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Wooden Boat Building

Do you like spending time on the water? Maybe you like fishing or just paddling on streams, rivers, and lakes where you live? Have you ever imagined building your own wooden boat to have and enjoy? This summer you can do that at the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum in our Wooden Boat Building class!

This is an active, hands-on opportunity for you to build and keep a 15′ long canoe.  You will assemble it yourself, using hand and power tools like planes, drills and sanders.
All materials are provided. At the end of the week it will be painted and ready to launch. In the process you’ll develop life-long skills, and come away with your own boat–a real freedom machine.

Simple flat-bottomed boats have been used in Vermont for generations to fish, hunt, and explore. They are the prefect size for one person and move easily and quietly through reed and rushes, using a paddle or a pole. Not onlyare they useful and convenient, they are easy to build! If you are in eighth grade or older, you can quickly learn to create a simple, elegant boat of your own.

Once the boats are finished, the group will explore the lake with them. We’ll learn about lake science and about some of the physics of boats! There is nothing like the feeling of an adventure in a boat you built yourself. People will be amazed and you will be proud to say “I built this!”

We recently caught up with Richard Butz, one of the museum volunteers who will be leading this course.  He says, “I’ve done this for more than twenty years, watching kids grow through the process.  There is a lot of self-esteem and confidence building along with boat building.”

Register for this and our whole variety of Lake Adventure Camps today! Click here!