Beautiful Wooden Sailboats, just your size Help build one, or buy one. They're in reach

Lowcountry Maritime School shares an overlapping Mission with Spirit of South Carolina

Have you ever day-dreamed of just messing around in boats? I don't mean a souped up loud and fast gelcoated production thing,, but something simple, classic, an ageless style, maintainable, that might even challenge you're ego a bit, but brings you so much closer to  pure form of boating and even seamanship?   

If not, then I'm likely wasting your time. 

But if  you have,, I'd like to point you somewhere you just gotta see.

This beauty's for sale for a really
 fair price, offer, one of several.

In Mount Pleasant, a block behind the Red Drum Restaurant on Pherigo Street, sits a modest boatyard; the Low Country Maritime School. Sam Gervais runs it, along with the resident Wooden Shipwright, Rachel Berquist. Their mission is to inspire the Low Country's young people to reach their full potential through boat-building and exploring.

In one corner, partly under wraps is on its side, the wood core of a custom fisherman is under construction, but in in the other direction, under the quanset canopy and the old shed are the treasures. small wooden craft in various states of restoration, and some finished, waiting for someone to take ownership and sail them away.  In those bays are examples of arcane skills, exquisite workmanship, imagination, hundreds of years of shipbuilding knowledge, wisdom, and personal touch.     

For the past year, Sam and Rachel have encouraged volunteers to join them in special projects; primarily the restoration of donated boats for the purpose of  resale, as a revenue generator for the school. Several of them have been exhibited at the Georgetown Wooden Boat Show.   

Volunteers engage wherever they choose. Rachel assesses your skill set and assign's an appropriate tasks.  In some instances you might go a bit out of your comfort zone, but Rachel is a great coach, and good supervisor.  At the end of a two-hour session you can see what you accomplished, and appreciate what you learned.  

On the 17'foot yawl boat, Charles Sneed, we mostly sanded, filled, and repainted to make her launch worthy and rowable. Now she needs volunteers to set up and step a lug sail rig.  A couple months back we were troubleshooting an ancient Mercury Outboard, successfully getting it to start  up. the motor, and the Herreschoff Eagle cat boat we refinished were recently sold

Rachel demonstrates marking
the Rabbet  on the stem

Currently we're basically tearing down and starting to frame up an Arch Davis plan "Penobscot 14". A traditional lapstraked dinghy. If you show up you'll get as much hands-on as you want. Rachel's been coaching us on the disciplines of symmetry discipline, fair curves, moulding up.  Amazing insights into the magic of turning raw timber into such things of beauty, and utility.  Some of us have been ripping the mould battans that will set the sheer lines for the planks. Before that we were planing the bevel of the stem to restore a symmetry port and starboard, as well as shift the rabbet line to a more fair curve.

C'mon,, I know you're dyin' to learn what I just described.  

Well you can.  Every Wednesday  afternoon for two hours, you can join us at the boat yard for some comaraderie, conversation, and for sure, some boatbuilding.  This winter, it's been from 3 - 5pm, but will shortly change to 4:30PM to 6:30 pm. Bring a beverage or two, to share, 

Perry Gervais scales up from 
the plan to a full-scale frame to verify
 port and starboard symmetry.
He confirmed it wasn't, and
we'll need to mould up another one.

Contact Sam Gervais at Low Country Maritime School for details, 

or

your faithful Volunteer Coordinator via the Contact Us box in the right column.