wooden boat: Boat Lovers Spend Day Building Their Own Boats July 30, 2006 -- When you talk to boaters around here, it sounds like they've put their heart and soul into the wooden boats they've built.

Rusty Cooper devoted 100 hours to build a 16 foot boat. He used to have a plastic boat but now he says wood is the only type of boat he'll ever use.

Builders and students showed off 50 boats of delicate wooden craftmanship Saturday at the Wooden Boat Festival. Many of the works of art were built by students from Cape Fear Community College.

Boat lovers also spent the day on the riverfront trying to build a boat from scratch. When they're finished, the ultimate test will be which team's boat can survive the water.


The festival even wants to make room for tomorrow's wooden boat lovers.

Cape Fear's boat building program is the only one of its kind on the east coast.

Report by Dan Cassuto  ¶ 10:26 PM