An Interview With a Boatbuilder

by Manisha Aggarwal-Schifellite

Boatbuilding is a compelling combination of engineering, skill trade, and art. It’s a craft that encompasses metalwork, carpentry, plumbing, and many other construction trades. It takes precision and large-scale planning, from a small canoe to a cargo freighter. In the United States, there are a few organizations dedicated to boatbuilders, including the American Boat Builders & Repairers Association and the American Boatbuilders Association.

Brendan Page is a boatbuilder who lives in Connecticut. He spoke to me about the boating industry, his non-traditional education, and how to build a Tiny Home.

What kind of boatbuilding do you do?
With boat building, there are a bunch of different types of construction. Basically, I’m trained in wooden composites, which means I build with a lot of native lumber and a lot of glue. Wood composites are usually pleasure boats. Also, I can do interior systems like refrigeration, toilets, water, whatever. Building [exterior and interior] systems usually go together.

What are some of the other types?
There are hi-tech composites, which is a lot of carbon fiber and Kevlar. It’s kind of new age boat building, a lot of aerospace stuff. They build blades for wind turbines and things like that. There is also metal, which is aluminum, like cruise ships and freighters.

Where did you study boatbuilding?
I studied at The Landing School of Boatbuilding in Kennebunkport, Maine. I did it in 2008. The program is one year, but you can stay for up to six. They have six different courses, but I did just did the one year. I found out about it through online research, and talking with other people who had graduated via email. There were schools all over the country, but I just ended up in Maine.

The school provided a lot of the certification that we have to get, and so when you graduate with those you look more attractive to employers. They also set up job fairs and let you tour different facilities in Maine and Rhode Island, to give you a sense of what goes on there. They also regiment the school to be a regular workday. You work a lot with time and materials and customer budgets in mind, so they really train you ahead of time for when you first walk into the real working world.

Did you have people around you who had done something like that?
No, it was more of a non-traditional path. At the time it was an easy decision, because I didn’t want anything to do with traditional school. I really liked boats, so at the time it seemed like a good idea. Anyone who hears that I learned boat building thinks it’s really cool, but from this side of it, it’s not that cool. But at the same time, it was just different. The school really marketed itself well and they had a good infrastructure set up around the school. It wasn’t really like campus living. We were all responsible for our own housing and stuff, so any free time we had, we wanted to spend it at the school. You weren’t distracted by the opposite sex or anything. Everyone there really enjoyed it, so it was more like a family. There were only forty students per program.

Looking back on it, are you happy with the decision?
I’m very happy with the decision I made for school. I still work in the marine industry, but I run a marina. We have about 200 boats that we store, service, paint. Basically I’m still in the boating industry, but it’s less woodworking and more taking care of existing boats. A lot of management, customer relations work. The company I work for manages 26 marinas from Maine to South Carolina. The bigger company has about 600 employees. I have 8 in my crew, but we all work together.

After you graduate from the school, the options are basically working for a marina or working for a manufacturing company. I started working at a local wooden boat restoration marina, where they would take boats from the 1930s that were all banged up and we would fully restore them. With the downturn in the economy, [the marina] started focusing on people with fiberglass boats who wanted them maintained and the restoration work dried up. So I transferred to a bigger company and that’s where I am now.

Is restoring an old boat more expensive?
[Restoring a wooden boat] takes a lot more money and time than a fiberglass boat. They say you’re supposed to put 15% of what you paid for the boat back into it every year, so if you’re buying a boat for $300,000, that’s a lot of money to put back into it. And the wooden ones are generally more expensive.

Do you have any plans to go back to school?
I’m constantly taking courses to update my certification. Just like in the car industry, there are standards, so I constantly have to update things like my electrical skills. There’s also a lot of new environmental stuff in boating, so I’m doing that. We’re constantly going back to school for that. But in the future, I don’t really know what I’m going to do. I’d like to go back to the wooden boat, because the economy is getting better. We’re seeing more and more of those people come back.

Would you want to open your own business one day?
Running a marina has been a great gateway into learning the business and meeting great contacts. As I continue to grow and expand my outlook on the industry if the right opportunity presented itself I would be inclined to do so. It’s kind of this American Dream thing, to go into business for yourself. I’ve got some more planning to do, whether I want to do something big or something small. I’m not sure yet, I’m waiting for the “aha” moment.

Does your boat-building education influence other projects that you do?
My life is full of projects. I bought a house a couple of years ago that I’ve been fixing up, and I also bought an old van that I’ve been restoring with my girlfriend. We might turn it into a Tiny Home. It’s all wood-paneled with reclaimed barn wood and it’s got hardwood floors. We’re going to do some road tripping in it. I’ve made a lot of contacts with people in the boating industry, so I know a lot of people with a lot of crap that I can use. I can also approach problems in my projects differently than if I didn’t know boat-building. Working on things that are mechanical, that other people can’t see, requires a non-traditional approach.

Any advice for people who are a little nervous about boating like me?
If someone’s really thinking of going into boating, they should talk to someone in the industry. A lot of people like me want to help others get out there and enjoy it. They shouldn’t be afraid. It’s a lot of fun and you make a lot of good memories. I have friends all over the world who started out boatbuilding and are now building boats in the Mediterranean, or in China. It can take you anywhere.

Manisha Aggarwal-Schifellite writes and edits in Toronto.

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