Summer Community Boat Building
Help Build a New Canoe or Repaint Older Canoes
Where: Grover House, 930 West Front Street, Red Bank, NJ 07701
When: two full weekend days. Future events will be listed in "Events". Boatbuilders start at 8:00 AM Saturday and 8:30 AM Sunday and finish at approximately 5:00 PM each day. They get to paddle the Navesink in the new canoes on Sunday afternoon. Cost is $30 for four meals (breakfast and lunch each day).
Pictures from the most recent event in September 26-27, 2020, can be found HERE and HERE.
Boatbuilders - Help Build a Canoe. Help to build a wooden canoe in two days of fun with assistance from experienced boat builders. Come as a single adult and join a team or come as a family - you choose! Start at 8:00 AM on Saturday morning and paddle the Navesink in the new canoe on Sunday afternoon! You start with two flat sheets of plywood on Saturday morning and by 3:00 Pm on Sunday you have a boat to launch and paddle the Navesink! The pictures shown below Boatbuilders of the 2012 event.
Boatbuilders are provided with breakfast and lunch each day, and they make a lot of new friends! Breakfast and lunch is provided each day for a small fee. All materials tools and expert assistance is provided.
On On Sunday, the canoes are completed, primed with white paint, taken to Fair Haven boat ramp and paddling begins!
Canoe painters: In addition to the newly built canoes, some of the older canoes are refurbished and repainted, and they are re-launched on the Navesink at the same time as the new canoes. Painters can paint their own creative designs onto the canoes! Many do!
SUNDAY AFTERNOON and the moment of truth - will they float? NMHA stacks them up and takes them to Fair Haven boat ramp for the ultimate test.
YES, they float! All paddlers are provided with life vests, paddles and there are also several safety boats on the water. At the end of the day, all are happy and pleased that all the work paid off and they did not get wet (unless they wanted to!).
Boatbuilding History
The NMHA Community Boatbuilding festival takes place in early June each year. From year to year the event varies in that some years we build a lot of boats for one customer while other year we tend to concentrate on family boat building teams and each team takes home their own boat.
The last few years we have been fortunate to have been able to use the Fair Haven Fire House grounds, with their excellent facilities. We have built up to ten boats at the Fair Haven Fire House grounds in one weekend. Often we build Six Hour Canoes, but we also might be working on other projects.
Typically, there are two options for families or community groups to participate.
1. A team can enroll to build their own boat to complete and take home that weekend. The cost for the entire weekend, including beautiful canoe paddles to be built by all youth members as well as all meals and refreshments for both days is about $500.00. (Prices will vary depending on costs of building materials and supplies). Go to Events to see the specific detauls and to Register.
2. MNHA will build boat(s) with volunteers either for a specific customer, therefore families or community teams can enroll to build boats as a team for our recreation programs..
Many of the six hours canoes are used in the River Rangers program.