Festival event really floats families' boats

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Tanisha Waldo reports on the fun from the Maritime Festival Watch »

Maritime Festival News

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Four generations of Jones men huddled around the frame of a wooden rowboat clasping carpenter's tools Saturday at the Charleston Maritime Festival.

Some held hammers. Others grasped power tools. The youngest of them gripped a sippy cup.

The Joneses worked together to construct a take-home treasure in the festival's family boat-building event. Nine families bonded in what has become at tradition at the annual festival that kicked off Friday and wraps up today.

"We've come down to the wooden boat show for several years," said Andy, a third-generation Jones. "My dad has built a few and he enjoys it. He thought it would be an opportunity to get us all together."

Andy's father, Don Jones of St. Stephens, captained the crew Saturday and said he appreciated the eight pairs of helping hands. Don had his father Bill Jones of Macon, Ga.; three sons, Billy, Andy and Stephen; and four grandsons, Frank, 8, Austin Cooper, 8, Aaron, 4, and Ethan, 2.

"They're all wanting to help," Don said, seizing a C clamp from Ethan, who had abandoned his sippy cup to get in on the action.

While Frank wiped off the excess wood glue on the inside of the boat, Austin wielded a power screwdriver near its stern with the help of his dad, Andy. Curls of wood scraps amassed beneath the rowboat as Don smoothed the edges.

Billy, who lives in Summerville, propped up his foot on the stern and watched his family. He said the boat building activity was a great opportunity to bring all four generations together.

"It's just fun hanging out," Billy said, adding "and keeping the kids out of trouble" as he spotted his son, Aaron, shaking a bottle of wood glue in the air.

The Joneses worked on their boat, called the Jonesing, at a quicker pace than most of the other families.

Boat building volunteer Mark Bayne said they've never had a family not finish in time to launch their boat.

And the boats are usually pretty solid vessels once they're done, though "some of them may leak a little, but they've never sunk," Bayne said.

Brian Mahoney of Mount Pleasant wanted to make sure that didn't happen. He and his wife Amy and their two children, Abbey, 9, and Brennan, 9, weren't worried about keeping up with the Joneses. The Mahoneys gradually progressed on their wooden rowboat, named New Moon.

"We don't want to sink. That's our goal," Brian said.

The Mahoneys and the Joneses will launch their finished boats today at 1 p.m. at the Maritime Center basin.

Brian Mahoney said they live on the Wando River and that the kids will probably sail out on the New Moon. But Mom and Dad will first test it out for safety, Amy added.

As for the Joneses, well, they're not sure who will take the Jonesing home.

Billy's vote is for his grandfather, Bill, to keep it. "You're the only one old enough to remember how to row a boat," he joked.

Chuckling, Bill replied, "I'm afraid to get in that boat. I might drown."

Reach Tenisha Waldo at twaldo@postandcourier.com or 937-5744.