Tony Grove
The Yacht Joinery course will be taught by Pat Mahon and Tony Grove. After completing a four-year boatbuilding apprenticeship that started in 1980, Tony honed his skills as a shipwright, specializing in wooden boat restoration/construction, boat interiors and custom furniture design. This chain of experience led him to leave the city of Vancouver BC, and in 1999 start instructing at the Silva Bay Shipyard School on Gabriola Island. Tony taught traditional Boatbuilding plus a course he designed on Ship Cabinetry/Joinery. Tony eventually became the school’s head instructor. Tony left the school in 2005 to spend time with his family and is now working for himself as a custom woodworker, boat builder, artist, writer and part time instructor. For more information on Tony please visit www.tonygrove.com.
David Nichols
We are proud to have David Nichols as our guest instructor for our summer Visiting Boat Builder Series here at the Great Lakes Boat Building School. An experienced teacher, David has been designing and building boats for over fifteen years, and when he isn’t building or designing boats for other people you’ll find him using the boats he’s designed and built for himself. A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, he has written for a number of boat building magazines like Wooden Boat and Boatbuilder. David has also written and produced several boat building videos and is the author of two books, A Working Guide to Small Boat Sails and Lapstrake Canoes. For more information on David please visit www.arrowheadboats.com.
Josh Swan
The Repair and Restoration course will be taught by Josh Swan. A native of
Wisconsin, Josh graduated from the International Yacht Restoration School in
Rhode Island followed by two seasons as “boat builder in residence” at the
Adirondack Museum in New York where he headed up its public boat building
program. In the Fall of 2006 he received a grant from the Center for Wooden
Boats, in Seattle Washington, that allowed him to travel to Norheimsund,
Norway to spend six weeks at the Hardanger Fartoyvernsenter, a dynamic
waterfront boatyard focusing on keeping alive the relationship between a
village and its place on the water. Josh now heads up his own boat
restoration company in Ashland, Wisconsin. For more information on Josh please visit www.jwswanboatworks.com.
