Edumacation

[char]

I think I started a thread on this very topic about 2 years ago, but I can't find it, so here we go again....

So, I'm about to graduate from college and I've come full circle and I'm ready to learn to build boats.

I've spent the last 4 years working on boats at the Washington Yacht Club at UW and acting as a club officer in various positions and it has only served to reinforce my original thought 4 years ago that I would really enjoy working on boats professionally.

So, I'm looking for some help when it comes to finding a good boat building school to attend. I am especially interested in attending schools abroad. I have alot of good resources right in the Seattle/Puget Sound area but I'm really looking to move somewhere else to learn and live in a new culture.

I'm interested in all aspects of boat building, but wood appeals to me asthetically.

My biggest problem is that there doesn't seem to be any sort of ranking system for these schools.

The list so far, in no particular order:

The Landing School - Maine
Seattle Central (Gompers)
Lyme Regis International School of Boatbuilding -England
Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding - Port Townsend, WA
Silva Bay Shipyard and School -BC
The Wooden Boat Centre -Tasmania

So, if any of you have any thought about these schools, or even better, schools I haven't heard of abroad, that would be great.

[Bob Smalser]

Were you in my family, I'd send you right around the corner to Rodger Morris at Lake Union Drydock on Fairview and ask him.

[preston]

Since you're local to a pair of them, go visit and talk to the people there. See if they're people you can get along with.
Matters a lot more than ranking.

Same approach you'd use if going to grad school.
Find the person you want to learn from; go wherever they are.

Preston

[Nicholas Carey]

You might want to talk to Brad Rice The Boatwright (http://www.theboatwright.com/) — his shop is over in Ballard on 46th Street. Tell him Nick Carey sent you.

Brad trained in Lowestoft (UK) at either — I can't remember — the International Boatbuilding Training College (http://www.ibtc.co.uk/), or Lowestoft College (http://www.lowestoft.ac.uk/).

Lowestoft College has both a 1- and a 2-year program at the end of which you'll get a City and Guilds of London certificate in Boatbuilding (assuming you pass the examination).

The IBTC course runs 47 weeks and likewise offers the opportunity to sit for the City and Guilds certificate.

[edited to add] ... I believe that the tuition at these schools is also quite reasonable, something not to be sneezed at.

At any rate, Brad is a nice guy and might have some good insights for you regarding you career choice.

BTW, he does real nice work, too.

Cheers,

N.

[ 11-12-2004, 04:39 PM: Message edited by: Nicholas Carey ]