Boatbuilding students launch handmade row boat into water for first time

On May 5, seven UNE students placed a 14 ½ foot rowing skiff into the water for its maiden voyage. But this was not the launch of just any old row boat. Named Sea Basket, the skiff is the culmination of a semester’s worth of students’ work in the Boatbuilding with Compass Project course, offered by the Department of Creative and Fine Arts for the first time this spring.

The course is a collaboration between the Arts Department and the Compass Project, a community program offered by the Biddeford arts non-profit organization Engine that uses boat building and rowing to provide positive direction to youth by encouraging the development of personal responsibility and community and environmental engagement. According to Arts Department Chair Stephen Burt, M.F.A., the two entities saw the potential partnership as a unique opportunity for experiential learning.

Instructors Shane Hall and Clint Chase report that the students built the boat with a glued-plywood construction method but used a variety of modern and traditional boat building materials and techniques. They were called upon to interpret two dimensional boat plans in order to create three dimensional boat parts and worked independently as well as collaboratively on various stages of the building process. Students also learned detailed techniques for measuring, marking and shaping wood and studied the relationships between form and function and between aesthetics and utility.

In addition to building the boat, the students created two sets of spruce oars.

Another component of the class was the documentation of the boat building process, both in photographs and in writing. The students have shared images and reflections on the WoodenBoat Forum UNE blog as well as the Compass Project Facebook page.

UNE’s Student Recreation Department is now the proud owner of Sea Basket. The Boatbuilding with Compass Project course will be offered again in the fall.