Jack Lyles (11), builds a new boat by hand with his father.

Jack Lyles (11), poses at Indiana University. “I feel really happy to be here working on journalism.” Lyles said. Lyles helped his dad build a boat last summer.

After 11 months of hard work and $2,000, Jack Lyles (11) and his father, finished their project. Navy blue and stunning,  the pontoon boat is done.

¨I felt really proud and pleasantly surprised that we finished the boat and that it turned out so well because I didn’t think my dad and I could do it since we were so inexperienced.¨

The boat was originally owned by the Lyles´ neighbors´ grandfather. ¨My dad decided one day that he wanted to find a boat and a lake house to buy and coincidentally he found both 10 minutes later after he decided.¨ After about three years of the purchase and getting as many memories at the lake possible, Jack and his dad decided to bring it out of the water, wipe the scum off, and fix it up. The only thing they had kept from the original boat were the pontoons themselves. Everything else they fixed by hand, ¨After one problem was solved, another seemed to come along,¨ Lyles said. Lyles and his father would work from one to two hours one Saturday to seven to eight hours another day. With the project site being approximately an hour from his home, Lyles and his father could only work on it maybe one day some weeks. Starting the rebuild in April and dragging on to its fourth month of work in October. Things stopped progressing.

¨It came to a stopping point and I wasn’t sure it was ever going to get finished with school and how busy everyone was,¨ Lyles said. ¨When we started working on it again that following summer, I felt hopeful that we would finish it completely.¨ After school ended in June, Lyles and his father got back to work with the finishing product coming on July 4th, Lyles said. Crossing the finish line with minimal injuries of aluminum cuts and a couple burns from power tools, Lyles put the finishing touch of a new radio on the boat.

¨I remember my dad asking me ´What now?´ I felt really happy that it was done so that we can enjoy it a lot more now that it’s useable.¨