News

Half Model The NZTBS Half Model Course is on this weekend 4th and 5th July and there is a couple of places available. Book Now HERE This is a fantastic 2 day course taken by Alan Hooper you will learn all about making half models and gain a thorough introduction to lofting and you will take home your very own half model. This is a hands on course building your own half model to take home. Its a great way to learn all about how a set of lines plans relates to the finished boat. Book Tickets Now

Last year I graduated from a weekend course with a half model of a sailing dinghy.   I took my boat home and mounted it on a mirror.  My grandchildren have asked why it has 4 oars. I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity of working with wood and being able to create something that makes me smile. This is a 2 day course on building half models run by the New Zealand Traditional Boatbuilding School.  We learnt the basics of lofting and developed an appreciation of how lines are used to design a boat hull. The hull takes shape after a few hours…

With the change to level two and the increase of group sizes to 100 we are now able to offer our much loved courses again. We have some new dates for our most popular courses below and more exciting announcements to come. Essential skills course with John Welsford. This is our most popular course and is a fantastic introduction to working with wood and building small boats. You will learn all sorts of tips and tricks, 20th - 21st June ( Now Full ) 31st Oct -1st Nov ( places avail ) find out more Here: Half Model Course with…

Unfortunately due to the Covid19 situation we have had to postpone or cancel all upcoming courses and shut the school down until the situation becomes safe to operate again. If you have booked on an upcoming course, Eventfinda will be in touch in the next few days to offer a full refund or to keep your spot on a future course when we are able to schedule these. Wishing all our friends and customers all the best, Stay Safe and Stay at home.

We have just finished listing a bunch of new and some of your favourite courses, make sure you check them out. Essential Skills course with John Welsford 4/5 April. more info here Introduction to Woodturning with Alan Hooper 18/19 April more info here Build a Half Model with Alan Hooper 2/3 May. more info here Lofting with Alan Hooper 6/7 June more info here and watch this space for an exciting new dinghy build opportunity. details to be announced soon.

There is still a couple of spots availible for the awesome half model course this weekend, make sure you grab one! qrf This is a 2 day course on building half models. You will learn the basics of lofting and develop a great understanding of how lines are used to design a boat hull. During the 2 days, you will develop your own half model to take home. Delivered by Allan Hooper. To find out more or to enrol click here

Build a Half Model Course. 14th-15th Sept. This is a 2 day course on building half models. You will learn the basics of lofting and develop a great understanding of how lines are used to design a boat hull. During the 2 days, you will develop your own half model to take home. Delivered by Allan Hooper. To enrol or learn more click here. Essential Skills Course. 21st-22nd September. This is a two day course and covers a range of essential skills. Click here for more info... Professional development sharpen and set. 7th November. This course is being offered as…

Some really great courses coming up over the next few weeks including. Steam bending and fitting ribs with Allan Hooper on the 8th June, Sharpen and Set on the 12th June and Essential skills with John Welsford on the 15-16 June.

An excellent course on the weekend covering a huge amount of information and hands on experience with composites skilfully presented by Adrian Pawson. We covered everything from simple polyester laminates through to carbon fibre and vacuum bagging and even touched a little on pre preg and the hands on test panels were great fun. I'm sure everyone came away with a much better understanding of composites and there use. Huge thanks to Adhesive Technologies and Southern Spars for their amazing support.

Its been an amazing few weeks at the boatbuilding school, First off Allan Hooper with help from Olaf Wiig ran a course on building a half model. This turned out to be great fun and everyone went home with a beautiful half model of their own. Carefully cutting the waterlines. Time for a glue up. Voila! beautiful half model to take home Last weekend John Welsford ran another of his very popular Essential skills courses which covers off a whole bunch of tips and tricks that can quite simply save you hours and hours of work if your a budding…

We have just rebuilt our website thanks to the wonderful team at Impact NPO and their generous volunteers. You can now search, book and pay for your courses all online. Make sure you check it out and while your there have a browse through all the cool courses coming up, there are still a few places left on most of our upcoming courses but be in quick as most are nearly full. sign up for our updates at the bottom of the home page as we have more courses coming soon. Of course if you have any questions, drop us…

What an amazing bunch of people at ImpactNPO, We were invited to part of their Auckland Hackathon weekend and were hoping to get some help with our website and booking system instead these amazing guys and gals gave up their weekend to build us a whole new site and set us up with an awesome booking system and a bunch of other stuff all in 2 days. Totally blown away by the support ImpactNPO provides to the non profit sector. Make sure you check them out at impactnpo.org or on Facebook here