Marblehead students get hands dirty in marine tech

Instructor John Payne demonstrates engine repair to Michael Cohn (left) and Ben Koopman (right) during a marine tech class. At left, Marblehead students, including (seated) Laura Whitehill and Hunter McCoole, listen to Payne. (Photos by Robert Spencer for the boston globe)

Strewn out on a long workbench: a jumble of marine diesel-engine parts, looking like the pieces of a mind-twisting jigsaw puzzle. Gears, idles, crank shafts, actuated plungers, push rods, bearings.

Gibberish to a lot of people.

But with greasy fingers and blue coveralls, roughly a dozen students clustered over the rubble, quizzing about the correct way to line up gears and fit pistons and rings together.

"A lot of people would look at an engine and just see metal," said 17-year-old Michael Cohn, stepping aside from his 9 a.m. Marine Tech I course at Marblehead High School. "This is a way for me to learn my way around an engine. No other class would get hands-on like this."

Desk jobs do have their enticements. Maybe too many, in some cases.

Over the past several years, computers and cubicles have lured many possible candidates away from maritime jobs - jobs that require getting dirty and delving in with your hands, jobs that have fueled the local economy for centuries.

But, officials hope, a marine technology class at Marblehead High will serve to ignite interest in a new generation. The elective, which is led by longtime marine mechanic John Payne and was added to the course catalog this fall, covers the basics of small watercraft diesel-engine maintenance and repair.

It is one of only roughly a half-dozen of its kind in the state, according to Ed Lofgren, director of the Massachusetts Marine Trades Association. The majority are clustered on the South Shore and the Cape.

"There's a tremendous need for qualified individuals," said Lofgren, adding that the North Shore has been underrepresented when it comes to providing skilled workers and offering training programs. "And yet the North Shore is so tremendously active with recreational boating."

Those were precisely principal John Ziergiebel's thoughts when he proposed the class earlier this year. At the same time, he wanted to address what he felt was a shortage of opportunities for "tactile learners."

"There are many people whose minds are engaged through their hands," he said, adding that Marblehead's college-prep-oriented curriculum can alienate such thinkers.

Ultimately, though, the course has appealed to a cross-section of students. Some have other career goals in mind and want to get a basic understanding of mechanics; some have tinkered with cars or boats and want to learn more; others are considering maritime careers.

Take freshman Laura Whitehill. The 14-year-old acknowledged that her family "isn't really nautical." Still, she might consider a career in engineering. "This is the first time I've done anything mechanical - I could go further with it."

Her friend and fellow freshman Hunter McCoole, does have an aquatic background; her parents are longtime boat owners. She thought it would be useful to know the basics of an engine. "Most people will probably be on a boat at some point in their lifetime," said the 14-year-old. "What if something goes wrong?"

All told, 54 students - parceled into four 55-minute classes - have enrolled; they've taken field trips to the engine rooms of 1,100-horsepower boats and donned coveralls and safety glasses to pull (and sometimes smash) engines apart and eventually put them back together again. By the end of the year, Payne hopes to attach one of those reassembled motors - which were donated, along with most other materials, by local shipyards - to a small boat to get it running and smoking.

"He lets us tear stuff apart, get our hands dirty," said 16-year-old sophomore Ben Koopman. "I've been excited to get away from English and math and enjoy this class."

There are quizzes, tests, and assignments from a textbook, too. But Payne, a Marblehead native with 32 years' experience building and repairing marine diesel engines, acknowledged that the get-your-hands-blackened exercises are what keep kids interested. To eventually broaden the program, the school may introduce other segments dedicated to fiberglassing, rigging, and repair-installation of GPS systems, circuitry, and refrigeration. Payne also hopes to connect kids with internships.

That's what Lofgren is hoping for. According to a recent workforce assessment, there are 1,600 open tech positions in the trade. And although the term "grease monkey" might come to mind, it's not grunt work - basic trainees make between $12 and $15 an hour; good technicians six figures a year, Lofgren said.

Because there is such a need, the industry is to some extent recession-proof, Payne added. "If boatyards get a decent mechanic, they'll do darn near anything to keep them," he said as he sat in his classroom before first period, stacks of quizzes corrected in red ink on his desk.

A few minutes later, just before 9 a.m., students began filtering into the workshop, which has high ceilings and dangling power plugs, and smells faintly of diesel oil. After getting a homework assignment, they suited up and gathered around the pieces of a four-cylinder engine. Parts were strewn all over the table, wires and tubes protruding, rags and tools intermingled.

Payne, fingers becoming smeared with grease, picked up various items, explaining what they were and how they worked.

"They're all going to line up, no matter what," he said as Cohn and Koopman hunched over to tinker with gears.

The instructor looked around. "Anyone else want to do it? It's actually not that hard."

A few takers leaned in.

After class, Payne said that even if his students don't become mechanics, the course will provide them with skills that go beyond fuel lines and compression valves. Most notably: listening, comprehending, being cordial and working with others - even when personalities clash. "It's more of a life course than an engine course," he said.

Chris Koth agreed. "Teamwork - that's probably the biggest thing," said the 14-year-old freshman, who said he might pursue a career in car mechanics. "You can't take apart an engine or do really anything with just one person."

Also: "patience, definitely patience. A lot of this stuff, you can't get it done quickly."