Boat Program
erkeley Boathouse is project of Waterside Workshops. We are a small boat shop centered around community education. We provide classes for youth and free vocational training for transition aged youth. Aside from our educational aspect, Berkeley Boathouse is also a fully functional small boatshop employing talented craftsmen capable of constructing any type of boat up to 20 feet in length. If you are in need of yacht tender, fishing boat, recreational watercraft, or custom oars, please let us know. Proceeds from all sales and repairs go toward supporting our free programs for low income youth.
Internships
After school and summer internships are available for older youth, roughly 14-18yrs of age. As an intern, youth will work along side of one of our skilled instructors in an apprenticeship-style setting. One on one attention allows interns to become immersed in the craft and in every aspect of running a small business. Working in a small boat shop helps youth to quickly develop vocational skills in the areas of woodworking and construction, while providing a real-world application for product design, physics, and geometry. Depending on their interest, students can apply their experience in the boat shop to a variety of trades or areas of study. Apprentices are given the opportunity to tour local woodworking shops as well as the Civil Engineering/ Naval Architecture department at UC Berkeley. Many local schools accept our classes as elective/vocational credit for high school students. Please contact our office for more information.
Youth Classes
We offer classes for youth (roughly 8 to 18 years of age). Beginners are scheduled in small classes, 1 or 2 days per week depending on interest. Students will learn proper use and care of woodworking tools. We will use our skills to construct and repair wooden boats that will be used at the Berkeley Aquatic Park. Class fees are on a sliding scale.
We currently do not offer adult classes.
Youth Class Hours: by appointment only. Groups and individuals are welcome. Please call ahead: 510-644-2577
Below, some of the many model sailboats, built and designed at The Boathouse. Students piece together the hull components, mast, keel piece, rudder, ballast then students stitch together the sail and attach it to the mast. In the end, our kids walk out with a beautiful little sailboat that operates on the same physical principals as the larger sailboats; a great lesson in woodworking, sailboat physics, and sailboat handling.
Field trips: Please contact us if your school is interested in a field trip!
Group photo of students from a South Bay Waldorf School; field trip to Waterside Workshops to build model sailboats. It was truly a fun day for all!
Contact:
berkeleyboathouse@gmail.com
Office # 510-644-2577
Currently on the shop floor....
12 foot ultra lightweight canoe
Constructed with 1/8 inch plywood, this is one of the lightest canoes we have ever built. The idea for this canoe came from one of our Saturday morning students; he wanted to "build a canoe". We started right away with materials we had on hand: doorskin for the hull and redwood scraps for the frames and steam-bent oak for the breasthooks.
This little canoe has proven to be a wonderfull teaching tool. It is fastened with glue, rivets, screws, and nails; this way we learn the advantages and disadvantages of each type of fastening.
12 1/2 foot Flatiron Skiff
This "one station skiff" is currently being built by one of our Berkeley High interns, for her to keep and use. Quarter inch plywood hull, oak frame, mahogany chine logs, pine rails.
12 Foot Punt. This boat is being constructed predominately by a weekly class of 9-10 year olds. They are hard working, focused, and fun kids to work with. We decided to build a punt so we could all fit inside this boat when it is finally launched. This boat is being constructed, upside-down, out of pine boards for the sides and construction grade 1x4s for the bottom cross-planking. We are planing a chaulking bevel on each of the bottom boards so as to later introduce cotton chaulking and a special putty; as is typical in traditional boat construction.
Past Projects...
5 meter Barco de Lavrador (Farmer's Boat): Portuguese River Boat from the Mondego River region of central Portugal.
We take for granted the importance and convenience of our modern-day extensive network of paved roads. However, before the advent of the automobile rivers were a primary source of travel, particularly for the transport of essential commodities.
The Barco de Lavrador, or also called Barco de Trabalhador : the Laborer’s Boat, is the final evolution of a traditional river craft for the transport of goods, or to put it in a modern perspective; this boat was the farmer’s “pick-up truck”. The characteristic shape of the barco is from a long lineage that i believe goes as far back as the European Iron Age.
You will note the openness of the boat’s interior; only one twart, or seat, serving mainly as one of the boat’s structural members and as a mast partner; the openness of the boat, of course, indicative of a cargo boat; it is not a Whitehall nor an English Wherry for passenger transport. Portuguese boats seem to always have a very pronounced sheer-line whether they are boats from the Tagus estuary or boats found much further north: Aveiro, Nazare’, Valbom...a matter of aesthetics, and a matter of long tradition. Supposedly one reason the Barco de Lavrador has such a pronounced sheer and forward counter is so that the boat can come up neatly into the river bank. And one can also image how a high prow river boat is advantageous in fast moving rivers.
The Barco de Lavrador is almost a smaller version of the other more common, and much larger, Barca Serrana do Mondego. The notable differences being size; length and beam, the Barca Serrana has very curved bow and stern
Traditionally, these Barcos de Lavrador were built exclusively with local carvalho (oak) for all the frames and pinho bravo (Pinus pinaster) a type of pine, for the planking. However, our construction at Berkeley Boathouse used old growth Douglas Fir for the frames and White Pine for the planking. The decision to use these woods was based largely on economy. We have a lot of Douglas Fir; going out to buy a lot of oak would turn this endeavor into a rather expensive one. Plus, this boat was largely built by the students of Berkeley Boathouse, the vast majority of them having very little woodworking experience. So, the materials must be “cheap” to account for mistakes, yet without breaking the bank. Therefore, compared to the traditional Barco de Lavrador, our construction has frames that are slightly more robust. We also used Douglas Fir for the sternpost and Black Acacia for the stem (a piece we milled and seasoned four years ago from local trees). For more details please see www.portugueseboats.com
Students busy at work on the barco do lavrador ; intern on the right is scarphing the long pieces of wood for the coirel, gunwale, and the two interns on the left are planking the boards on that characteristic sweep the, costado, and they are attaching a loose-footed frames, golfinos, that project above the coirel and serve as a bit for making-off the boat, a characteristic feature of Portuguese watercraft.
Barco Lavrador in the stage of planking the bottom. In this style of boat construction, the bottom is planked last.
12 foot Catspaw Dinghy
This round-bottomed, carvel planked row and sailboat is a recent commission for the Boathouse.
El Toro Sailboat
Construction of an El Toro Sailboat by the students one of our weekly classes.
The El Toro is a small, less than 8 foot long, sailing pram. Originally designed at the Richmond Yacht Club in the 1930s. Since that time, this racing class has gained a lot of popularity and is still very active. The Berkeley Aquatic Park (at the current location of Berkeley Boathouse) used to have a big fleet of these sailboats for youth sail-training. We are excited about bringing back that tradition.
Enterprise Sailboat: Repainting, rerigging, and replacing the centerboard of a 13 foot long, marconi rigged English Enterprise Sailboat. The Enterprise Sailboat is one of the original designs of Jack Holt, who, decades ago, popularized plywood boat construction for amateurs; the popular Mirror Class Sailboat is another of his designs. We are very happy to have this Enterprise; she is fast, yet stable, simple rig, and beautiful. Keep an eye out at the Aquatic Park for her light blue sails!
Bike-Boat, built by a Waterside student who wished to combine what he learned in our bike shop and boatshop.
17 foot kayak; eighth inch plywood, stitch and glue construction...shop commission, sold.
16 foot Flatiron Skiff; Boathouse commission, built for the Berkeley Marina Harbormaster as a utility skiff.
---------more to come!---------
