How my online boatbuilding course works

One of the reasons that I love boatbuilding is because it is an intrinsically tangible, hands-on creative activity. 

So how can it make sense to teach boatbuilding remotely, through a computer screen? 

For me, the big advantage of teaching online is the fact that it allows students to do the work at their own pace and in their own chosen place. 

I would love to be physically present in every student's workshop, but that is of course not possible. So I've tried to design a course that will give an experience that is as close as possible to having a mentor physically present during the boatbuilding process. 

Watch the video above to learn more. 

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Transcript of the video:

I've made this video to answer the basic questions about how my course on building the Fiddlehead canoe works.

The course is divided into two parts. The first part is a nine-week introductory course which consists of nine lessons, one every week. This course takes you through all the basics you will need to have in place before starting the actual build of your boat. We will be setting up your workshop for boatbuilding and we will be sourcing the tools and materials you will need to build your boat. We will be training you in using the tools and techniques, you will need when you're building your boat: Reading boat plans. Doing accurate measuring and marking. Sharpening and using wood cutting tools such as hand planes and hand saws. Joining boat parts together using glues and mechanical fasteners. We'll also go through some basic power tool technique, especially on the setup and use of a band saw.

The second part of the course is the part where you build your Fiddlehead canoe. This part includes nine lessons and takes place over the course of five months. The lessons in this part of the course are spread out at about 3-week intervals. This is to help you keep up with the pace of the course because there is quite a bit more work that needs to be done between the lessons when you are doing the actual build of your boat. Each lesson at the main course will take you through a major step in the construction of your boat: Preparing the structural parts of the boat. Setting up the framework. Planking the boat. Building the decking. Building coaming, stems, and guards. Building the double paddle.

For all the details, you can find a full syllabus and course schedule at the Small Boat School website.

So how do the lessons work?
The lessons will take place via a Zoom video link. I will share the link per email before each lesson. To make it work, you will need a computer, a tablet, or a phone with a broadband internet connection. If you have a webcam too, it's great, so we can see each other during the lesson.

Lessons generally take place on Fridays at 3 PM UTC. I have selected this time to make it accessible to as many time zones across the globe as possible. So if you are in the US, your lesson will be in the morning. And if you are in Australia, your lesson will be in the evening. But don't worry if you are not able to make it. All lessons will be accessible from the website afterward to review whenever suits your schedule best.

Each lesson will take between one and two hours. A key element in every lesson will be video material that I have pre-recorded at my workshop.  In these videos, I will show you in detail how each step in the boatbuilding process is done.

My goal with these instructional videos is to make the process as visual and easy to understand as possible so you can avoid the pitfalls that many first-time boatbuilders tend to fall into. When I built my first boats, I spent so much time making beginner's mistakes. I would love to help you avoid that, so you can get right to the fun, satisfying parts of building your boat.

After we have watched the pre-recorded material, there will be time for questions and discussion regarding today's topic. And then, I will do a round-up of some of the discussions that have been taking place at the Small Boat School forum. But what's the Small Boat Forum??

The Small Boat School forum is, in a sense, the heart of the school. This is the place you can go between the lessons if there is anything regarding your work you need help with. Here's how it works: Whenever you have a question, simply post it to the forum, either using video, photos or text. Then, I will get back to you to help you out, either with written guidance or with a short video.

But the Small Boat School forum is also a social place where you will meet the other students. At the forum, you can share the progress of your build and you can talk boats and boatbuilding with fellow wooden boat lovers.

There's a mobile phone app for the course, which makes it very easy for you to post to the forum and add photos or videos to your posts taken with your phone camera. The app also contains all the instructional material so you can easily access it when you are in the workshop without your computer.

How much time will you need to spend on the course? Well, the course is paced so that if you work around 10 to 15 hours on your project each week, you will likely be able to keep up with the lessons. That said, I really believe that building a boat should be a fun, stressless experience. And everyone works at a different pace, has different levels of experience, and different levels of perfectionism. So if you don't keep pace with the lessons, it's not a problem. You can still take part in the lessons, and then you can review them at a later stage. This actually holds true for everyone - after each lesson is done, you will probably be reviewing - at least parts of it - when you are doing your own build.

What if I sign up and then find out that the course is not for me anyway? That's not a problem. I want you to feel that the course is 100% right for you. If it is not, I will give you a full refund of the registration fee up to 30 days after the course begins.

I hope this video has answered most of your questions. If there is anything else you want to know, please don't hesitate to write me an email, and I'll get back to you as soon as possible.

- Mikkel Pagh