Inland Seas Boat Building Program Featured in Newspaper Article

ISEA's Boat Building Program for youth was featured in today's Traverse City Record Eagle.  Read the article at http://record-eagle.com/features/x141315872/Young-boat-builders-start-from-scratch

Students and Instructors Set Up the Building Jig in the ISEA Boat Shop

Special thanks to the Collectors Foundation and Easling Construction for support of this project, which does not charge the students any fees for their participation.

ISEA Boat Shop in Action

Each Saturday morning the ISEA Boat Shop is in full swing with students, parents and ISEA Volunteer Instructors building two Opti Prams and a strip planked canoe.  More photos are on ISEA's Flickr pages.

Funding for the Pram Building Class is provided by the Collectors Foundation of Traverse City.  Many Thanks!

Week 7 of Pram Building in the ISEA Boat Shop 3-20-2010

Chuck instructing the crew on fiberglassing technique.
Filling screw holes with epoxy putty.

More epoxy work.

Hull #2 gets the putty treatment. Instructor David D. supervising.

New SawStop Table Saw Installed at ISEA Boat Shop

Fred Unloads the new SawStop

The ISEA Boat Shop's new SawStop table saw was delivered this week. This saw will raise the level of operator safety many fold over the previous saw. While no students are allowed to use power cutting tools in our shop, this saw is used by Boat Shop instructors and ISEA ship's crew. The new saw is able to sense contact of the blade with a human hand and stop the saw before injury. Amazing. Thanks to Fred Rehak for helping with the order and delivery, to Chuck Dickerson for coordinating the project, and to our anonomous donor for funds for the new saw.

-Tom Kelly

Optimist Pram Building - Week 4

Putting the twist in the chine
Fitting the chine to hull #2
Holly with monster clamp!

Chuck and Holly gluing and clamping

Fitting the chine to Hull #1

Today students glued up the bottom and hull stringers. The chine pieces were soaked for 30 minutes in a PVC tube filled with boiling water. This softened the mahogany frames enough for them to bend and twist to fit the shape of the bottom. Next we will glue up the chines and begin to fasten the plywood sides and bottom.