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The Deltaville Maritime Museum’s mission is to ensure the future of wooden boatbuilding skills. Their annual week-long boatbuilding workshop comes to completion when the newly made boats make their maiden launch on Mill Creek and compete for a variety of prizes and awards.
Photos courtesy Corey Miller Photo
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Editor’s Note: Unfortunately, the 2020 Family Boatbuilding Week has been cancelled due to the Covid-19 health crisis. The Deltaville Maritime Museum hopes to hold the program as usual in 2021.
Families attend a boatbuilding orientation where they learn to build a wooden rowing skiff (Wright Skiff) from a supplied kit. They have five days to build the boat and have it in the water and race ready.
“We pre-cut a number of the boards and there are hundreds of cuts.
The pieces are handed out in order of construction. We know what’s required for each process,” said Chuck McGhinns, the building and grounds director who oversees the program.
The 14-foot boats are made of cypress and fir and held together with stainless steel fasteners. During Family Boat Week, participants work together on-site daily. It’s an activity that bonds families as they team up to construct their boat.
“The purpose is to get families together with a project they can complete, be proud of, and use for years,” he said.Over the last 17 years, families assembled up to 154 boats within the program.
“We have never had anyone not finish a boat,” he said.
John England, the boat shop director, has seen the program grow for as long as it’s been around. For him, Family Boatbuilding Week is about seeing people embrace Deltaville’s boatbuilding tradition. England has built 25-30 boats in his 50-year career.
A new boat shop was constructed and launched last year, and England is eager to break it in.
“We built a new boat shop last year where I can build boats inside. I want to establish a deadrise boatbuilding
program. Typical Chesapeake Bay deadrise boats,” he said. “I’d love to do a program with two, three, or four guys who come two weekends a month to do the work. That’s what I think is important. To keep that skill alive.”
Go to deltavillemuseum.com or follow them on social media for up-to-date information about events or visiting the museum. 804-776-7200