Exciting New Boatbuilding Program For Kids Starting
by Laurie Schreiber
Thursday, June 29, 2006

CRANBERRY ISLES — This summer, three siblings on Islesford are setting up a new boatbuilding program for children.

Islesford Boatworks (islesfordboatworks.org) has already attracted about 20 summer and year-round kids eager to build a traditional 12 1/2-foot dory skiff.

Brendan, Geoffrey, and Amanda Ravenhill spent every summer growing up on Islesford. As an adult, says Brendan, he became concerned, like many people, about the sustainability of a small community increasingly cut off from the ocean.

Through this new nonprofit education program, he says, a key idea is using boats as a way to educate children, give them skills they'll always have, and help them think about the environment around them, especially the waterfront and its long working legacy.

The half-day classes will start up Monday, July 3, and will be held four days a week for nine weeks.

The program is modeled after Rocking the Boat, a boatbuilding and on-water education program based out of the southwest Bronx, New York City.

Rocking the Boat is geared toward the needs of inner-city youth, giving them a hands-on alternative approach to education and youth development. Students build a traditional wooden boat and get some on-water education on the Bronx River.

Brendan, who taught there for a year, thought a similar program would have relevance on his own home island.

Island Institute signed on as sponsors, and the program has been awarded two grants. Other fundraising efforts are in the works.

"More than anything," he said, "this is an opportunity for kids to learn practical skills and to reflect on their environment and on what it means to build a boat."

It was at Oberlin College, where Brendan graduated in 2001 with a major in sculpture, that he heard about the Bronx program, from a buddy whose brother had founded it. After college, he returned to Islesford for three years as sternman on a couple of lobster boats. Then he heard about an opening at Rocking The Boat.

Geoffrey just graduated with from the University of California with a master's degree in marine biology. Amanda recently graduated from Clark University with a bachelor's in international development. When they were youngsters, the family lived the rest of the year in Washington, D.C.

With Rocking The Boat, which reaches more than 100 high school students per year who have built 16 boats since 1998, Brendan was a boat building instructor for 20 students and three apprentices in the construction of traditional lapstrake boats.

He says he was struck by how the leadership and community skills that students learn through boat building can be applied in an urban environment. With his siblings, he says, he began to wonder about how those skills could be put to use by youth on an island where boats are a daily part of life.

After a year in the Bronx, he was ready to return home.

To get the program off the ground, the Ravenhills are setting up in a timber frame barn/workshop they built, with friends and family, in 2002. They have all the lumber ready to go and all the tools the students will need.

Islesford Boatworks will initially focus on boat building with a complement of local museum visits, guest teachers from the community, boating activities, and shop maintenance training. Students will be encouraged to closely study and monitor their waterfront, developing an understanding of what a working waterfront is and the integral role it plays in shaping the community of Islesford.