‘Wood-Boat Mecca’ Carries on a Time-Honored Nautical Tradition
In Michigan, Great Lakes Boat Building School trains students in craft of wooden boat building
The wooden skiff drops in the water to great cheers from the crowd.
The students—the vessel’s builders and now navigators—will crew the 14-foot craft on her maiden voyage through the Les Cheneaux Islands in Lake Huron, and back to the dock of the Great Lakes Boat Building School (GLBBS).
Launch day is one of the most anticipated moments in a boat builder’s education. In groups of three or four, GLBBS students have been fabricating their small crafts by hand for a year.
At the Cedarville school, located in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, they’ve learned to steam and bend wood; they’ve been trained on complex boat-building equipment; and they’ve learned boatyard etiquette. On launch day, they show they are ready to enter the industry as specialized craftspeople.
“There’s a sense of pride in accomplishing something like that over a year—taking a boat from the drawing of plans to dropping it in the water and testing it out,” says Thomas Coates, GLBBS’s director of development.
“The process prepares them for the real world, which is really what our mission is: preparing students for rewarding careers in the marine industry.”
GLBBS is in a kind of “wood-boat mecca,” according to Coates. The first Chris-Craft dealer in the world was established in a village about three miles west of the school in 1925.
“Some of those boats that were built in the late ’20s and early ’30s are still plying the waters up here,” he adds.
Locals wanted to keep the tradition of wooden boat building, restoration and maintenance alive in the region, so they pooled resources to establish GLBBS in 2006.
The school keeps pace with needs of the industry—resulting in the introduction of a Marine Service Technology Program, with the first cohort of students graduating in 2020. These students are trained on electrical and propulsion systems on boats, and basically anything operational within vessels.
“Our students are in demand,” Coates explains, noting the school accepts a maximum of 30 students per year. “Over the past seven years, we've had nearly a 100% placement rate. They find jobs mostly in the Great Lakes, but all over the U.S. and even as far as Australia.”
One of the school’s challenges is keeping up to date with expensive equipment. For students to be competitive and well trained, they need to work on “the latest, greatest equipment and get that hands-on experience that is so valued in the industry,” Coates notes.
Enbridge responded to the school’s need for equipment by providing a $15,000 Fueling Futures grant to help purchase a 150-horsepower engine. The gift supported GLBBS’s campaign to raise $750,000 for gear to support student learning.
“It was like Christmas for our students when the large container of equipment showed up,” Coates remembers.
A few years back, Enbridge also donated used infrared cameras and marine communication equipment to GLBBS. Part of being a good corporate citizen is being a good community partner and neighbor. We’re proud to help build the potential of boat-building students and help them launch successful careers in this unique industry.
Out on the water, navigating between the 36 Les Cheneaux Islands and their many bays, channels and coves, the students feel a deep sense of accomplishment.
Sheltered from the wind of the Great Lakes, they’ll raise a sail if the breeze is right, and stay out to catch a glorious orange sunset.
On days like this, it’s easy to dream of all the places their craft will take them.
