There are quite a few niche hobby clubs throughout the greater Tampa Bay region, but one stands out for its members' determination and passion.
That's the Tampa Bay Ship Model Society, where people build incredibly detailed model ships — some taking a decade even to build. The club meets every month on the fourth Tuesday and publishes a monthly newsletter, too.
President Steve Sobieralski said modeling is a declining hobby where most of its members are older. There is a plastic model club where he said there are some more young people.
"It's always been kind of an old man's hobby. A lot of people get into it after they retire," Sobieralski said. "They see advertisements for these kits — the wooden ship model kits, and they think, well, I've got time on my hands, I think I'll give that a try."
Personally, retirement may call for something a bit lower-effort. You know, like pickling or yelling at children within a half mile of your front yard. Something easy like that, because building model ships can be super intense.
Sobieralski said he tends to do work on a big scale.
"I have some that from start to finish have taken 10 years. I didn't bring them in, but I have some very large models," he said.
Sobieralski described having ships that are four or five feet long. He even has one that's over six feet long.
"I fortunately have a very tolerant wife," he said about the ships taking up space in his house.
During a meeting, it was like a show and tell where everyone brought in their model ships. They described how they made it and the real ship's history.
For example, Charles Gravallese built a model ship from the 1700s.
"This is the Continental Navy, frigate Confederacy, built by the Continental Congress in 1779," he described. "They had planned to build 13 of these things for the 13 colonies. For various reasons, not all 13 of them were built or ever sailed."
Gravallese was quick to show off his ship. And for good reason, because it looked like you fired a shrink ray at the real thing.
"I hate to sound corny, but I feel like it's why I was put on this planet," Gravallese said. "Yeah, the more I do it, the more impassioned I get about it. You know?"
He added that anyone can get into the hobby.
"A lot of people say you need patience. You don't need patience. While you do need a degree of patience, you need determination," Gravallese said. "Because there's so many failures that you're going to encounter along the way. It's all trial and error, and you're going to fail so many times, and you have to just have that ability to know when to put it aside and come back to it."
So, don't be surprised if you throw your ship across the room in frustration.
"I've come close a couple of times, yeah," Gravallese said. "And there have been periods when I've got so frustrated that I had to put it aside for several months and not do anything at all — not even look at it."
There were also two guys, Roger Kibart and Howard Howe, who became fast friends through the club. They actually motorize their boats and run them on a pond together. Kibart said the hobby keeps him going.
"It's a matter of staying active at my age, it adds a dimension that if I wasn't building boats — if I didn't have an interest, it would be, I think, a tremendous void," Kibart said. "And it's rekindled something that I appreciated 50 years ago, and because of work and everything else, I just never had the opportunity to continue on with it. And so it keeps me going."
This story first aired on WUSF's daily morning podcast, The Bay Blend. You can listen to it wherever you get your podcasts.
