Teens learn teamwork, life lessons by building sailboat designed by Chesapeake-based firm
By Margaret Matray
The young boatbuilders needed to form an assembly line.
"We've got to do some teamwork," retired Marine Col. Tom Brandl told them.
The students took their spots next to the hull of their sailboat, where they'd just clamped a wooden rail in place. Each had a job to do.
They drilled small holes, popped in screws and secured them with screwdrivers. Before long, they removed the clamps – their rub rail permanently fastened.
"Good job, you guys," Brandl said. "We've got our system down."
After months of work, students in the Tidewater Wooden Boat Workshop will show off their boat to the public at an open house today at their Norfolk shop. Later this week, they'll take their boat on the ultimate test: easing it into the water for an inaugural ride.
Since 2015, the Tidewater Wooden Boat Workshop has taught teens math, science and life skills – teamwork, self-confidence, responsibility – through boatbuilding. Last year, more than 130 participated in the year-round after-school program and summer camps, said Brandl, founder and executive director.
The nonprofit works with students served through the Boys & Girls Clubs and Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority and is open to everyone ages 12 to 18 .
Since Brandl started the workshop, students have built simple rowboats called Bevin's rowing skiffs, a design created for a similar program in Northern Virginia.
But this year, Brandl and program director Joe Filipowski wanted a design the Norfolk program could call its own.
So they turned to a Chesapeake-based firm of naval architects and marine engineers, Donald L. Blount and Associates. Pete Buescher, the firm's resident wood boat expert, worked with Brandl and Filipowski to design a vessel that fit the workshop's needs.
Filipowski wanted to build something big and beautiful; Brandl wanted to make sure math lessons were in there somewhere. Buescher designed a boat that synthesized both ideas: a 16-foot sailboat – a Tidewater skiff – made of Atlantic white cedar.
Wood boats have long been a passion for Buescher.
When he was 15, Buescher and his father spend six months building a 15-footer named Pandion. He said the experience changed his life – and he knew he wanted to work with boats for a living.
Boats are inherently beautiful, he said, and building one can be aggravating and frustrating and fulfilling all at once.
"It's one of the most rewarding things you can do," Buescher said. "... The kids are going to be pretty proud of what they've done."
At the workshop on a recent afternoon, as students worked on the rub rail, Bryce Jordan sewed leather onto an oar to protect it from getting chafed. It was the first time he'd sewn. And he said it was the project he was most proud of because he did it himself.
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"I felt like I really did something," he said.
The Agena, a favorite name of one of the nonprofit's supporters, isn't a sailboat yet. Brandl said students in the summer camp and fall after-school program will continue to work on the boat. But current students will be able to take the finished hull out on the water before the school year is finished.
Boatbuilders Darian Church and DeVaughn Speight said they can imagine feeling the water on their face. The ride, they said, will be smooth.
A few students were worried about getting seasick. But as for riding a boat they build themselves: "It'll feel more important," Nautica Bracey said.
Margaret Matray, 757-222-5216, margaret.matray@pilotonline.com
Tidewater Wooden Boat Workshop
Tom Brandl
Joseph Filipowski
Bevin'S Rowing Skiff
Tidewater Skiff
Donald L. Blount And Associates
Pete Buescher