Heading upriver

Antique boat project comes to fruition for retired Eldred teacher

By MARY GREENE

BEAVER BROOK, NY — At the June graduation at Eldred Central School (ECS), retired art teacher Bruce Bidwell was inducted into the ECS teacher Hall of Fame. This is a recent creation, and Bruce is only the fourth inductee. With characteristic modesty he said, “There are so many others to choose from,” mentioning Harry Haas, Karl Ebers and Dorothy Sulzbach as his illustrious company in the category.

Bruce began teaching art at ECS in 1973, and he retired in 2002. During that time, he brought a sleepy art program to the fore, with, at one time, a roster of five teachers. “We really grew the program,” said Bruce. “It became one of the more popular things there.”

Why is art important?

It gives students “an avenue to use a type of intelligence that they don’t get an opportunity to use in many other classes,” said Bruce. Losing this opportunity is one of the unfortunate drawbacks to cutting the arts, said Bruce. “Everything is not rote learning.”

Since retirement, he has stayed involved with art and children in the community, assisting with set creations for the ECS theatrical performances, and with the Delaware Valley Arts Alliance in producing student art shows.

But these days, Bruce has a new passion. Her name is Phoebe.

His wife April does not object, however, because Phoebe is the name of their boat.

April, who is a kindergarten teacher at the Duggan School in the Monticello school district, was the one who mentioned attending the antique boat show in Clayton, where the couple purchased the 1936 wooden boat. They were returning from a 1998 kayaking trip in Canada when they saw the notice for the show. “We bought the boat that day,” said Bruce. “It was totally impulsive, which is very unlike either one of us.

“It was, I don’t know, magic,” he said.

They used the boat for a number of summers, “cruising the canals in Canada and the St. Lawrence River.” But “with a wooden boat,” said Bruce, “something always needs repair,” and when the boat suffered a few broken ribs while it was being hauled out of the river, Bruce and April undertook an entire restoration.

They had the hull rebuilt professionally, and eventually moved the boat into a garage on County Road 23 in Beaver Brook to complete the work.

The project has taken two years.

“Basically, it was rot removal,” said Bruce, and then rebuilding and repainting, using mahogany and oak and cedar, and other materials that match the original as closely as possible. Bruce resisted fiber glassing, which prevents any repair later on. “This is a boat you can keep up in a traditional manner,” he said.

Bruce picked up techniques through reading books, talking with others, experimenting and building on what he already knew about boats. He’d had experience making several kayaks, and he’d also rebuilt a sailboat that the Bidwells previously owned. “Reading and doing,” he said. “Trial and error. You just puzzle it out.”

Phoebe, whose name under the previous owner was Little Guy, was made by American Car and Foundry, a pre-depression-era builder who also constructed Pullman-style train cars out of Wilmington, DE. “They had quite a factory of fine German wood craftsmen,” said Bruce. The name came for a number of reasons. For one, “we thought it fit the period,” said Bruce, adding, “It’s harder to name a boat than a child.”

Anticipated launch date is July 11. Phoebe and her crew (Bruce, April and retired ECS science teacher and Highland councilman Bob Burrow) will travel from Kingston “up the Hudson River to above Albany, catch the Erie canal as far as Oneida Lake, get on the Oswego River canal system up to Lake Ontario, cross that to the mouth of the St. Lawrence River, and down to Clayton, on the St. Lawrence.” The voyage will take seven or eight days.

For Bruce, the joy of being on the water comes from the “unspoiled environment” and the sense of exploration. “On the water, you have a lot more mobility,” he said. “You get a different view of things.” There’s also the thrill factor. The weather on Lake Ontario can be “worse than the ocean,” he said. “Wave lengths can be much closer together and steeper. The boat rides very roughly,” so it’s important to pick a good day to cross.

The best thing about the boat project, for Bruce, has been the many people who have stopped into the garage to check on the progress. “It’s interesting for around here,” he said. “A lot of boat enthusiasts have come by.”