The Bank Dory Project from last winter and spring hit the water yesterday.
This boat has resonance for me. It's the same design as my first build, when I was not much older than the young people who worked so hard to create this one.
Only this boat is much prettier. From simplicity and back again, each cycle renews itself, with embellishment.
My favorite details are the oars made from Douglas Fir recycled from old high school bleacher seats. We had to scrape a lot of ancient gum off those planks! (Yuck)
Later this summer, during the Toledo Wooden Boat Show in Toledo OR, the students who produced this fine vessel will get a chance to try her out. I had hoped that would happen during school, while the class was still a cohesive unit, but it seems a field trip from school is a planning nightmare these days.
But, I expect to be there when they come with their parents to sample their creation and there will be many more photos, to be sure.
3 comments:
NICE!
Beautiful form, and really important work. Any kid that gets the opportunity to make a beautiful thing out of wood is particularly blessed in the modern world.
You've followed the story... The shop classes are beleaguered by lack of funding and one teacher follows the progress of thirty students, so not much progress is actually made. I asked the teacher halfway through, when interest flagged, what we were doing there. He said "keeping the kids out of jail".
This boat was the only tangible object to come out of that shop in the six months I was there. I'm proud of that, but also cynical. There are more kids interested in welding (which is good - more jobs) so the teacher wants to build this boat in aluminum next year. (That's the popular material for river fishing boats around here). I'm afraid he's on his own for that one!
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