For Something a little Different but Just as Significant.

Boatyard volunteers just finished stacking
 old Bevin's Skiffs for transport to another film set.

 On occasion, this blog has mentioned, even endorsed the Volunteer opportunities open at the Low Country Maritime School. This organization, headed by Sam Gervais has  for several years, partnered with local schools to take on boat building projects as an applied education in numerous academic disciplines.  Students under tutelage
of Sam and the School's Residing Shipwright, Rachel Berquist, coach students thru the construction of a "Bevin's Skiff", a historic classic, period,  simple skiff that for generations was the working (also rigged for sail) fishing boat in the low country .

 The Society has recently expanded their curriculum to the finishing of Remote Control racing sailboat kits.  Additionally, the Society leases out it's stalls to different boatwrights for their own projects.  I, myself have taken advantage of this by leasing out a stall to restore my "Beetle Cat" to proper trim.

Perry Gervais gets his first look
at one of Colton's new "old" water craft.

Well, one of the regulars with a semi permanent construction site here is Colton Bayne, a respected Shipwright in his own right, happens to be the son of Mark Bayne, the Shipwright who build Spirit of South Carolina. Colton accepted a commission by a group of film producers to build a pair of authentic "Bateaux" . 

These would be fully working props for a documentary film around the African American contribution to Maritime commerce in the low country. Bateaux (French for "boat") were built by enslaved African American boatmen. Simple, functional, they were perfectly suited as fishing boats or cargo carriers between the plantations up and down the coasts to Charleston. 

Brandon Clark, Perry Gervais and Sam Gervais
 complete the strapping down of the two
 bateaux for transport.

He actually completed them in around three weeks. On a recent Wednesday four of us volunteers teamed up with the LCMS staff to get them out of their stall and loaded on to a trailer for transportation to a launch spot for first sea trials before turning them over to the movie prop people for final cosmetic work to transform them back to the year 1865.