Boat Launch Day

Join us to celebrate the launch of this year’s 25-foot rowing gig built by students!

Over the course of this school year, a group of students from Middlebury Union High School and the Addison Consortium Program have been participating an alternative program with Lake Champlain Maritime Museum where they come to the museum weekly and learn how to build a 25’ wooden rowing gig. It’s been an incredible journey for all of them, including a trip to the forest to learn how to select a tree that will be used to build a boat and literally building the boat from tree to finished vessel alongside our expert boat builders. The boat will join our fleet of rowing gigs that are used by high school rowing teams, rowing clubs, and summer trips.

On May 23, with an audience of boat builders, parents, teachers, and staff, the students will present their finished boat, share a little bit about their experience building, and then we’ll parade them down to the harbor where they will launch their boat for the very first time. It’s a special moment for the Museum, the schools, families, and above all the students.