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| Huon Kelly, March 2006 Wooden Boat Centre Tasmania |
I’m a Maritimer and I love the ocean. I love boats, canoes, the smell of salt air. I lived for a while on a boat in the BC Gulf Islands surrounded by water, boat builders and sailors.
I have learned to follow my dreams and in 2006 I graduated with a Level V Diploma in Traditional Wooden Boatbuilding from The Wooden Boat Centre Tasmania (Australia).
My class built the Huon Kelly, a 32’ ocean-going sailboat designed by Lyle Hess.
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The brigantine Soren Larsen painted by Yasmina |
I was a ship’s carpenter on the tall ship Soren Larsen out of Auckland, New Zealand. I returned to The Wooden Boat Centre Tasmania under contract to help finish a 32’ motor sailor and stayed on as a commercial builder.
In Wellington, New Zealand I worked at Murton’s Timber Craft - www.murtons.co.nz/ - doing small boat repairs, rebuilds and restorations. We worked on clinker dinghies, plywood sail boats and mahogany runabouts.
In 2008, I went home to Nova Scotia. But even though boat building is part of our traditional East Coast heritage, boat building opportunities scarce. But wood is wood. I put up a shingle as a custom interior carpenter.
In the summers, I learned cedar canvas canoe building and restoration methods from two prominent builders in Peterborough and Parry Sound, Ontario.
I now live in Midland in the Georgian Bay region of Ontario. Tasman Wood and Boats is my new company.
