5-day Boat Building Course

Product Description

In this 5-day class you will build your own wooden boat from one of our stitch-and-glue boat kits. The course runs from Monday to Friday and your boat will be ready to take home on the Saturday.

Book your place at least thirty days before the start date to make sure you don't miss out.

Expert tuition will be provided by our experienced instructors at our fully-equipped boatbuilding workshop in the Lake District.

In addition to the student tuition which you can purchase from this page, you will need to buy the boat kit that you want to build (see below for a list of boats compatible with this five-day course). You are also welcome to bring an assistant to help work on your boat; there is a reduced tuition fee for additional students.

All tools and consumables are provided, as well as all required safety equipment. We will supply disposable dust masks, but we recommend bringing a respirator (and filters) if you have one. You might also prefer to bring your own ear defenders, though our classroom has enough to go around. We will also provide safety glasses, protective gloves and disposable coveralls.

You can bring some of your own tools if you prefer, such as a block plane, cordless drill and a small hand saw, but all of these are provided in our classroom.

The class starts at 8am each day and finishes between 5 and 6 in the evening, with an hour off for lunch. Some days might run longer, particularly the Tuesday (hull assembly day).

If you lack the space and tools (or motivation) to complete your boat at home, you can also hire a place in our workshop for the week after the course. We recommend that you get in touch with us before booking, to check availability and discuss what you hope to achieve in the time.

If you have any more questions about our courses, please see our Courses FAQ or contact us.

Choosing your boat

You must purchase your boat kit at the same time as you pay for the tuition, so that we have time to manufacture it before the start of the course. At the checkout, please choose the option to collect your order from our premises and it will be waiting for you on the first day of the course (we'll post you the construction manual in advance, so you can arrive prepared to make the most of the course).

Not all of our boat kits can be built in a five-day course, therefore we can only accept the following boats on this course:

• Canoes, kayaks and SUPs:
  • Canadian canoe
  • Chesapeake 14, 16LT, 16, 17LT, 17 or 18
  • Chesapeake Double or Chesapeake Triple
  • Ganymede
  • Io
  • Kaholo SUP 12 or 14
  • Matunuck
  • Mill Creek 13
  • Mill Creek 16.5
  • Mill Creek 16.5 Hybrid *
  • Sailing Outriggers – floats, beams and mast, but not the main hull
  • Sassafras 12
  • Sassafras 16
  • Shearwater 14, 16 or 17
  • Shearwater Hybrid 14, 16 or 17 *
  • Shearwater Sport
  • Shearwater Sport Hybrid *
  • Shearwater Sport Sectional
  • Sport Tandem
  • Wood Duckling
  • Wood Duck 10, 12 or 14
  • Wood Duck Hybrid 10, 12 or 14 *
  • Wood Duck Double
• Rowing and sailing** boats:
  • Dinky Dory
  • Eastport Pram
  • Nesting Eastport Pram
  • Eastport Ultralight Dinghy
  • Elterwater Pram
  • Northeaster Dory
  • Oz Goose
  • PassageMaker
  • PassageMaker Take-Apart
  • Skerry
  • Skiff
  • Stem Dinghy
  • Wherry
  • Tandem Wherry
  • Cradle Boat

* The listed hybrid (wood-strip decked) boats may be built on the 5-day course but there will only be time to complete the hull, leaving the deck to be built afterwards. We recommend booking one of our 10-day courses instead, to get the deck built.

** For the sailing boats, there will not be time in the five-day course to make spars, rudders or other sailing parts, but these can be added to the completed hull afterwards.