Built from scratch: The boat building program made to last

Every fall and spring, the students in David Arnold’s boat building program spend weeks crafting a skiff of Arnold’s design and on Wednesday, Nov. 19, the ninth boat in his program made the journey to Wickets Island.

A former wood shop teacher at Wareham High School, Arnold has taught dozens of kids to build rowboats from scratch. And with each completed boat comes a launch, but Wednesdays would be Arnold’s last he said he can “put my name on.”

“It’s a little bittersweet — I've really enjoyed this,” he said. “The first boat we built looks almost as good as the day we built it and it’s been used a lot.”

Four years ago, Arnold was approached by the Onset Bay Center to lead a class on building rowboats. At the time he taught wood shop at Wareham High School and had limited boat building experience.

“I said ‘I’ll give it a try,’” Arnold said. “I looked at the plans and said ‘I can make it work, why don’t we try to do it with high school kids.’”

The class started as an after school program for high schoolers and after Arnold retired in 2023, boat building became one of the many programs the Onset Bay Center offers.

“The idea was to get the kids to become boat building apprentices and eventually take over construction,” he said. “What happened was a lot of the original students ended up becoming counselors here and two of them still are.”

For 10 weeks in the fall and spring, middle school age students work with Arnold and Abigail Forcier, sailing and waterfront manager for the center, on constructing a “Wickets Island Skiff,” a 12 foot boat based on the Bevin Skiff Arnold modified for Onset Bay.

“These kids are younger and everyone wants to be involved,” he said. “One student will make a mark, one will drill the mark and the other will drive the nail into it. We do two hours a day with a break twice a week.”

Arnold said his design has added “freeboard,” making the boat taller and preventing some water from splashing in. He added there are other minor changes to give the boat a cleaner look.

“I think we made it easier to put together,” he said. “You could put one of these together in two or three days.”

On Wednesday, the ninth Wickets Island Skiff hit the water and Arnold said the boats built during his program are still being used today.

“It’s so much fun to see these things out with the kids rowing around all summer,” he said. “It’s been a very rewarding project.”

He added the most rewarding part has been watching the kids get excited about being on the water, something Arnold said is very important to him.

“When I see the kids out there rowing, chasing each other around, it really does my heart good,” he said.

Forcier, an experienced sailor and recent graduate from the University of New Hampshire will be taking Arnold’s position in the spring and said her experience this fall has taught her a lot.

“I’ve never built a boat before so that was brand new but I’ve used a lot of the power tools,” Forcier said. “In practice doing some of the angles and finer things was something I hadn’t done before so that was good to learn.”

In her three months of experience, Forcier said she is already finding joy in the kids’ excitement for the program.

“[Arnold] always asks ‘who wants to do this’ and they all jump up so it’s kind of fun to see how excited they get,” she said. “I feel like it’s inspiring for them to get to do something so hands-on.”