Building a Boat Together From l,lathan Post (VI'):
Dad and I built a sailboat together. I cotrld nclt. have managed to do this project by myself and Dacl woltld not have chosen to do it by himself. Btrt it was a great project for us to do tosether. We chose the design and constructed it as a team. It started rvhen, in the fall of '92, Mom's fiiencl, Brandon, asked me if I wantecl to build a sailboat. I said yes. He drew up plans for me. Dad ancl I looked over the plans together. We got enthusiastic about building ourselves a sailboat; however, Brandon's design wasn't right for us. We went to the libraries in our area :rnd checkecl out a couple of books on br.rilding sailbozrts. We f ound one book that had plans for a l4-foot mini skipjack, ancl we decided to use this onc. The plan had a plywood nrdder and an optional daggerboard. The boat was to be plyrvood with aspen stringers and a keel. She would be l2 f'eet lons with a 2foot bowsprit. The plans had a lanteen rig54ing (a one-sail rig), but rve decided to btrild her with a skrop rig, which has two sails: a-jib and a mainsail. We began constnlction in March of''93. To start, lve clrt out and shapecl the keel and stem. Dacl showed me how to use the tools and tosether we made the necessarry parts. Next came the bottom, fbre ar-rd afi clecks, bulkheads and stringers. As everything came together, we rnade the sides, mast. ancl b<lwsprit. We came across some problerns with the plzrns, thotrgh. The side panels clicln't fit right. Together we figured out a better rvay' of making thern. We were discotrraged that the plans weren't drawn risht, but it was satisfying to get a good result any"lva,v. We also designed and btrilt ollr own oars. We finished up with the rudcler, whicl'r we made out of plyr,vood. We named our boat Song Thrush. At last, we painted her and made the sails. My brother Brian helpecl paint l-rer. He painted a country scene on each side. We made the sails from blue rip stop nylon. Mom showecl Dacl how to sew the seams and he sewed them on the sewing machine. Then we put in the grommets together (grommets are
fabric hole reinforcements). By the time we got Song Thnrsh readv to sail, it was September. She was very stable. By the seconcl time sailing we had decided that we needed a daggerboard. Also, the rudder was not holding up very well. We br.rilt the new rtrdder and daggerboard out of fiberglass board instead of ply,rvood. There haven't been any problems since and she handles a lot better with the daggerboarcl. We want to make longer oars but haven't gotten around to it. Sometimes it is hard for rne to work with an adult, btrt it isn't really any different from working with kicls. It is difficult if one of us is trying to take too mtrch of the.job away from the other one, if we are not cornmunicating well, or if we are not listening to the other's ideas. Dad ancl
Gpowtr.*c Wt-luour S<:uo<-lr.rxr;
#l l0 . Apn./Mrv 1996
Nathan nnd
his
father worhing on Song Thrush.
rve sail her together. This reallv special experience, ancl I would like to do another pro.ject with Dacl sometime.
I btrilt Song Thnrsh together aud hzrs beer.r a
Teaching Chemistry at the Library I;rorn Andrea Quanurino (PA):
I began to volunteer at the local library during the vear I rvas 14. I would work one ftrll clay a week the re and do zrny kincl of extra work that needecl to be done. I enjoyed it and got along well with the librarians. It turned out to be a reallv nice experience fbr me. Afier I had been voltrnteerinq there for about a year, it became the clistrict's trlrn to host the Science in the Strr-nrner program at the library. Science in the Surnmer is a program gearecl fbr yotrnger kids in which scientists conle to the library ancl teach a weekJong corlrse on a eiven topic. That year's topic happened to be chemistry, and since it was the first time that the library had hosted the chemistry courses, it was a completely new experience
fbr everyone. One of'the librarians I was particr.rlarly close to was a woman named Ruth, and she asked me if I would like to work with her on the chemistry corlrse that year. It sounded like a ftrn pr<rject, so I agreed. I was at the library every day for five days that week, helping to set up the classroom, working with Ruth to assist the scientist in teaching the children about chemistry, and cleaning up after the class was over. The class about dry ice