Wooden Boatbuilding Course 2025

Applications OPEN

This is your opportunity to enter the profession of Wooden Boat Building. This course has very limited numbers to ensure each student gets tailored tuition with a shipwright. This is an intensive course of 38 hour p/w over a one year period (11 February - 12 December), to learn and practice rare trade skills. Join an illustrious group of alumni, that work for some of the major maritime museums or own successful boatyards.

This course will enhance your opportunity to gain employment, working in boat yards both in building and maintaining traditional & modern wooden boats.

  • Tuition Fees: $ 22,500 GST inclusive

  • Four Students Only

  • Course Starts 11 February 2025

Course Content:

The one-year course is broken into four main components that aim to cover the fundamental activities of traditional boat yards and marina's, these are duties required to perform the basic function of a junior shipwright/boat builder. The skills covered at the school will also suit those that are interested in learning how to restore older vessels to a modern standard.

Component 1:

  • Part 1- Induction & safe work practices. Covering the WHS practices as required for the workshop and general boatyard environment.

  • Part 2- Basic joinery. We will spend a period getting to know the hand tools used in the industry (and how to sharpen them) while creating some of the more common joints found in traditional boat building. We will also introduce and discuss the locally available specialty timbers and their use in wooden boat building.

  • Part 3- The boat builders tool chest. We will build a toolbox or tool caddy for use during your time at the school and beyond. During this period, we will cover the use of machinery and sign off students in the safe use of static machinery including the bandsaw, thicknesser, drill press, etc. We will also be introducing handheld machinery, which include battery operated tools prolifically used in the industry.

  • Part 4- The half model. This module is aimed at introducing concepts of boat shape and design. We will start with a talk from a marine professional in this area and continue with discussions on boat shapes and designs and how their underwater hull shape affects their motion and speed in the water. The group will then proceed to carve a half model. This is a time-honoured process of designing a boat from scratch used by shipwrights before such things as AutoCAD and other computer programs came to the fore in modern boat building. Carving the half model and drawing it out on paper allows students to understand the concepts prior to lofting.

  • Part 5- Lofting. This is the art of drawing a boat to full scale in a two-dimensional representation. It is used by boat builders to clearly see the shape of a boat prior to construction and ensure that all lines are fair and sweet. Once satisfied with the shape and fairness of the drawings, the builder will use the loft to create patterns for the construction of the full-scale boat. A table of off-sets are used to generate these shapes. The off-sets are generated from the half model once it is carved.

Component 2:

During this section students will use all their skills gained in component 1 to build a boat using plywood and some boat building timbers. These vessels may be hard chined or clinker ply construction, rowing or sailing dinghies. By constructing a boat in plywood, students can understand the processes involved in building a large object to exacting standards while working in a medium which gives a lot of flexibility and room for error (there is always more at the shop, unlike Huon pine). During this component we will also be introducing marine adhesives, namely epoxy, and basic sheathing in fibreglass or dynel.

Component 3:

Restoration of a wooden boat. We are excited to be involved in the restoration of ‘Pixie’, one of Tasmania’s iconic Derwent Class boats. Pixie was built in the 1930’s and the second of its kind. This restoration will be the third ‘D’ Class in a row for the Centre, both Undine and Minerva having been restored in the years previously. This is an exciting opportunity to gain experience in traditional wooden boat restoration. This particular project will be far more involved than the ones preceding it due to the extensive alterations she has undergone. We will be working literally from the keel up as we create new dead wood, keel and floors. Then we will be fitting new ribs throughout and replanking her lower hull. Once this is completed she requires a new full deck structure (deck beams, knees and carlins) and Huon Pine cabin, cockpit, plus mast and spars. She will need to be painted inside and out and varnished as required. There will be a lot of woodwork, some lofting, plenty of painting and much planning to return her to her former glory. We look forward to you joining us for this unique process.

Component 4:

Huon pine clinker dinghy construction. We have 3 main unique designs that we tend to build for customers during this period, the Foster 10, the Percy (12") and the Whitehall (14"), but we are not limited to those as we delve into the art of traditional clinker boat construction. We will start with lofting and go all the way to completion, building a rowing/sailing Huon Pine clinker dinghy. This will include the construction of oars and spars. Steam bending will be an important part of this project but will be introduced during the plywood component.

Overall, the course includes a range of boat building skills and knowledge and is conducted in a working boat building workshop. The course prioritises practical skills but also includes theory, guest speakers and occasional field trips.

Important Notes:

Please note that, at this point the school is not a registered training organisation (RTO) so the course is unaccredited, and therefore cannot issue certificates of completion towards an Australia-wide recognised certification. We are however rigorously working towards this such that we may offer a Certificate II or III in Marine Craft Construction in the very near future. However, to date the skills and confidence gained during the one year boat building course has directly led to employment outcomes in the Tasmanian boat building industry.