Cody horgan

Cody Horgan, Head Shipwright and Manager of the Workshop at the Wooden Boat Centre. Cody was a student in 1999/2000 of the Shipwrights Point School of Wooden Boat Building (now the Wooden Boat Centre) where he gained a Diploma in Wooden Boatbuilding.

He has since worked in various boat yards around Sydney and Bobbin Head on many various projects. From 2010 to 2011 he worked as Head shipwright and managed a small professional team of riggers and boilermakers as well as a horde of volunteers, that maintained the Tall Ship James Craig. For the last 8 years prior to returning to the Wooden Boat Centre, Cody worked at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney.

Cody has a great passion for restoration and education within the marine construction industry and holds a Certificate IV in training and assessment.

JERÔME BORGHGRAEF

Originally from Belgium, Jerôme is bringing in some young blood in wooden boatbuilding. A former employee at the prestigeous Lombard Vasina and Atelier Monts & Merveilless in France and student at the Lyme Regis Boat Building Academy in the UK, he has honed his skills further at Spirit Yachts in the UK and Noakes in Sydney before coming on board to teach, build and restore at The Wooden Boat Centre.

sarah mantel

Sarah Mantel, a full-year student from 2021 and junior boatbuilder, has taken the reigns of our skin-on-frame boat building and oar and spas courses and is now trying her hand on the clinker dinghy courses. Having once had a life as an entomologist, Sarah now enjoys making very sleek, ultralight skin-on-frame boats.

Sean Guastavino

Born in California and raised in Bali, Sean has long been immersed in creativity. With a background in Theatre Arts and years of experience working and traveling as a puppeteer, he brings his own artistic perspective to everything he does. Sean began his boatbuilding journey as a full-year student in 2023 and later joined the team as a junior boatbuilder. He is currently one of our apprentices, and on track to become a fully qualified boatbuilder!

Tynan Herington

Coming on board as the youngest team member, Tynan is no stranger to working with tools. The son of a carpenter, he has always had an interest in following in his father’s footsteps, but just a little bit different. The first apprentice in The Wooden Boat Centre’s thirty plus year history, and a newly fledged sailor and historic dinghy owner, he is keen to continue learning and contributing to the wooden boat building community.

ROHAN CROOKES

Building a boat and a kayak in school was all it took for Rohan to catch the boatbuilding fever. Coming from Queensland Rohan spent his time as a climbing guide and rope access technician, when the opportunity came to join the Wooden Boat Centre full year course in 2025 and keep building boats. After completion, Rohan started as our latest apprentice in 2026.

PETER SHIMELD

A back ground in the ADF and in science, Peter is one of our dedicated volunteers who spends a lot of time making The Wooden Boat Centre grow and thrive. If not showing people around on guided tours, Peter can be found tinkering on or teaching our very popular one week canoe course.

tim blumfield

A Senior Research Fellow at an Australian university who manages forestry-based development projects in the Solomon Islands, workshop manager for a UK based charity which sends refurbished hand tools to developing countries, running skills workshops in PNG and working as a bench joiner for over ten years. Tim has done it all and currently volunteers at the Wooden Boat Centre to improve the technical skills of students young and old.

SIRPA LOEVENDIE

Sirpa Loevendie started as a full-year student in 2024 and took up the reigns as Centre Administrator halfway through the year. Sirpa started her career in journalism in The Netherlands before making the move to Australia where she worked in tourism and managed various cinemas. Every now and then she can still be found on the workshop floor, learning boat building skills in her spare moments.