Publication
U-M Detroit
Author
Margaret Fornes
Date
August 5th, 2025
Twice a week this summer, middle and high school students have been donning matching blue lab aprons, rubber gloves, and safety goggles to work as a team to construct sailboats.
By the end of the program co-sponsored by the University of Michigan Detroit River Story Lab’s Skiff & Schooner Program and the Detroit Community Sailing Center, the students will have created a sailboat from scratch, complete with a sail and name.
The students involved in this program have varying relationships with sailing and the Detroit River. Many have grown up around boats, but have not developed a personal connection with the Detroit River.
There to learn, the students put their skills into practice, sharing their favorite parts of the boat building process. Most students were excited to use drills and power tools, but others were drawn to the resin that would seal the boat together.
A student advisory team from the Detroit River Scholars program, co-sponsored by the city of Detroit and U-M’s College of Literature, Science and the Arts, also attended the event to gain additional experience with maritime activities.
“They give us feedback on these kinds of events and what they gained from being involved with sailing projects,” explains Jordan Irving, director of Detroit River Scholars program, a one-week UM-sponsored summer program organized by Detroit River Story Lab.
Harry Jones, president of Detroit Community Sailing Center, and University of Detroit Mercy fabrication instructor Thad Lindsay, a long-time partner of U-M’s Detroit River Story Lab, work closely with the students, teaching them to handle a variety of tools and materials such as planers, hand saws, drills, and epoxy resin.
Jones and Lindsay create an atmosphere of fun for the students, pushing them into friendly competition and increasing their comfort with the materials by asking whose planer can create the longest wood shaving or by referring to the epoxy resin as peanut butter.
