The Winter Work shop was once again a great event. For those who like to do restorations your self, this is the place to be. This year the event was held at Clarion Boat shop in Campbellford. Campbellford sits next to the Trent Severn Waterway its ½ hr north of the 401 and south east on Peterborough. The shop is owned by a dynamic and outstanding boat builder, Dwight Boyd. Dwight has been in business here for over 20 years. He's always been available to help our club and its members. Dwight also helped our new Director Gary Getson organize this event. Together the two of them pulled off an impressive day full of information and entertainment.
Arriving at the site you see two buildings that are the shops of Clarion. The first is used for the construction of the boats and the second building for the finishing. A stage and chairs were set up in building A. Prior to the events we were able to freely walk the shop and see all the boats that are stored and being worked on. Getting warm from being outside on this very cold and windy day we had coffee and some of the little doughnut bits, while our host Dwight started things off by talking about abrasives. Yes abrasives! How can this be entertaining... you get Dwight to present it. He told us how to use it and where to get it.
Next up were Pam and Dan Truax from "Ship 'n' Shore Canvas". They presented the care and feeding of your marine fabrics including cleaning of seats, tops, mooring covers. They also informed us about the right products to use in the right application.
We broke for lunch and found a catered affair with salads, buns, chili and desert bars. We also had a chance to purchase some books, posters, glasses, and clothing from our ship stores, set up by our vice president Sally Ann. She does a great job with supplying a great choice of articles, this keeps her very busy and she welcomes members who would like to volunteer their time.
After lunch Stan Hunter, (boat builder from Port Carling) now a retired director of our club and the organizer of many work shops over the years, gave us a talk on oars. Stan had many examples of locks and oars and showed us how to make our own, for your classic row boat.
The final speaker was Steve Killing, naval architect. Steve has designed many of the new wooden power boats we see today. All of Clarion boats are a Killing design. Steve spoke to us on how the design of the running surface affects performance and what constitutes a good design. With his slides and knowledge he made for a very educational presentation.
We would like to thank all our experts for giving their time, they make this event possible. Also a special Thanks to Gary Getson for taking the time to run the event. Thanks to Ruth and Harry Sutton for collecting all the mail and keep track of the registrants. With out the location provided by Dwight the event could not have been held. Thanks for closing up the shop and allowing us to visit.
See more Photos in the Photo album section (winter workshops) | 
