Chuck Leinweber has been in touch to say that his friend David Nichols has decided to concentrate on offering real-time interactive internet boat building instruction – this is instead of travelling long distances to teach at places like the WoodenBoat school and the Great Lakes School of Boat Building. (Chuck is a Texan pal who runs the excellent and long-established online Duckworks Magazine and Duckworks Boatbuilders Supply.)
David is to work with the Lake District-based boat and surfboard kit supplier Fyne Boats – the students are expected to be mostly in the UK, while he webcasts from his home in Texas.
Students have a computer with a webcam next to their boat so that David can give one-on-one help when needed, just as in a real classroom.
David brings decades of boat building experience to bear and will guide and instruct boat builders as they work on their boats in their own home or other premises – many people in the USA have learnt to build boats from David Nichols, both online and offline, and from his range of books.
Chuck tells me he thinks the advantages of the approach are tremendous and probably not fully understood yet.
The first boatbuilding course will be for stitch-and-glue boats only (most of our kits use the stitch-and-glue construction method). The 9-day course will run from Saturday 10th to Sunday 18th May 2014.
Read all about the new courses here.