Our first School

Our School opened in 2009 in a workshop on the site of the former Krups / Moulinex Factory in Limerick City. The workshop was long enough to house several boats in various states of construction and repair, together with the main mast of the Ilen ketch. It takes a lot of space to construct a mast which is 70 feet long and made of 28 different fillets of wood. But the workshop itself was relatively narrow. The School also needed space to accommodate several other projects as well as its range of saws, jigs and workshop benches, all equipped with different tools. A home had to be found, too, for the materials waiting to be sawn and shaped into frames, knees and deck planks.

In mid-June 2011, therefore, the School relocated to an adjacent workshop offering 2,000 sq.metres of space-more than twice the size of the previous workshop. The Business Plan was reworked and new targets set. A classroom has also been provided by the JP McManus Pro-Am Fund for which, and to whom, we are most grateful. By the end of 2012, the School will be accepting even more participants.

A second School

The AK Ilen Company is preparing its Business Case for opening a second School in Ireland. In addition to extending the learning experience to other young people, this expansion will enable us to test our vision of using digital technology to link young people in different locations in collaborative wood-working projects linked to traditional sailing ships-projects which in future will be accessible to those with particular challenges which might otherwise have prevented their participation.