That’s because they made it from scratch.
About 25 people stood at the boat ramp at Captain Doug’s Airboat Tours on Friday and watched a group of young boat builders launch Marine 1, the 12-foot, 450-pound Bevin’s Skiff they built at the Everglades fire station, into the warm waters of Lake Placid.
The launch capped a weeklong project for the teens, the first participants in the Collier County Sheriff’s Office’s new Build-A-Boat Youth Program. All of the participants in the pilot program were from the Everglades City area.
The program is open to Collier County teens ages 13 to 17, but is geared toward giving youngsters first-hand experience in woodworking and boat-building and job skills that will stay with them the rest of their lives.
The overall goal is not just to build a boat. The program also aims to build pride among participants and positive relationships between the teens and CCSO.“The boat is actually a kind of metaphor for you can do anything with teamwork; that if you put 10 interested people together and you spend some time and you make a plan and you have a goal, that by the end of the week you can accomplish that goal,’’ said Lt Harold Minch of CCSO’s Special Operations, who oversaw the construction of the boat each day. “ I think this is exactly what we were looking for in this program.”
Ten teens, guided by deputies and local marine industry representatives, worked on the boat every day since Monday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the community room next to the fire station. They measured. They hammered. They drilled. They sanded. They painted.
On Friday they launched.
Participants said it was rewarding to see the boat take shape and, ultimately, take to the water and do what it’s supposed to do.
“We started off with it in a kit and then step by step we had to build a floor, then seats and then a deck,” said participant Tyler Pasiek.
In addition to building a boat, the teens learned about boating safety.
Each day during lunch deputies from CCSO’s Marine Unit presented a safe boating course for the teens. The teens can now take the test for a boating safety education card, which is required for anyone younger than 21 in order to operate a boat in Florida.
While the program was launched in Everglades City, CCSO’s goal is to construct three of these boats over several weeks at various locations around Collier County next summer. The hope is to make it an annual program in a continuing partnership with the Marine Industries Association of Collier County Foundation, which sponsored the pilot program and picked up the cost. Graduates will be program mentors in future years.
Additional sponsors were Gina’s Café in the Park, Seafood Depot, Naples Harbor and Yacht Club, Hamilton Harbor Yacht Club, and America Marine and Fuel, which all supplied lunches for the kids and deputies.
This year’s boat will be donated to CCSO’s Junior Deputy Camp for use in youth programs.
Organizers hoped the boat-building experience would help the teens build character and confidence, as well.
“They enjoyed it, we have too. We’re going to do it again,” said Cpl. Steve Loyd of CCSO’s Youth Relations Bureau.
Click here to watch the video of the teens building and launching their hand-built boat.
Participants in CCSO's Build-A-Boat Youth Program prepare to launch Marine 1, the wooden row boat that they made from scratch, in Everglades City on Friday. From left: Lt. Harold Minch, John Carter, Dylan Lucas, Wesley Sylvest, Patrick Ridgway, Kyle Loyd, Reagan Richardson, Payton Beebe, Tyler Pasiek, and Cpl. Steve Loyd. Not shown: participants Linzy Fails and Louis Daniels. Photo by Cpl. Efrain Hernandez/CCSO
