The Art of Boat Building

Youths, senior mentors bond over building wood boats

Working inside a Tavares woodshop, Cody Woebse, 14, rubs his hands over the shiny, smooth varnished deck of a 12-foot mahogany outboard boat he is building from 1950s blueprints and under the guidance of his mentor, Jack Bingham, 80.

The age gap doesn’t matter. The teen, who aspires to become an engineer, and his mentor, a former military and commercial pilot, have bonded over their admiration for wooden boats.

“He’s my boy,” Jack says, beaming. “He’s very much into boats, and I enjoy seeing him just take to it. He just enjoys learning about everything, and he doesn’t quit.” Jack and Cody were matched through the Sunnyland Chapter Apprentice Mentoring Program for Youth (SCAMPY), part of the Tavares-based Sunnyland Antique Boat Club, where Jack and a group of other older men serve as mentors, teaching youths, 11 to 16, boatbuilding techniques.

“As a mentor, we don’t build boats,” Jack says. “We’ll tell them how to read the prints and plans, and Cody wasn’t old enough to use a band saw, so his dad had to be involved, and some of the moms are involved, too. We’re not babysitters. It’s a family affair and that’s the way it has always been. It’s a great program with a family commitment.”

Cody became interested in SCAMPY after seeing a display of 8-foot, minimost hydroplanes made by the youths at a Tavares boat show.

“Besides getting a finished product of a boat out of it, you get all the experience from building the boat, getting to work with different tools, and learning how to do painting, sanding, and varnishing,” Cody says, adding there are opportunities to interact with other youths and mentors.

“There is a lot of stuff that we do that I couldn’t before,” Cody says. “I couldn’t paint, I couldn’t varnish, and I sure couldn’t cut wood, so there is a lot of stuff that you learn to do that’s useful.”

The local SCAMPY program began in 2010. One thrilling moment for the young builders is launching their boats on the water. “The bottom line is we are trying to get younger families into wood boats, so the older wood boats don’t die,” says Jack.

“We’re passing on the skills and the interests in wooden boats, and the students learn how the boats are built and taken care of,” says Kent Strobel, co-administrator of the program.

“It’s a very maturing process. The students really love it, and they grow from it, and that is really nice to see.” Just as Cody is working toward completing his second boat, so is Nick Mowers, who won the Junior Craftsman Award from the Antique and Classic Boat Society in 2015.

Another student, Dakota Taylor, had some woodworking experience when he joined SCAMPY. He chose to build a 12-foot wooden outboard under the guidance of his mentor Mike Yobe.

Dakota had fun incorporating his last name on the side of his boat, emblazoned “Professionally Taylored.” There’s room for more mentors and students to join SCAMPY, and Kent says the group is looking to alter some of the boat designs for first-time builders, “to make it a bit simpler and a more practical design,” in comparison to the former 8-foot racing boats that only hold one person. “It’s a quality activity that requires a commitment on the part of the student and the family,” Kent says.

“We ask them to commit to completion of the boat, and that helps develop a work ethic and the maturing quality. It’s something you can make with your hands and your head, and I like that we are creating an opportunity for teaching on the part of the mentors and learning on the part of the students and their families.”

The bond between mentors and families often develops into a deeper friendship, like what Christian Behm experienced with his mentor, the late Larry Hall, a retired shop teacher. “Christian was highly regarded by Larry as a quick study and a careful craftsman,” Kent recalls. “He and Larry admired each other, and when Larry was dying in the hospital, Christian and his mother visited him.”

One touching moment for the Behm family was when Larry’s family gave Christian a number of Larry’s wood-working tools. “They had gotten quite close and that relationship meant a lot to both of them,” Kent says.

“As a mentor, Larry was doing what he did best and loved.” To learn more about SCAMPY, call Kent Strobel at 802.793.3787.