Boat
Night
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|
Boatbuilder Jon Bielinski |
Every
Tuesday evening from 6 pm to 9 pm, volunteers gather
in the Dolphin Club boathouse to hammer, sand and varnish
under the guidance of boatbuilder Jon Bielinski. Boatnight
was established by Jon in 1984.
Before
that, the club hired a boatbuilder every 40 years or
so to repair the boats. In the 50s, it was Bill Richards
who used to be a ship carpenter on a square rigger.
After
Bill fixed all the boats and there was no more work to
do, he left and the boats slowly fell into disrepair
again. When Jon began his work in 1983, the fleet was
in bad shape and he realized it was because the clubmembers
didn't know how to take care of the boats. And so boatnight
was born.
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|
Boatnight
participants |
The
biggest ongoing project has been the rebuilding of the "John
Wieland", much of it accomplished during Tuesday
nights. Mostly, though, there are smaller projects, like
scraping, sanding and revarnishing. New sleeves are put
on oars and there are chips and cracks to be repaired.
There is lots of work for everyone who cares to participate,
from entry level to fine woodworking and everything in
between, and if you come to enough boatnights, you learn
to build a whole boat. |
