Close match between apprentices to build castle
Competition was tight in a battle between apprentices to construct a castle playhouse in Timaru on Saturday.
‘‘It was quite close judging which was good,’’ New Zealand Certified Builders (NZCB) regional president Dan Gallagher said.
‘‘For every millimetre you were out that was a point down, so you had to be right on the money.’’ The gap between first and second was less than 10 points.
The winner of South Canterbury’s round of the nationwide NZCB Apprentice Challenge, which gave four apprentices eight hours to complete a castle playhouse with a turret and working drawbridge, was Connor Dowling of Gale Builders.
‘‘He cleaned up across board,’’ Gallagher said.
Gallagher Trade Building’s Nathan Rathgen finished second. the
A North Canterbury entrant, Tyler Batchelor, who was unable to compete in Christchurch because of lack of room, needed his point range to be within 25 per cent of the South Canterbury winner to go through to May’s final in Rotorua, a goal he achieved.
The assessment Dowling and Batchelor will face in the final includes making various structures and an hour-long speech about a project they have worked on back home.
After the competition the judges gave advice on how the structures could be improved.
‘‘The boys took a lot out that,’’ Gallagher said.
‘‘All of them said it was a good learning experience.’’
Gallagher said all four apprentices taking part in Timaru were still working 15 minutes before the deadline, showing the challenge was neither impossible nor ‘‘a walk in the park’’.
Alongside the four playhouses of constructed during the competition, two more made by certified builders to trial the challenge will be donated to early childhood centres around South Canterbury.
A list had been put together of where the six playhouses will go, but Gallagher would not be contacting recipients until after the weekend.
Gallagher said many builders, including those who had retired, came to watch.
‘‘They think it’s a good thing for Timaru and the young kids.
‘‘Two other builders want to enter their apprentices next year.’’
He had hoped high schoolers thinking of taking up a career in building would have come along.
‘‘Timaru has heaps of different avenues for kids to get into that.’’
Contacting building companies or the Ara Institute of Canterbury, or getting involved with a school’s gateway programme, were some of the ways Gallagher said students could chase the career.