Sunday-Saturday, July 10-16, 2011
Family Boatbuilding Week
Enjoy the magic of taking a stack of boards and making a handsome skiff, completely painted and race-ready during the museum's 7th annual Family Boatbuilding Week. Your $775.00 for a 12-footer or $975.00 for a 14-footer will provide everything needed to complete your boat, including a hand-lettered name of your choice. After the rowing race, awards ceremony, and fish fry on Saturday, you can take your new boat home for years of enjoyment. Download the application form, or call the museum at 804-776-7200.
Saturday, July 16
Skiff Race, Awards and Fish Fry
An event-filled day caps off Family boatbuilding Week. From 11-12 noon, watch the newly-built skiffs with their crews race around the marks to victory. Everyone gets a prize at the Awards Ceremony immediately after the race.
Billz Bistro opens at noon with fish fillets, burgers, hot dogs, and sides. Tea, bottled water and soft drinks are also available.
Woodenboat Magazine -
Family Boatbuilding Week
Great memories, good boats are rewards of
Family Boat-building Week
by Tom Chillemi
Someday, perhaps decades from now, when they have become adults, they will brag: "I built that boat."
Others will recall a summer week working with grandpa and grandma to create a wooden skiff, playing with other kids, and afternoon swims in a creek. Most likely they will remember where those memories were formed: under the shade trees at the Deltaville Maritime Museum.
There's little doubt memories were made last week when 13 groups built, painted and floated their 12-foot replica of a Wright Skiff during Family Boatbuilding Week at the museum July 13-20. Sunday's launching party was a celebration of their sweat and toil, which took piles of cedar and juniper and transformed them into graceful skiffs, boats built the way the old-timers did it. Tom Hawksworth of Jackson Creek and two of his grandchildren Staisa, 10, and Josh McGuire, 7, named their skiff Crabber. "I wanted a boat that I could teach my grandchildren to row," said Hawksworth. His grandchildren helped drill holes and put in nails, bend the wood and move clamps. "It's something I hope they remember . . . I will," he said. The next set of grandchildren will be visiting soon, and they will get to paint the boat, said Hawksworth. Participants in 38 states turned out for Family Boat-building Week, the idea of Wooden Boat Magazine and the Alexandria Seaport Foundation, said Steve Smith (Kaptain Krunch) of Deltaville who led the local boatbuilding efforts for the museum. "We are trying to preserve the traditional boatbuilding construction for which Deltaville is famous," said Smith. He noted that the 46 boat builders in his class made "real boats made of solid wood built using traditional construction with hand tools."
Before last week, most of the participants had little or no experience building a boat, except maybe for models. Dave and Katie Beverstock and their two sons of Stafford took their vacation and chose the Deltaville Maritime Museum boatbuilding course because it was the only one using "real" wood and not plywood. The sons, Brooks, 13, and Reed, 12, had some boatbuilding experience: they previously built toy boats out of scraps and Styrofoam and floated them, sometimes with their Chihuahua aboard. This Beverstock family named their red and white boat Sprite, the name derived partly from a small sailboat at the museum that Brooks hopes to help restore. Mr. Beverstock, a computer security specialist, admitted having very little woodworking experience before last week. "When we'd get stuck, someone would come and help us. I highly recommend the class." Mrs. Beverstock added, "Krunch is really talented and a good organizer and cheerleader." She said "the neatest thing" was having all the kids spend time together working and playing. Her sons convinced the local kids it was all right to swim in the creek.
Keeping heritage alive, Carrie Worden, 12, of Deltaville built Miss Carrie with her parents, Carolyn and Jay. Carrie said she liked cutting, nailing and sanding the wood. Mrs. Worden added, "It's amazing how you can take pieces of wood and bend them and turn them into a boat . . . and make it float too!" She estimated it took 60 hours to complete what will be a family heirloom. "It's been a lot of fun and it really was a valuable learning experience," said Mr. Worden. "It's keeping the [boatbuilding] heritage alive. It was a great week, I can't wait for next year." He also was impressed how the community shared supplies at the last minute. "That makes it even better," he said.
Gerard Blanton, along with brothers Jacob and Tom Moore, took the week off from work and drove from Richmond every day to build Big Squid 151, so named because it was the longest boat in the class, measuring 151 inches. Nicknamed "the college kids," the trio's only power tool was a drill. Most of their work was done with traditional tools that have been around for centuries: chisels, rasps and planers. Without the noise of power tools "we could talk while we worked," said Jacob. "It was good camaraderie. That's the best part." The volunteers guided them through the tough construction parts, he said. "We would have been clueless without their help." There was a sense of accomplishment. "This is something you can tell people you built," said Blanton. "Now we have a boat that we made. That makes it better. This makes me want to build another one."
"Pretty intensive." Bryan Blake and his wife Jolie of Richmond joined her father, Buddy Brown of Deltaville, in building Shark. They were one of the first groups to finish and had a spare day to paint an open shark's jaw on the bow. Bryan said he enjoyed talking with the professional boat builders who visited with the class. Krunch lettered the names on all skiffs, Bryan Blake noted, giving each boat a personal, professional touch. Jolie said, "It was pretty intensive and really good. We learned a lot."
Ginny and Sam Sawkins, along with John Coe, all Urbanna residents, built a skiff that will be raffled off at this year's Urbanna Oyster Festival. The proceeds will be split between the Middlesex Art Guild and the Deltaville Maritime Museum. "It was wonderful," said Mrs. Sawkins. "Everybody was so friendly." The community banded together to put on the class, with many people working behind the scenes, said Smith.