This is Tony, master boatbuilder at the Wooden Boat Builder Museum in Twillingate. He uses traditional methods to build one boat each season, and gives demonstrations to visitors.
That those wooden planks can be made into something seaworthy when I can't squeeze my fingers together tightly enough to keep a handful of water from leaking away fascinated me. Boatbuilding is an art as well as a craft -- the woods for those ribs are selected so the grain arcs into the right shape; the long planks are planed into perfect curves. And hemp soaked in tar is jammed into every crevice and somehow that makes it watertight.
The masterpieces Tony creates are raffled off to benefit the museum. I was so impressed and inspired that I almost bought a ticket, but realized there was no way I could get that boat up the stairs to my apartment.
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