04/25/2006

Students build cedar-strip plank boat based on old blueprints

BY SHERI McWHIRTER

sherimcwhirter@hotmail.com

Record-Eagle/Sheri McWhirter
Dave Waltz, president of the Mason-Griffith Founders Chapter of Trout Unlimited, and the AuSable riverboat.

GRAYLING — Sunlight reflected off varnished cedar as Dave Waltz ran his hand along a particularly special AuSable riverboat.

The 23.5-foot-long craft was on a trailer at his business, Twin Pines Lodge, east of Grayling on the AuSable River. Waltz is president of the Mason-Griffith Founders Chapter of Trout Unlimited, which bought the riverboat for $2,500 after it was built by several local high school students.

"What's unique about the cedar-strip boat is exactly what the name suggests — narrow bands of cedar with overlapping joints," Waltz said.

AuSable riverboats historically were made from pine planks and used for fly-fishing on Michigan's AuSable and Manistee rivers. The boats were first crafted in the 1800s during the lumber boom and used to move supplies along shallow inland rivers.

Later the boats were styled for fishing guides, who used poles to maneuver up and down local rivers and tributary streams.

The boat design is unique to northern Michigan and modern versions are often made with lighter marine plywood, fiberglass and epoxy finishes.

"The boats are narrow — most not 28 inches on the chine, the inside, and about 36 inches wide at the top," Waltz said.

Teacher Terry Dickinson said his alternative education students at Grayling High School worked for nearly a year to create the AuSable riverboat, adorned with cherry accents and hand-painted fly patterns. He and his three students, Travis Isenhauer, Kayla Barnett and Marshall Lobsinger, built the boat using blueprints several decades old, he said.

"It was fun. Something I've always liked doing is making things with wood," said Lobsinger, 20, who started years ago with birdhouses and lamps.

The riverboat will be on display around Grayling this week for the trout season opener on Saturday. On May 20, it will be raffled off at the local TU fundraising dinner.

Waltz said the high school students who built the riverboat will be recognized during the annual event at the Holiday Inn in Grayling.

The boat will be displayed at Grayling's Devereaux Memorial Library on Friday, at Lovells Township Hall on Saturday and on Sunday at Gates AuSable Lodge at Stephans Bridge.

Call (989) 344-9708 for more information.