Author: ted@thebrickyard.org

This just in!

On Wednesday June 14th at 4:00 at the Blossom Street Extension Boat Ramp we’re launching our first boat!

The students will formally present this boat to a group of Lynn Veterans for their use:

Bob McCarty, our mentor from Community Boatbuilding will deliver the boat, the students will present the boat to our Veterans and then the Mayor Nicholson will say a few words about this, the kids’ accomplishment and the important lessons learned about not only boat building, but too, honoring Veterans.

We’ve added a special Rewards level to our Patronicity campaign for you, if you want to support this event with a “ticket” donation!  Check that out here: Boat Launch!

(Donations are not required, we hope you can join us and meet the team in any case..

Have a great, safe Memorial Day weekend and see you on the 14th!

Have some doubts about what the kids get out of this program?  While they were being interviewed by WCVB for the news story, I overheard a taste of what this program means…  to them. In their own words:   “I can’t believe building a boat would be this fun.“ “We actually moved pretty fast, yeah. we just started with the front and the back and we just started moving up from that.“ “It makes me feel like I’ve actually accomplished something.”   “I’m proud of myself for the work I did.” Students who do not love school will often lead their teams and ask for more. I overheard: “Why is it that you’re so good at math here but in class you stink at it?” Reply: “I don’t know. I just get it here!” “Thank you, thank you, thank you!  This was so fun, thanks!  Thanks so much for being there for us!  We should do it again!”  From a few teachers and instructors: “Taunts were replaced with compliments. Failures were met with encouragement rather than glee. “Please” and “thank you” replaced “give me that” and silence. Help was not requested and refused, it was initiated and accepted.” “Building boats develops a variety of skills and habits of mind transferable throughout life. Spatial thinking, nimbleness with three dimensional perception and recall is a key to academic success.” “According to the National Academy of Sciences, “We suggest that spatial thinking is at the heart of many great discoveries in science, that it underpins many of the activities of the modern workforce, and that it pervades the everyday activities of modern life.” “Our testing shows that students’ spatial thinking skills grew by 56%. In addition to spatial thinking, building boats is a real-world application of mathematics. It also requires hand-eye coordination, safety skills, and above all, teamwork.” “I love teaching boat building at the Haley because the students are so eager— they’ve been looking forward to building a boat since kindergarten.” We’re about halfway to our goal, with 8 days left!  We have an amazing 26 patrons, each chipping in what they can.  Want to see more kids, and more reactions like this?  Help us kick it over the top!  Donate now at Boatbuilding Comes to the Brickyard! …and thanks again for your support! Ted Dillard Keep making stuff. Take care of people, play nice and clean up after yourselves. The Brickyard Collaborative Follow us on Facebook

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What’s the Plan?

We’re running a fundraiser to raise matching funds for a MassDevelopment Collaborative Workspace grant, for Boatbuilding at The Brickyard.  The goal?  A regularly scheduled multi-week yearly program bringing boatbuilding to kids in Lynn and the North Shore.

But what is that going to look like?  Why do we need the funding?  Well, here’s the plan.

Right now, we’re working with Community Boatbuilding to use their expertise and experience in helping us launch our program.  Our next build will be in August, and we’re going to be building their bigger, 13’ skiffs for Kayak and Sail Lynn to use on the water, more for adults than the 10’ boats they usually build for, and with the kids.

This is going to need new forms for the bigger boat.  A form is a sturdy “jig” that holds everything in place as you construct the boat.  This takes materials, space, tools and time. Much of it is working with wood, but there’s some metal fabrication too. That work is going to be starting in June.

We need to dedicate some space to the boatbuilding program, which takes from our large, but still pretty full, 10,000 square foot shop.   We’ll need to store the forms, the jigs and fixtures, the stock and materials and any partially-built structures.  We need the space to be safe and secure for the kids.

We want to engage kids in fabricating the parts and pieces, which requires a higher level of safety and protection than is in a standard shop.  The SawStop table saw is a great example – proven to protect users by instantly stopping the blade drive system of the saw on contact with hands, fingers (and even hotdogs, take a look at the videos!)  We also want to teach the kids CNC machining – fabricating some parts on a large CNC router.  Operating this is much like running a 3D printer, which many of the kids have run at school, except this removes material rather than places it – and the principles are the cornerstone of much of current 21^st century machining.

Finally, we want to open up new ideas, such as a foundry where hardware for the boats can be designed, 3D printed and then investment cast from bronze, just as they have over centuries of marine manufacturing.

Sure, this will take time, and this is probably a project that will span years, but with your help we can put the plan in place, and start getting things rolling…  and start launching boats!

Want to help?  Drop something into the bucket at the Brickyard’s Patronicity campaign, here, …and THANK YOU for your SUPPORT!

Read all about what boatbuilding brings to a community of kids here, at Community Boatbuilding.

Read all about the Kayak and Sail Lynn program, giving kids and veterans a chance to learn about our rich marine heritage here on the North Shore, here.

Read about our mission to bring boatbuilding to Lynn, here, and visit the Brickyard’s Patronicity campaign, here. 

We’re off to a great start, help us take it over the top!