Lower Cape May Regional Students Launch 2nd St. Ayles Skiff

CAPE MAY – A collective group of about 85 students from Mr. Suter’s classes launched their newest project boat at the Corinthian Yacht Club of Cape May thanks to the support of Capt. Robert Bredehoft and the club’s membership.
According to a release, the craft is a St. Ayles Skiff designed to be built in kit form by the Scottish boat builder Ian Oughtred who has seen his creation distributed to clubs and schools worldwide.
This boat is the second of two St. Ayles Skiff kits purchased from Hewes and Co. of Maine by Lower Cape May School District and the Maritime Museum of Cape May.  
Superintendent Christopher Kobik saw these kits as a way  to engage students and let them experience long-term cooperative learning in a manner they might not have access to later.
Matt Suter, a special education teacher of 28 years, was charged with overseeing the construction of the boat and implementing the build into his regular World Cultures classroom.
The construction process had to run at the pace of the students working on it as they have academic classwork to complete as well.   
Part of Suter’s guidance was to have students focus on the specific job at hand, try something new and show them how what they are doing contributed to the whole and to trust the process.   
Suter dedicated the boat and build to Bill Noe and the boat will have his name.  Noe was also a special education teacher  at Lower Cape May Regional and inspired Suter to not only become an educator but a forever learner as well, he stated.
Both builds to date have been awesome to work on but absolutely could not have happened without colleague, Kelly McConnell-Hussey, who has been there with me from the beginning.  
Others who have been key players in support of these projects include Mark Haibach, Jeff Martin,  Roy Olsen, and his fine crew, and the school administrative staff.  
The next boat to be built will be s a Caledonia Yawl sailboat.