10 volunteers 203.5 hours

The month of February was as busy as ever in the shop, too much to effectively shine a light on all of the projects, programs and partners, so I will focus on three. I’ll start with a new program in the shop with the Salish Sea Deaf School. What a wonderful group of students they were! In developing a program for them we decided that it would be key to focus on some fundamental skills they would need to work in the shop and on boats. We only had two hours with the students, but it stretched to nearly three as we were all having such a good time working together. We spent our time learning how to layout to cut a single dovetail joint, then saw and chisel out the waste to complete the joint, culminating in all of the students successfully hand-cutting functional and lovely dovetail joints.

The last day of January we did a longboat swap. Off-season maintenance on Townshend was completed so we splashed her and hauled her sister, Bear, the same morning. Shortly after we brought Bear into the shop, we assessed her condition and made a plan to see to her needs. We also had a scheduled hull inspection by the Coast Guard, which went very well, with no concerns noted. The crew of volunteers did an amazing and very thorough job of executing our plan, and we launched Bear just in advance of the Pygmy Boats class on the 19th.

In 2018 we will host seven “build your own” boat classes from our good friends at Pygymy Boats. The first on the calendar ran from 2/19 to 2/25, was comprised of six kayaks, with eight owner/builders. These are great classes; in one week you get so much done and, thanks to the experienced instructor, you learn everything you need to know in order to complete the boat at home. We have six more Pygmy classes on the schedule including their Stand Up Paddleboard in November. See this link to register.

On the horizon:
Planking and cabin work on Bout
Dorjun is in for off-season maintenance
Girl’s Boat Project is making big strides towards completion of Otter Pride