely. Then he lays the tapered piece of wood against the bow of a 26-foot, replica 1929 Hacker racing boat. He butts it up to the plank next to it. After some gentle tapping and a little careful pushing, he screws it into place. "It's a kind of tedious process to get these planks on here, to fit the curves," Bell admits. But when he's finished, the line where one plank ends and the next begins is almost invisible, and even without sanding it feels like a single piece of wood. The fit is perfect.

Around him in the spacious, light-filled workshop of the Great Lakes Boat Building School, Bell's fellow students worked on other classic watercraft: A sailboat that's getting a coat of varnish; a 32-foot, six-oared boat commissioned by the U.S. Navy to serve the 18th century ship the U.S.S. Constitution in Boston Harbor.

For these students, too, the fit seems perfect: The school, in the eastern Upper Peninsula town of Cedarville, offers a two-year curriculum of classic boat building techniques, one of just a handful of programs in the U.S. and the only one in the Midwest.

"We start with a pile of wood and a bunch of young people, some of whom have never done woodworking. So it's all new material," said Patrick Mahon, executive director of the school. "At the end of the year, we end up with some pretty nice stuff."

Bell, 25, came to Cedarville from Cincinnati. He was one of four second-year students at the school this past school year, which concluded June 5. There also were 11 first-year students. Mahon would like to see those numbers increase to the school's capacity of 25 students.

First-year students learn wood and wood composite boat-building techniques. Second-year students also learn about mechanical systems and yacht joinery, which includes techniques of finishing interiors.

With the back, garage-style doors of the 12,000-square-foot building open, you can see the waters of Lake Huron and the Les Cheneaux Islands, a series of small islands dotted with summer homes.

It was a group of residents with summer homes in the area who came up with the idea for a boat-building school. The waterfront land the school sits on was donated along with a cottage; some scholarship student live there while attending classes.

"They wanted to start something here that would bring some year-round economy to the area," Mahon said. "It was their idea and their original funding that started the school."

Mahon, a boat-builder for 40 years, came from Washington state to lead the school, which just completed its eighth year.

Two years ago, the school was commissioned to build a whaling boat that would be on the deck of a larger whaling ship in Mystic Seaport, Conn., where a large wooden boat event takes place each year. This year's is June 26-28.

It was through that event that the school got the commission from the U.S. Navy for the pilot boat. The boat and another will be used to transport the Navy crew to and from the vintage 1797 ship while it is in dry dock for repairs.

Long and narrow, just 4 feet wide, the pilot boat's hull sat mostly finished in early May, with the criss-crossed slats of temporary support frame reaching upwards out of it.

Benjamin Davant, who came from France after learning timber-frame building techniques, worked to create a pattern to shape a long plank of Orford cedar to complete one side of the hull. His objective: to cut the plank with an appropriate curve to it.

"It's difficult to build a long, narrow boat like this," Mahon said as Davant and another student puzzled over their pattern.

And mistakes are mostly OK.

"We let them make mistakes, as long as it's not going to be a catastrophe or jeopardize the boat," said Andy James, second-year instructor and a former Navy man.

Davant learned about the boat-building school on the Internet.

"I haven't even been on a boat before I came here," he said. "The whole idea for me about building boats was kind of romantic."

He finished his one year at the school earlier this month, and said he would look for a job in the U.S. or maybe Norway.

In a separate room, first-year student Angela Stober moved around inside a sailboat, its hull freshly painted a sleek black. She's from Cleveland, well-versed in Great Lakes maritime culture thanks to Lake Erie.

"Making things come together with hand tools seems almost like a lost thing, but it's being preserved here. As long as there is an admiration for the wood and things that are handcrafted, there's going to be a need for people like us."

– Danton Thon

"My dad is a furniture maker and I grew up on the lake, and boats are a lot of fun," she said as she wiped dust off of wood trim she intended to varnish.

She said she's most interested in finishing, like the painstaking varnish work she's preparing to do.

"I like all the little details," she said. "You can build a great and beautifully built boat, but if it doesn't look good ...," she said, shaking her head.

Danton Thon graduated from Holt High School in 2008 and just finished his first year. He said he appreciates the school's mission.

"Making things come together with hand tools seems almost like a lost thing, but it's being preserved here," he said. "As long as there is an admiration for the wood and things that are handcrafted, there's going to be a need for people like us."

Contact Kathleen Lavey at (517) 377-1251 or klavey@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @KathleenLavey

By the numbers

• 15: Students at the Great Lakes Boat Building School this past year

• 24: Capacity

• $12,000: Tuition and fees per year

• 3: Commissions the school has received for reproduction Hacker racing boats

Take a summer class

The Great Lakes Boat Building School offers a variety of short classes through mid-September. You can:

•Build an Annapolis wherry, a sleek, long and narrow vessel that can be used as an open-water racer or a rowing trainer, with classes July 6-11. A boat kit is $1,399; workshop fees are $800.

•Build a sailing dinghy known as the CLC Optimist Pram. Boat kit is $1,099; tuition is $800.

•Learn about knots and rigging on the school's 20-foot sloop. Tuition is $375.

•Build a traditional skin-on-frame kayak July 20-25; the kit is $650 for an 8-foot boat and tuition is $800. Other kayak classes include the Shearwater kayak or the Wood Duck kayak July 27-Aug. 1 with classes repeating Sept. 7-12; cost is $1,089 for a 12-foot kit and tuition is $800.

• Learn about these and other classes including marine photographer and paddle boards at www.glbbs.org or by calling (906) 484-1081.

Want to enroll?

•The Great Lakes Boat Building School was founded in 2008 to teach traditional boat-building skills

•It's in Cedarville, on Lake Huron in the eastern Upper Peninsula

•Tuition and fees cost about $12,000 a year; federal financial aid packages but scholarships are offered

•Learn more about enrollment at www.glbbs.org