LUNENBURG - It's a building that's launched literally hundreds of ships, including the original Bluenose and the replicas Bluenose II, Bounty and Rose. And if Kim Smith has it his way, the former Smith and Rhuland boat shed will launch yet another tall ship.
Mr. Smith, best known as the owner-operator of the Lunenburg Dory Shop, has recently struck a deal with the property's current owner, Scotia Trawler Limited, that will see the building house a new non-profit training program.
The Lunenburg Shipbuilding Institute will aim to teach and preserve traditional shipbuilding skills through the construction of a replica of famous Maitland, Nova Scotia, shipwright W.D. Lawrence's vessel, the Architect.
A 142-foot barque-rigged freighter, the vessel would then be used as a world-voyaging sail training vessel, not unlike the Lunenburg-based Picton Castle.
In fact, it was while sailing aboard the Picton Castle on her initial world voyage in 1997-99, as well as during subsequent voyages as second mate earlier this year, that Mr. Smith's idea began to take shape.
"I guess you'd say this is something that evolved," says the dory builder, who claims to have been looking for the means to do something like this, not to mention the "right (ship) design" for as long as 15 years. "But I could never seem to bring it all together . . . until now."
Mr. Smith says a combination of factors, including his discovery of Mr. Lawrence's plans for the Architect in the Nova Scotia Public Archives, his experience as the head of sail training aboard the Picton Castle this summer and the death of Lunenburg shipbuilding legend Ernie Rhuland nearly a year ago, convinced him the time is now.
"That man was working at the shipyard when they were building one vessel a month," he says of Mr. Rhuland. "He had the wisdom of the ages (and) I had a lot more questions to ask (him)."
Mr. Smith says rather than watch the knowledge of these master shipbuilders be lost, the Institute will enlist the help of as many as it can as instructors. Scotia Trawler shipwright Ralph Anderson, most recently recognized for his work in the building of the Hector replica, will head the project, while others including Philip Snyder, Kline Falkenham and Eddie Mosher, will act as consultants.
Mr. Smith's own role in the scheme is primarily as catalyst, though he will probably give students their basic training in tool use and maintenance. "That way they'll be of some use when Ralph gets them."
He'll also look after the program's logistics and later, hopes to skipper the vessel.
Mr. Smith says he plans to finance the roughly $5-million project with funds from four primary sources - students who, he says, "will come from all over the world to learn the art of wooden shipbuilding," people taking working vacations, tourists who will tour the site for a small fee and profits from the sale of project memorabilia.
And he claims the fact he doesn't have a lot of start-up cash doesn't really matter.
"It's not something we're borrowing and our whole life depends on it. (The money) will just have to grow, and if it takes a little longer (than the predicted five to seven years to complete), that's okay."
Mr. Smith, who's begun advertising the opportunity through a number of specialty publications, as well as via the Book a Berth web site operated by Lunenburg's Tall Ship Millennium Challenge organization, says he expects the program will be a big hit.
"Anybody that's really committed to being a good boat builder with modern materials will spend some time working with traditional materials," he says. Plus, the opportunity to work on such a large scale is rare.
"I believe this may be the only shipbuilding, as opposed to boat building, school that exists on the planet," says the dory builder, explaining that while "you can't call them apples and oranges (shipbuilding and boat building) are separate endeavors," and not only in scale.
In boat building "you have a few guys working together in a shop but in shipbuilding there are many people and they're all working at different trades," from caulking to carpentry. "And they all have a hierarchy and a place that they fit together that you wouldn't learn in a boat building course," he says.
Mr. Smith says he's hoping to accept his first students by May 15 of this year, with the goal of having the vessel's keel and a couple of frames in place by the start of the summer tourist season. In the meantime, he's looking for volunteers to help clean up the boat shed, get the keel blocks, donated by the Hector project, in place and begin to place the keel.
He says if he can get at least 10 students starting out, paying an as-yet undetermined tuition but comparable to what they would pay for a college education, then build the number up from there to an average of 25 per year, the ship could be ready for launching in as little as five years.
However, should it take longer, it's really no big deal, he adds. "As long as it's operating, it will be a benefit to the town."
In fact, Mr. Smith says it is projects like this that ensure that the waterfront is not "turned into more restaurants and gift shops," but rather "that it is alive and functioning for our children."
For more information on the Lunenburg Shipbuilding Institute, or to volunteer, you can call Mr. Smith at 634-9196.
Above: Kim Smith of Lunenburg hopes to revitalize the Lunenburg waterfront, not to mention this historic shed on the grounds of the former Smith and Rhuland Shipyard, with a new non-profit training organization, the Lunenburg Shipbuilding Institute.
Top: Lunenburg dory builder Kim Smith traces the lines of the Architect, a 142-foot barque designed by Maitland shipwright W.D. Lawrence. Mr. Smith plans to build a replica of the vessel as part of a new non-profit training organization, known as the Lunenburg Shipbuilding Institute. He will then sail the vessel on world sail training voyages.