Wooden Boat School April-July Classes

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE          

PR Contact: Kirsty Gaukel, Press & Marketing Manager
Program Inquiries: Kerry Gallagher, Director of Education ​

Wooden Boat School at the Hudson River Maritime Museum Announce April - July Class Schedule ​

Kingston, NY (28 March, 2023)– The Hudson River Maritime Museum’s Wooden Boat School is pleased to announce their latest offering of woodworking courses for adults, April through July. Taught by professionals in the field of woodworking and carpentry, the Wooden Boat School offers a variety of introductory and advanced courses for adults interested in expanding their skills in woodworking, boat building, and traditional crafts. Projects include cigar box guitars, porch swings, furniture restoration and skin-on-frame canoes. Registration is now open at www.hrmm.org/adult-classes.html.

The Wooden Boat School’s woodworking programs are perfect for adults who want to work with their hands and learn new skills. Participants will work on-site in the museum’s wood shop to create take-home projects with the help of skilled instructors. Some courses require some woodworking and/or machine tool experience.

For a detailed line-up of the Wooden Boat School’s classes for adults, please see the schedule below:

Sunday, April 16, 10am - 5pm
Build Your Own Cigar Box Guitar
Try your hand at this historic stringed instrument! This small guitar is made with a wooden cigar box as the resonator.

Saturday, April 22
Earth Day - Bat Box Making
9am-12pm & 1pm-4pm
Build your own bat house and learn about the importance of bats in our ecosystem. Hudson River Maritime Museum will be holding two special 3 hour classes on Earth Day. All participants will leave with their own homemade bat house. 

Saturday, May 6, 9am-4pm
Carve a Canoe Paddle
Participants will learn to shape a blade and handle, taking home a completed paddle. 

Saturday, May 13, 6pm–8pm & Sunday, May 14, 11am–3pm
Cheese Slicer & Charcuterie Board
Suitable for beginners and seasoned woodworkers alike, this two-day workshop includes the materials and supplies to create a small cheese cutting board and a larger charcuterie board or cutting board made of different species of wood.

Friday, May 19 & Saturday, May 20, 2023, 9:00am-5:00pm
Introduction to Square Rule Timber Framing
This 2-day course is designed for both beginners and more advanced students wishing to strengthen their skills in building timber frame structures. Participants will learn and assist in the construction of a square rule, post-and-beam timber frame structure on the HRMM campus.

May 20, 10am-5pm
Live Edge Table Build
Build your own live edge table. Students will select locally harvested and kiln dried hardwood, cut, sand and plane, the table then attach legs. Each student will leave with their own coffee table ready for application with their choice of finish. 

May 26 & 27, 9am-5pm
Square Rule Timber Framing 2
This 2-day course is designed for students who took Introduction to Square Rule Timber Framing. Participants will assemble previously cut mortise and tenon joints and join the structural frames and add girts, rafters, and purlins to accomplish a finished building. 

Friday, May 26, 6p-9pm & Saturday, May 27, 10am-4pm
Make Your Own Picture Frame
In this two-day course, learn how to cut, assemble and finish a wall-mounted wooden frame with corner spline joinery rto hold your own photos or art.

Sunday, May 28 & Monday, May 29, 10am - 4pm
Wooden Spoon Carving
Come learn the incredibly satisfying craft of green wood spoon carving. A great introduction to wood technology,  traditional edge tools, and knife grips.

Friday, June 2, 9am - 5pm
Build a Porch Swing
This workshop will include the materials and supplies to build your own porch swing. This will be a one day workshop in which the first day will be cutting your wood, and assembling your porch swing to be ready for mounting hardware.

June 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, & 15, 9am - 5pm
Build Your Own Skin-On-Frame Canoe
Build your own beautiful functional canoe perfect for casual paddlers and beginning boatbuilders alike. Instructor Rich Cerruto leads this unique course on building skin-on-frame double paddle canoes. The canoe will be constructed with a wooden frame and stretched with a nylon "skin". Each student will leave with a completed canoe easily car-topped and ready for the water. 

Wooden Sailboat Restoration Rascal Project
Day 1: Saturday, June 10, 9am - 5pm
Day 2: Wednesday, June 14,  9am - 5pm

The Wooden Boat School is offering two wooden sailboat restoration classes led by Boatright Wayne.  Participants will have the unique opportunity to learn about boat restoration while working on the re-fastening of our 1950’s racing sloop, the Rascal, in the effort to get her out on the water again! Work will include replacing the galvanized screws with copper rivets, extracting the old hardware and plugging the holes with cedar bungs and epoxy. 

Saturday, June 17 & Sunday, June 18, 9am - 5pm
​Build Your Own Adirondack Chair
Build your own custom outdoor chair based on the traditional Adirondack design. In this class students will work with instructor Wayne Ford as they learn to measure, cut and assemble a chair using a pattern. This class is beginner-friendly and minimal woodworking experience is necessary.

Friday, June 30, 6pm - 9pm; Saturday, July 1 & Sunday, July 2, 10am - 4pm
Make Your Own Hinged Box
In this three-day course, participants will learn how to cut and assemble a box with mitered corners and decorative spline joinery. 

Friday, July 7 & Saturday, July 8, 9am - 5pm
Group Boat Build
Designed for families or friends in groups of 2-4 to work together as a team, this 2 day course will lead you from start to finish on building your choice of a 12' Carolina Skiff or a 8' Kingston Pram.

Saturday, July 29 & Sunday, July 30
Furniture Restoration and Repair
10am - 4pm
The perfect course for anyone looking to lovingly restore a small piece of furniture or family heirloom. This two-day workshop will cover methods used to conserve structural and cosmetic details concerning furniture, and guide students in troubleshooting and addressing problems with pieces that the students bring in to restore.

For details about classes and registration , visit the Wooden Boat School online at or call (845) 338-0071. 

The Hudson River Maritime Museum is located along the historic Rondout Creek in downtown Kingston, N.Y. HRMM is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of the maritime history of the Hudson River, its tributaries, and related industries. The Museum opened the Riverport Wooden Boat School in 2016 and the Riverport Sailing School in 2017.