Surveying of Wooden Boats
Developing a trained eye for boats.
- Dates
- June 25 – July 1
- Location
- Brooklin, Maine
- Tuition
- $875
- Instructor
- Pat Mahon
- Experience Level
- Novice
- Activity Level
- Moderate
This is a five-day course ending on Friday
To be truly qualified to survey wooden boats and yachts requires a tremendous diversity of experience and expertise. Our instructor spent years working on boats before teaching marine surveying. Pat has years of building, repair, and educational experience, and WoodenBoat School is pleased to provide a forum in which he can pass on some of his hard-earned knowledge. This course will meet for lectures and discussions, but much of the teaching is done by field work. You will go through boats at local boatyards learning how to look, where to look.
You will focus on wooden boat design and construction, the how’s and whys of success and failure. You will explore the methods for detection of current and potential problems with rot, corrosion, fractures, and joint failures—how they might be fixed, and how they could have been prevented. You will learn to look at boats in differing terms of the owner, the potential buyer, and the insurer. And you’ll discuss the actual business of surveying—writing reports, liability, dealing with owners and brokers.
Our marine surveying courses have been very popular since the school began. Students range from insurance agents with an obvious need to understand what makes a boat safe, to U.S. Coast Guard inspectors, to boatyard managers and brokers wishing to provide better customer service and more accurate estimates, to amateurs with shopping plans in mind, and, of course, to people currently working, or thinking of working, in this demanding profession.
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Who is this course best suited for?
This course is appropriate for someone with little or no experience. The course is designed around the idea that you have not done this before or know very little about the subject. Students should pay more attention to suggested readings or videos to help familiarize themselves ahead of time.
This course involves a moderate level of activity throughout the week including: standing and working sometimes throughout the day, some hand planing or sanding, working on group projects that require occasional participation. Having adequate balance and agility to get in and out of boats.
Register For This Course
Courses fill quickly, so don't delay if this is a course you want to take.
