Don’t Panic.
The old site format broke somehow and the sidebar stopped showing up. Actually it’s now down at the bottom of the page. A team of crack technicians are on the job, but the upshot may be a new look for the site. Who knows? Film at 11.
Later…
See? All is well. I found some extra html formatting tags that had been inserted in a recent post that caused the problems. Along the way I was fortunate to have had the help of some actual crack technicians from the Wordpress community who not only helped me figure this out, but gave me some good pointers on how to make this site load a little faster and be less likely to have problems in the future.
The digital community is an amazing place. It reminds me of a Mr. Rogers quote:
When I was a boy and I’d see something bad on tv, my mother would always tell me to “look for the helpers, there are always people helping.” And I found out that it’s true. It’s one of the best things about this wonderful world of ours.
March 6th, 2007 at 12:29 am
Hi, Tom.
What a very nice blog. I don’t know much about shipbuilding, but enjoyed a number of your articles.
Good luck with everything.
March 6th, 2007 at 6:55 am
Thanks Dom, and thanks for the suggestions about fixing the html as well!
October 14th, 2007 at 8:31 am
Tom Daniels, I was in Madison last week. I am a social worker (Rockford). Done kids for 30+ years and now want to be a boat builder. Been backsmith and windsor chair and period tool maker for the same time. Can I do week/s classes at your outfit? Paul
October 15th, 2007 at 4:55 am
Hi Paul,
So far IYRS doesn’t offer much in the way of short term building classes. They have had a grad come in and do a sort of “introduction to boat building” thing in the past, but I don’t think it’s regular. If your time is limited, I’d recommend getting a couple of good books, a set of plans for a small boat, and whip up something in your garage for a year. The techniques for building a small boat are essentially the same as building a large boat. John Gardner’s book “Building Classic Small Craft” is a great place to start as far as free plans for interesting boats goes. Of course there’s all kinds of online resources from people who are building boats and have put stuff online detailing their efforts. I’ve found the net to be an excellent source of information and encouragement from other builders.
I think there’s also a boat school in Michigan somewhere, but I can’t recall off the top of my head.
If you start with a small boat, you could actually use that as your calling card if you want to get hired by a boat shop (put it on a trailer and take it to your interview!). Last I checked, the only shop doing wooden boat stuff in Madison was Brightworks Boats. There was a place in Milwaukee called Chelsea Boat Works, but they went under recently.