“It’s the town’s DNA, so it really works especially well for Searsport,” says boat building instructor Greg Rossel.
Boat building and sea fairing is the heart of the town’s long history.
High schoolers from Searsport District High School continued that tradition with the launch of three shellback dinghy’s they built themselves.The boat-building class is made possible by Wayne and Lorraine Hamilton.
“Just like math class, you learn a lot more hands on, you’re never bored,” explained 10th grader Cameron Watt.
That hands-on work kept students interested who’d never even thought of boat building.
“It’s pretty interesting actually. You get to build some boats. It’s actually a really hard process. You have to epoxy stuff,” said Rhonda Howard, also a 10th grader.
The idea is to bring together math and science from conventional classes in a real world setting.
“Boat building is a great metaphor for all the classes that they’ve been taking at school, whether it’s math, science, geometry,” Rossel said.
“If we wanted to do this after high school, we could get a job in it because we have some experience,” said Watt.
At the maiden launch there’s always one concern.
“I hope they don’t sink,” said Howard, with a laugh.
Click here to see the video.