Youth Program Dory Build.

May 04, 2009

Eric Seepa of Classic Boat Restoration in Orillia is the father of two grown children, this is a great resume for someone to run our youth program. The ACBS was pleased when he volunteered to look after this program. He has been a great addition with his energy and new ideals. To his credit, Eric and his family for the past few years have been busy in the shop building parts for the kids to build toy boats at the boat show. Last boat show he started the card board boat building. This event was a great success with all the kids building boats and racing them in front of the crowds which gathered in large numbers to watch the event. After the success of that event an idea formed in the head of our youth program chair. Eric wanted to inspire the youth by building a real boat. This has been tried in the past and we found that it took too long and the young builders would lose interest. So Eric sent out to find a boat easier to build. During his search he discussed his idea with Steve Killing. Steve has been a great friend to the ACBS and has designed many new classic boats for the builders in Ontario. Steve and his son David liked the idea and took it upon them selves to design the boat. The Killings and Eric had several meetings and discussion before the completed design was finalized. The CNC patterns for the New Dory Project were delivered to Erics shop to build the first boat. Eric cut out all the parts using a router and bandsaw. There are nine parts to the boat. All these parts well be cut out and be at the show ready to assemble. This boat is built using all marine grade okoume plywood. Using a jig to hold the boat, the boat is assembled with bronze nails and Sikaflex. Eric found that the building time for most will be less than two hours. We will have ten stations set up at the show, as well as certified dory builders to oversee the parent and child (10years & older) teams building the boats to ease the intimidation of the project. It will be lots of fun, so come out and have a blast building one! There will be 10 dory kits for this years boat show. There is a nominal cost of $20 to build this boat to cover the extra costs. So for the lucky few to signup they will have a really great memory to cherish for many years to come. We would like to thank Eric Seepa for his idea and his time cutting out the boats and providing such a great event and experience at this years boat show. A great big thanks to Steve and David Killing for taking the time to design the boat and provide the patterns. Noahs Marine in Etobicoke also needs to be thanked as they donated the plywood for the sides and bottom. And lastly thanks to Dwight Boyd who found some 5/8 plywood for the thicker parts.