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A neighborly contest led a FL teen to prove everyone wrong
Mike's boat aces its first open-water test. It now has a motor and seats are soon on the way.
(Photo submitted)
Clint Riese
Sports Editor
Keeping tabs on a teen can be a tall task, but it is not hard for Steve and Deb Schingen when it comes to their son Mike.
“Who knows where he could be, but he’s always in the garage,” Steve says.
In fact, the whole neighborhood on 214th Street N. usually knows of the 17-year-old’s whereabouts when he sets up shop. Whether he is working on a 10-foot scooter or a miniature motorbike, the young handyman’s hands are seldom idle. And just in time for summer, the latest project to emerge from the Schingen garage is the biggest and most ambitious yet – a 15-foot, hand-crafted, pine fishing boat.
The vessel’s origins seem as if from a Mark Twain novel, with Mike and his neighborhood pal Joey Reiner daydreaming on the water.
“We used to go take little blow-up rafts on Forest Lake, and then we started taking logs and putting logs on top of them,” Mike recalls. “You know, neighbor boys, we were like ‘Well, I can build one better than you.’ And we started making it, and every week we’d check each other’s out, and it turned out pretty well, I guess.”
Pretty well is an understatement. The result of a year’s worth of work, Mike’s creation is indeed a real, functional boat, complete with a Minnesota license. It is outfitted with a motor and is as sturdy as any comparable aluminum skiff.
“People don’t think it’s very strong, but I use the analogy that it’s like weaving a basket,” the new captain says. “A strand is not strong – you could break a strand – but if you weave it together just the right way, it’s very strong.”
Getting his feet wet
The finished project is actually not Mike’s first effort since the boat-making contest began two summers ago. The initial contraptions he and Joey fashioned led to a humbling, though entertaining, trial run last summer. Joey centered his design around a big log, and Mike made the mistake of using 2-by-4s, metal brackets and a tarp. In the end, Joey’s barely floated, and Mike’s square “tank” was unattractive and bulky. That failure, and the legion of skeptics in his family and neighborhood, made Mike desire even more to construct a true lake-worthy boat.
“Last summer, [Joey] had his little craft and I had my little craft, but everyone’s like ‘You guys are just messing around. Teenagers messing around the neighborhood,’” Mike says. “I really like engineering things and I really like building things and I wasn’t really satisfied with my work...I really enjoyed building my first one. And I really wanted to build a good one. And it kind of motivated me because everyone thought I couldn’t do it.”
Even his dad was initially among the naysayers.
“I said, ‘Oh, I don’t know if you want to do that,’” says Steve.
For his new effort to float, Mike knew he would need to take the process far more seriously. So he researched online and put together some blueprints.
“Everyone’s like, ‘Oh, you couldn’t build a boat.’ And I’m like ‘Yeah, I bet you I could,’” he says. “So I started making up these designs and I’m like ‘This could actually be something good.’”
Diving in headfirst
Armed with one small electric saw from Wal-Mart and some hand sanders, he began cutting wood almost exactly a year ago. Putting the pieces together in his head was far more challenging than the actual construction. Mike would spend an hour or two each day planning what he would work on, and take perhaps 20 minutes executing the plan. The work went slowly, but surely.
“It just started coming along, coming along, coming along,” he says. “A long process. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into.”
By July, the ribs were in place. In August, he fashioned four 4-by-8-foot sheets of half-inch-thick pine around the body of the developing vessel. All along, shaping the wood presented a tedious task. He would wet it, tie it into shape, let it dry and repeat as necessary. The biggest challenge, however, came when he had to align the front of the boat. For a whole week, a matter of centimeters consumed him as he tried to make the sides meet in the middle.
“I just had to eye it up,” he says.
Once he finally got it, the soon-to-be Forest Lake High School junior knew he was in the clear. A quick lesson on applying epoxy (it’s best to use a mask, he learned) and the boat was ready for its maiden voyage. And lo and behold, when Mike and Joey shoved off into Forest Lake in September, his one-time doubters showed up as supporters waving from the dock.
“We were all thinking, ‘Well, go out on the lake; don’t go too far, though,’” Steve laughs. “[Then] he’s out on the middle of the lake.”
Mike’s nerves turned to feelings of affirmation as he paddled back to shore.
“I had a floating boat in three months,” he says.
After spending the winter under plastic covering in the garage, the boat received some finishing touches this spring. Mike painted the inside and pieced together the flooring. He also traded in one of his old recreational vehicles for a boat motor. Now, instead of keeping occupied in the garage, Mike will be busy on the lake.
“I got a lot of friends lining up that want to ride in the boat,” he says. “A lot of them.”
They’ll have to wait their turn behind Steve, though. The proud father has enjoyed fishing in the newest addition to the Schingen fleet, and even got to see Mike catch a few largemouth bass on his 17th birthday last Wednesday.
“I was a little leery first going out,” Steve admits. “I was thinking ‘Well, you know, it’s a wood boat and he built the boat.’ Then he just goes out and he starts taking these waves and I’m going ‘Well, I don’t know.’ But now that we’ve been out a few times, we just go.”
Mike still has to add some seats and will probably throw on a trailer hook. Bet on those getting done fast, because the next project is already sitting in the garage – a motorized three-wheeler made from a bike, lawnmower parts and the extra 2-by-4s from his first boat.
“I find this stuff, what people think is junk, and I just take it and make it new again and just ride it around,” Mike says. “It’s pretty fun.”
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