Start 'em young: William & his Chesapeake 14

George B in Calgary recently sent us some great pictures of his son William, age 8, building his own Chesapeake 14 kayak. "As you imagine, lots of help but we’re seeing an increasing determination to do it himself.  Boats are a wonderful teaching  tool," George writes. 

He went on to explain that he also helped his elder son build a boat at about the same age. "Both are fun loving outdoor kids, Cub Scouts, who spend the winters competing in the junior levels of Biathlon," George explains.

"William wanted a kayak too and having done well enough in school, we bought him one with the commitment that we would help him build it.  To make him feel special, a different boat was necessary, which is where we got the Chesapeake kit (almost kit - the deck was made here in Calgary by us as it would not ship from US east coast cost effectively).  Like the last boat, I get delegated the tedious stuff, like shop cleaning, sanding epoxy after the first 45 minutes of any session, scraping inadvertently placed epoxy goo and other fun stuff.  At this point we are ready to do coaming and hatches.  This is about two weeks away to finish and then sanding ('sanding is fun,' 'sanding is fun,' 'Dad, can you sand for me…')

"I can tell you the learning and teaching experience for both boys has been really different. I find it fascinating that two brothers could be so different at the same age with diverse and different capabilities and character."

George, thanks very much for sharing this story with us. We've posted the pictures in an album on our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152429957087398.1073741912.47629047397&type=3), but here are a couple to give you the idea.


2 replies:

« Previous Post       List of Posts       Next Post »

RE: Start 'em young: William & his Chesapeake 14

And he's even the right size to crawl into the front and paint the inside. :-)

Thanks for thepics.

Laszlo

 

RE: Start 'em young: William & his Chesapeake 14

This is what it's all about!

Dan

« Previous Post     List of Posts     Next Post »


Please login or register to post a reply.