TRENDING NOW ON SAN FRANCISCO BAY — W
Spaulding's volunteers have the advantage of kit-style preparation.
Park Association. "I've been really impressed by the Viking crew and how focused and invested they've been in the building process," Alana says. "A lot of the kids have said how cool it is that they're actually using math in a practical way. I think they also just get a lot of pride learning new tools and skills! Which they should; they're working really hard." Alana has only been building boats for the past three years, but participated in a two-week boat-building course at the WoodenBoat School in Brooklin, Maine. She was one of only two women among 60 or so men who were also taking courses at the school. "I think learning can be kind of an intimidating process, especially in a male-dominated field like boat building. So it's just super-cool that these kids are doing this project as a group and are able to learn together as a team! I feel really lucky to be a part of it. "There's still a lot to learn, but it's really rewarding to share what I do know with the Vikings! The WoodenBoat School is a very magical place! I hope I can go back someday," she adds. The Scouts purchased their Nutshell Pram plans from the WoodenBoat Store — part of the school in Maine. "It's a glued lapstrake plywood boat designed by SEA SCOUTS
It's hard to tell from this photo, but the Sea Scouts swear by singing and dancing while building boats.
the way a lot of the things you learn, you learn by doing instead of just reading it out of a book," Amelie L'EtoileGoga says. None of the girls have prior boat-building experience, though Katherine Scannell once built a birdhouse with her school. "I thought it would be cool to say in the future that I was able to build a boat," Selah Gale admits. The building project is led by Alana McGillis, who, prior to COVID, taught boat building to high school students at the San Francisco Maritime National
SPAULDING MARINE CENTER
hen we hear or think about the term "wooden boat," we usually picture something like a big, traditional schooner, a brigantine or square-rigger, or even a stylish ketch. The Bay Area boasts many of these beautiful boats active in the Bay, and each year in the May issue of Latitude 38, we bring you a story featuring these vessels: some historical, some well known, others obscure, and some almost brand-new — the 1892 scow schooner Alma, for example, as compared with the (comparatively speaking) recently launched Matthew Turner. This year we discovered that the Bay Area is also home to numerous small wooden boats that are either under construction or have already been completed — so many, in fact, that it appears to be a growing trend. We could point the finger at COVID, as many of the builders say they began or finished their boat during lockdown. Even so, there must be another common thread among those who are happy to spend hours upon days upon weeks and, in some cases, even years building their own small wooden boat, by hand. As far as we're concerned, the result is fantastic, and as more and more people pick up tools and construct their own vessels, we've decided to track down a few of the local, homegrown shipwrights and find out what they've been up to … and why. Right now a group of eight girls from the San Francisco Sea Scouts' Viking unit are building their own 9-ft 6-in Nutshell Pram. Why? The Scouts were looking for things to do in smaller 'pods' with the girls, and thought, "This would be a good way to learn some woodshop skills." Sea Scouts have always been a hands-on bunch of sailors, and the girls, aged between 13 and 15, are enjoying their new project. "I really like
Joel White," Alana explains. "The goal was to find something strong enough to be handled by a bunch of teenagers, but also interesting enough that they're exposed to a lot of building ideas." The Vikings hope to complete their pram over the coming summer. The WoodenBoat School appears to be responsible for several of the boat builds we discovered on the Bay. Nate Spencer-Monk chose the school's Nathanael Herreshoff-designed Biscayne Bay 14 to build in his Berkeley garage with his two young sons. "I was inspired to start the build when my eldest [son] started sailing in the RYC [Richmond Yacht Club] Junior Program three years ago. Going down to the club every Sunday made me wonder why I wasn't sailing myself." Nate first fell in love with the small boat when, as a 17-year-old, he joined the WoodenBoat School's Fundamentals of Boatbuilding course. "At the end of the afternoon, you go down to their waterfront and go sailing in your choice of wonderful wooden boats. One of the boats was a Biscayne Bay 14. Some boats just put a smile on your face, and this is one of them." By the end of the course, Nate had bought the plans, not knowing that he would tuck them away for over 25 years, "… until my kids got on the water here, and I thought, 'Why not build the boat?' I figured out that my garage was just big enough. I tooled up and got to work." After three years of persistent effort, the Biscayne Bay is almost finished and Nate is looking forward to spending more time sailing. "I've crammed myself into an El Toro a number of times since my kids started sailing, and I look forward to something a bit more comfortable for an adult. The new boat is my ticket to get on the water here, and to get to sail with my family. I am a self-taught sailor and I look forward to learning a thing or two from my kids, who are properly trained!" Of course, there are many other avenues through which to obtain plans for a small boat. Dennis Galvan was 17 and working at the Pearl Avenue Branch of the San Jose Public Library when Peter Stevenson's Sailboats You Can Build passed through his hands. "Probably on the way back to its shelf," Dennis says. "I liked the lines of the mini-skipjack and thought, 'I could build this, and it would be fun.'" So he checked out the book and started building the boat in his mom's garage in South San Jose. The year was 1982. Fast forward to Dennis's 46th birthday, and with the
