Peter Beck has been a devoted participant at the Model Boat Shop since 2011. In that time, he has built more than 100 boats of varying sizes from four inches to a nine-feet-long, 115-sail catamaran.
Starting June 20, the graduating Wilson High School senior will take the helm at the shop.
After being shuttered the last four years, the Long Beach Parks, Recreation & Marine program is back in business and Beck will be the director of the shop, at 5119 E. Colorado St.
“I hated it at first,” Beck said about going to the boat shop as a first grader. “I’m a pretty quiet kid, but there was something about sitting and working with my hands and taking it one step at a time that got me pretty excited.”
The shop will be open for seven weeks — from June 20 to Aug. 5 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. The drop-in program is for children 7 years old and up. Registration is $65 and can be completed online at bit.ly/3GTbakn.
Rod Ogilby and Clyde W. Ellerman first opened the doors in 1948, according to the Long Beach Parks, Recreation & Marine web page. Ellerman operated it for 17 years, from 1961 to 1978. After a four-year lull, Jo Ann Pike, Ellerman’s daughter, reopened the shop, and began running the program during the summer of 1982. After her father died in 1999, the annual Sea Festival model boat regatta was renamed in his memory.
Beck, who will be attending the University of California, Berkeley, in the fall, said he just took a chance reaching out to the Parks, Recreation and Department to see if he could run the boat shop.
“The building is still there and all the stuff has been sitting for four years,” he said. “Parks and Rec put Ted Stevens in touch with me and he helped me through the process. They didn’t know what to do with the facility. When I reached out, they were excited because the director retired.”
Stevens said he remembered a Grunion Gazette article and thought that he should get in touch with Beck.
“We’re banking on him to run the program,” Stevens said. “We love his enthusiasm. He’s awesome. It was a shame the previous person retired because we couldn’t find anyone else to teach it. Everyone is excited to see that program come back.”
On his website, modelboatshop.com, Beck writes about learning the fundamentals of sanding hulls, keels and masts. After a few summers at the camp, he began building boats at home. He taught himself to sew and to use the variety of power tools required to construct his boats, including a bandsaw, via YouTube tutorials and trial and error.
Through his website, Beck gets a few custom orders to design and build model boats for people. Recently, he received an order from the Alamitos Bay Yacht Club to build some model boats to give out as awards.
Last summer, Beck worked at a Duffy Boats subsidiary called Newport Boat Models, based in Costa Mesa. The company makes miniature boats from scratch for clients. Beck could have worked there again this summer, but he thinks he found a better option.
“There’s a large shade tree at the boat shop,” he said. “I remember spending days under that tree sanding the keel for my 12-inch model sailboat,” he said. “Our family’s summer vacations had to be scheduled around the dates the program was going.
“Being able to walk down the street and run the program I grew up around is more appealing.”