No joke. We offered a class just for women. And it was a big success! Doing this required some thought because we knew we couldn’t tackle a project that would require them to commit to 12 or more weekends. Rather it had to be something that could be built from start to finish in a few weekends but one that would be challenging to the students. We finally settled on building a child’s paddleboat just like the one my grandfather built for me when I was a child and which I built for my own children a number of years ago. In fact, we used my daughter’s paddleboat as the prototype for the class and had the students give her a new coat of paint.
The final test. Looks like we have a "winner"!
Four women enrolled in the two-weekend class. One admitted that her initial reaction on seeing the paddleboat for the first time was along the lines of, “This is just a box with paddles. How hard can it be?” Those first impressions quickly changed as my new, eager students began to work. Building this deceptively simple little boat required skills that were unfamiliar to most of them. After measuring the bottom and sides of the prototype, the women had to use the table saw to cut the pieces. Bending the bottom was easy. We used a wallpaper steamer to heat and moisten the wood enough to get the right angle for our two bends. Joining the sides to the bottom, however, was not as easy as it appeared. Using an electric drill to drill at angles was a bit challenging, but patience and their “stick-to it” attitudes resulted in success, even if it took longer that anticipated. They handled the next challenge – hammering brass nails at an angle – with ease.
The process continued. Priming and painting the boats progressed a bit more slowly that we expected because the women were very methodical in that work. While the paint was drying, the students constructed two sets of paddles. They used hack saws to cut the iron pipes that would hold the handles and the paddles. They figured the blade angles, cut, mounted and painted the blades, and then assembled the two sets of blades. Everything went without a hitch until we went to mount them in the boats. Only then did we discover that we had mounted the blades in each set with the angle in the same direction. In other words, our boats would move beautifully across the water in a circle! It required only a minor fix, one that was easily accomplished.
We launched the paddleboat on May 22 as part of our weekend sail. Anyone who “sail” this cute little boat appreciates that the goal is get as wet as possible. Sailing it brings out the child in everyone and smiles on the faces of those who are watching. It is a perfect “first boat” for a child. They will learn the basics of handing a boat and how to make a boat move across the water.
My students proclaimed this first woman’s only class “a huge success,” and I wholeheartedly agree! They are looking forward to a next project, and several students are now regulars in the boat shop where they can be found most weekends, and even during the week, doing everything from working on boats, to talking with visitors, to working on our blog.
Painting the boat
Paddle and seats in finish
Launching
Even the big "kids" have fun
