Maritime students restore old tug

Dean Wong/staff
Melissa Tislow (left) uses a crow bar to pry off strips of iron bark from the tugboat Cadet.

By Dean Wong
NEWS-TRIBUNE

With their boom box on a work bench and CD’s ready to play, a group of Ballard High School students were busy with hammers, crow bars and drills as the stripped off old layers of wood from the tugboat Cadet last Saturday at Northwest Seaport.

The students are all enrolled in the Ballard High School Maritime Academy. which operates under the umbrella of the Youth Maritime Training Association (YMTA), a non-profit group. Working with Northwest Seaport, they hope to have the boat completely restored by the end of 2003.

During their lunch break the students, YMTA and Northwest Seaport held a short ceremony to celebrate their partnership.

The partnership will greatly benefit the Ballard High School Maritime Academy, now in its second year. The academy has 50 freshman and sophomore students studying in a four-year program.

Norman Manly , the president of YMTA, came up with the idea of starting an organization to teach kids about the maritime industry and to prepare them for the many job opportunities in the field in 1996. Both YMTA and Northwest Seaport are non-profit organizations.

The Cadet, a 34-foot boat, was built in Canada in the 1950s. The McIntosh Foundation donated it to the YMTA, and is also paying for the Cadet’s restoration costs.

Students and other volunteers are working under the direction Bill White, Northwest Seaport’s Shipwright.

“This is fantastic. This is a dream come true for me. I’ve wanted to put together a program to give these kids a different idea of the world, “ says White. “They’re not all going to be computer geeks, there are other things in the world. The kids love it. They’re having a great time.”

“We’re learning how to rebuild a boat and how complicated it is,” says Sandra Tislow, working beside her sister Melissa. Both are contemplating maritime careers .

“I was interested in the maritime industry and I wanted to learn more about it. I want to be an interior designer of yachts. I really like it,” says sophomore Gavin Conklin.

Northwest Seaport has plenty of experience and expertise to pass on to the young people. The company is also restoring the Arthur Foss, Swiftsure, Twilight and the historic Wawona ship at their facility on the south end of Lake Union.

Northwest Seaport will show the students how to repair boats and give them the tools to do it also, says their teacher John Foster.

“The kids are really excited. There are not enough opportunities to work with their hands. They get to see how its put together,” Foster says.

The ship’s wheelhouse has been removed and is in storage in the student’s Ballard classroom. Plans call for the wheelhouse to be lengthened to provide more room to look at charts and provide seating for ten people.

Students will also learn how to replace the engine, add new fuel tanks, hydraulic steering and wiring.
Foster says the goal is to have the boat finished and back in the water by the end of the year. He would like to have it on display at the Port Townsend Wooden Boats Festival in the fall, but that may be too ambitious a goal.

When the Cadet is finished, it will be available for the Ballard Maritime Academy’s use, as well as being used by other groups for educational purposes.

The class is also building a 17-foot touring style three-person sea kayak from a kit. The kayak will be auctioned off as a fund-raiser for the academy. Foster hopes to see the class build a kayak every year.

The Ballard High School Maritime Academy also teaches students about marine physical science, the maritime industry, marine biology, maritime skills, marine chemistry, as well as physics and zoology. The senior class learns about oceanography and coastal ecology.

“We provide guest speakers to educate kids on what’s out there,” says Foster.

After their junior year, students can do internships with local companies. Students from other high schools can also come down and help work on the boat while earning community service credits needed for graduation.

The maritime industry has difficulty finding qualified people to apply for jobs. New rules and regulations world wide are making it harder for people to obtain entry level positions in the industry. “There’s definitely a shortage of skilled labor in boat repairs and ship yard trades. It will only get worse in the next few years,” says Manly.

The YMTA program exposes kids to boats early so they can decide if they want to make it a career. “They will be our future workforce. The maritime industry is vital to this area and the country,” says Manly.

When Foster drives over the Ballard Bridge each day, he sees all the ship related businesses lining the canal. “There are still a lot of jobs for shipwrights that do wood work,” says Foster.

“There are opportunities for students all over the region to get involved in wooden boat repair and the maritime industry,” says Manly.

The Ballard High School Maritime Academy will take part in the Maritime Career Day 2003 at the Odyssey Maritime Discovery Center on February 13.