Cody horgan
Cody Horgan, Head Shipwright and Manager of the Workshop at the Wooden Boat Centre. Cody was a student in 1999/2000 of the Shipwrights Point School of Wooden Boat Building (now the Wooden Boat Centre) where he gained a Diploma in Wooden Boatbuilding.
He has since worked in various boat yards around Sydney and Bobbin Head on many various projects. From 2010 to 2011 he worked as Head shipwright and managed a small professional team of riggers and boilermakers as well as a horde of volunteers, that maintained the Tall Ship James Craig. For the last 8 years prior to returning to the Wooden Boat Centre, Cody worked at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney. Cody’s main role was the maintenance of the tall ship Endeavour (replica), as well as maintaining the fleet of small boats including The Krait, Kathleen Gillet, Akarana, Thistle, John Louie and MB172, boats that span a wide range of Australia’s nautical heritage.
Cody has a great passion for restoration and education within the marine construction industry and holds a Certificate IV in training and assessment.
sarah mantel
Sarah Mantel, a full-year student from 2021 and junior boatbuilder, has taken the reigns of our skin-on-frame boat building and oar and spas courses and is now trying her hand on the clinker dinghy courses. Having once had a life as an entomologist, Sarah now enjoys making very sleek, ultralight skin-on-frame boats.
SIRPA LOEVENDIE
Sirpa Loevendie started as a full-year student in 2024 and took up the reigns as Centre Administrator halfway through the year. Sirpa started her career in journalism in The Netherlands before making the move to Australia where she worked in tourism and managed various cinemas. She can still be found on the workshop floor, learning boat building skills a few days per week.
Mike johnson
Mike Johnson lead instructor/shipwright clinker boats, lives in Hobart and has been working at the Wooden Boat Centre for over 10 years. After working in a variety of areas he has finally achieved a life-time desire to build wooden vessels. Mike's passion empowers us all to enjoy the detailed work involved in building traditional clinker boats.