If you ever wanted to row, row, row your boat gently ‘round the lake but realized you don’t actually own one, Seattle’s Center for Wooden Boats has something for you.
For four years, the center has helped families build their own boats, and there are more than 150 10-foot skiffs floating around to prove it.
People who are considering taking the class can get a first-hand look at it as part of this weekend’s 29th annual Lake Union Wooden Boat Festival &Classic Speedboat Show, which continues through Monday.
A $5 donation per person, $10 per family is suggested and most of the event’s activities are free.
“We’re all about getting people to do an experience,” festival coordinator Lauren Kuehne said. “People should come prepared to do stuff.”
In addition to some 150 boats on display, the center will offer free boats rides around the lake, hold knot-tying classes and offer a scavenger hunt, among other things. Professionals will be on hand doing boat-building, bronze-casting and kayak-building demonstrations.
This year’s event combines with the local Antique and Classic Boat Society Classic Speedboat Show, which will bring 40 classic speedboats each day.
People can also watch a “quick and daring race,” in which eight teams have 24 hours to build a boat they’ve designed. The boats will be launched Monday.
That’s the same day that families who’ve been taking part in the ultimate hands-on activity – building their own boat – will see if their rigs are lake-worthy.
The four-day boat-building workshop is not free and is held at other times during the year. It costs about $1,130, including a one-year membership to the Center for Wooden Boats. The cost is $1,300 without buying the membership.
The boat building brings families together to create the plywood watercraft and have a good time doing it.
The current class started Friday and after working on their boats through the weekend, families will launch them in Lake Union for a sail on Monday.
Charles Doepp of Mill Creek did the boat building workshop with his wife, Sue, and 6-year-old daughter, Anna, at the Edmonds Waterfront Festival last month.
“I am a proud builder and owner,” Doepp, 42, said. “I would highly recommend it. It’s a great family activity, it’s a lot of fun and now we have a little skiff to use around the lakes in the area.”
The boat is designed by Seattle boatwright Brad Rice, who puts the kits together. It’s compact enough to be easily taken to the lake on top of a car or in the back of a truck.
CWB boatwright Edel O’Connor and volunteers guide the participants, answering questions along the way but also allowing them to solve problems on their own.
“It is amazing, what you do in the first day is really, conceptually, starting with flat pieces of boat and then, oh my gosh, it really looks like a boat,” Doepp said.
O’Connor, 32, who has helped several families build their boats, tries to keep the mood light and enjoys watching families work together.
“There’s really interesting dynamics,” O’Connor said. “It’s a really good sort of group effort. Sometimes dads will drag along their kids and teenage girls and they’re so not into it. But by the end of Day 1, they’re putting stuff in and measuring.
“And having kids around, just the interactions that they provoke are the best. Just little random things. Parts they find to play with that you wouldn’t have assumed or thought of, they think are totally fun.”
O’Connor said the price tag seems steep, but said it’s less than half what a finished wooden boat would cost.
“And,” she said, “how often do you get to say that you built your own boat?”
Reporter Victor Balta: 425-339-3455 or vbalta@heraldnet.com.
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