Ever make something in wood shop that looked like this?

Ryan Speck, a Park Center senior, started working on a project in his junior year. Most average wood shoppers make a TV stand or a table of some sort. Ryan decided to build a canoe.

You might ask how he got started on such a big and pricey project. Through a generous donation by Ed Bodei, a teacher at Hennepin Technical College, Ryan was able to get all the materials needed for a canoe. If you were to go out and buy all the materials needed, the total cost would come close to $1200 dollars.

Ryan needed some help along the way, as most people would when learning how to do something. He sought out advice from Mr. Dave Moran, the woodshop teacher at Park Center, who helped him get motivated. Ryan also had help from Mr. Greg Kapitzke, a former teacher at Park Center. When it came time to seal the canoe, Ryan's friends Taylor and Jake helped with the fiberglass.

It was a long process of using saws, fiberglass, epoxy, forms, and glue to make a canoe eighteen feet long, taking over two hundred hours of work over parts of 2 school years. He used epoxy, along with the fiberglass, to ensure that it will float. This process was the most difficult because he needed to put on the fiberglass all at one time. So think about taking a 25 ft long piece of fiberglass and wrapping it around a round object. Almost impossible for 1 person to handle and that’s where his friends and teachers came in. He used rib forms to give shape to the canoe. The forms helped him get the wood to bend into the shape that he wanted, and he used a gallon and a half of glue to keep all the cedar and ash wood in place. The canoe can fit up to three people at one time and can hold about 800 pounds.

Although he hasn’t tested it to make sure it floats, he assured me that it will. He will be testing it the weekend of March 24th on Minnesota's Rum River.

Now you might ask yourself why anyone would want to build a canoe. Although someone can sell a canoe like Ryan's for about $4500 dollars, he plans on taking the canoe up to the Boundary Waters and go fishing with his friends instead of selling it. It would be safe to say he has plans on using his project a lot this summer, being a fishing fellow.

Since his days here at Park Center are numbered Ryan needs to plan what he is going to do after high school. He plans on attending Hennepin Technical College where he will take classes related to construction engineering, his eventual career choice. My guess is that his wood shop project will hold memories for him long into his career. As Ryan says, "Hard work pays off!"