Iqyax/Qayaq Building Classes

Our boatbuilding workshops come in a variety of formats to suit the needs of the participants. Three basic types of class are:

1) The intensive six-day class in which we will all work long days, living, breathing, and dreaming skin boats until the final day when we will launch the new fleet. It's pleasantly exhausting.

2) Weekend and evening classes with the aim of making boatbuilding accessible to those unable to take a solid week away from work or school.

3) Open-ended "by-the-hour" instruction, scheduled at the participant's convenience. Pay as you go.

Price

Any way you choose to do it, we will see you through the journey and send you off with your beautiful new qayaq.
$1400.00 includes instruction and all materials.

Class Locations

We hold boatbuilding workshops in a few different locations, ranging from our shop near the waterfront in Bellingham, Washington to shop facilities on the “Lost Coast” of California in Ferndale and in West Marin County in California's Bay Area. We also hold retreat-like workshops on a remote and pristine waterfront location on Lummi Island, near Bellingham.
We will gladly tailor a class to your group and bring it to your site if you'd like. All we'll need is a location and at least five students. Be creative! Let us know what kind of class you would like and we'll do our best to accommodate.

What to expect

No previous woodworking experience is necessary. You'll have it when you leave! Our boatbuilding workshops usually begin with a discussion of skin boat building and Native qayaq designs, and with the showing of video footage of some of our projects in the Native villages of Alaska. I will guide each student in determining the type of handling characteristics they would like to build into their boat, and we'll discuss how to go about achieving those qualities. We’ll take measurements off of each person's body for tailor-fitting their boat, and then the building will begin in earnest. Work will be of the quiet type, using only simple hand tools, and participants will be able to comfortably chat, drink coffee or tea, and listen to music as their hands go through the motions. Meanwhile, I will be wearing paths around the shop as I make myself available to answer questions and to lend a hand.
On the final day we will carry the boats down to the shore to try them out, and I will offer instruction in safety and technique. If time and weather allow, we may want to go for a short paddling excursion before everyone loads his or her new qayaq onto the car for the trip home (shipment can also be arranged).
Being on the water, and becoming essentially a marine animal in a sophisticated, high performance qayaq that you've built with your own hands is a truly empowering experience. Helping to provide that experience is a joy for me.

Specialty Classes

In addition to our general participant classes we offer specialized classes that cater to:

*Groups of children and Children working together with their parents or grandparents. I can't recommend these enough, as I know personally how much fun it has been to build boats with my own daughter, as well as how valuable it has been to our relationship.
I have taught skin boat building at the high school level in Alaska for three years, and welcome opportunities to continue that involvement with schools everywhere. I believe that every child and teen should have access to boatbuilding.

*People with lower body disabilities. I'm very interested in putting together workshops aimed at making boatbuilding and paddling accessible to people with disabilities that limit their activities to those involving the upper body. The boatbuilding aspect of this could certainly be done, and I have some qayaq design ideas for making the sport of paddling possible, safe and convenient for the physically challenged. Skin-over-frame qayaqs are ultra-light and can be conformed in almost any way imaginable to meet specific requirements. I welcome your advice on this subject and am eager to hear your input.

*Japanese-speaking students. My daughter, Hana, speaks Japanese fluently and speaks “skin boat”, as well. I would love to have the chance to co-teach a class with her, and to share our part of the world with Nihon-jin guests.

*Singles. Might as well meet someone who shares your qayaq/wooden boat affliction and has a refined aesthetic sense!

*Or if you’ve already met that person…we offer “couples classes”. Build a double (two hole) qayaq together for a cost of $1780.00 or build two singles for $1380.00 each. What could symbolize unity more than paddling in tandem in a double qayaq that you’ve built together; choosing your course; doubling your vessel’s horsepower; one pulling harder when the other grows tired? …Hmm…Maybe this class would be an ideal wedding gift. (It is perfectly fine for couples to work together on a qayaq during any of our classes)

Please call or e-mail for schedule and prices.
(415) 868-1488