2016 North House Wooden Boat Show

Once again we traveled to Grand Marais, Minnesota on the shore of Lake Superior for the North House Wooden Boat Show. This is an annual celebration of the summer solstice, wooden boats and north country craft.

Reports from previous years are here:
2013 North House Wooden Boat Show
2014 North House Wooden Boat Show

More information about North House Folk School is here: http://www.northhouse.org/index.htm

We attend as volunteers with Urban Boatbuilders, a non-profit youth development organization.
http://urbanboatbuilders.org/
https://www.facebook.com/UrbanBoatbuilders

UBB shows a few boats each year constructed by youth in the program working with professional boat builder/ instructors and volunteers. This year the offerings included a stand-up paddleboard, kayak, canoe and Norwegian pram. All the boats are skin-on-frame style construction using traditional boat-building techniques- very light and beautiful. It was a fun year for me as I participated in prototyping 3 of the boats- new designs for UBB- including the SUP, kayak and canoe.

In addition to displays of northwoods craft, the celebration includes a community chowder feed, music and folk dancing and a solstice pageant. Lots of fun. Here are a few pictures from the trip (click on the thumbnails for a larger version):

The UBB boats on display

13 foot SOF kayak- 23 pounds!

Norwegian pram- new this year

More boats

Boats staged for on-water trials

An interested attendee trying out the SUP

Angela trying a headstand on the SUP- that water is cold!

Success!

We did some exploring in the Superior National Forest on the way home...

Somewhere north of Pancore Lake

Pancore Lake trail

Exploring in the Superior National Forest

Poplar River was running stong

Poplar river

The lupines were in bloom- invasive to Minnesota but pretty

It was a short trip but enjoyable none-the-less.