1906 motor launch Cygnet is on sale at Turk’s

An astonishing sale of boats, many of the interesting and old, is going on at Turk’s of Chatham, Kent, apparently due to a relocation. See the lots here: Turk’s auction.

The story here is that this collection was part of a business providing boating film props that are no longer need – there’s more on this at Rowing for Pleasure. I do hope the important boats all go to good homes!

My thanks to the good folks of the Openboat Yahoogroup for bringing this to public attention.

Here’s a Keep Turning Left video about tides, caulking and why Dylan could not have a wooden boat because he isn’t a good enough person… I think a lot of us might be in that category!

As so often with Keep Turning Left, the clip’s funny and opinionated, and the boatbuilder at the centre of it all shows remarkable good humour despite the film-maker’s prodding questions.

Dylan tells me this saintly man is Brian Upson, and that he runs a boatyard at Slaughden Quay, Aldeburgh. More power to his caulking elbow, I say.

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Check Rule 15 – was it sponsored by the department of marine regulation at the University of the Bloody Obvious, or do the organisers have an off-the-wall sense of humour?

Sticker on a beautiful Riva, hand-cut pedal crank made from plywood

The good folks of Melbourne, Australia, have just held their first Wooden Boat Festival, and local Wooden Boat Association member Richard Monfries has put a nice report on his weblog Wooden it be Nice, and this excellent Flickr set of photos.

Another local and regular intheboatshed.net correspondent Dale Appleton also took some photos of the show. From his relatively smaller collection, I particularly liked best is the one at the top of this post about piratical behaviour at the top of this post, closely followed by the sticker on a beautiful Riva speedboat that quietly announces that it has been serviced by a company in Monaco in Europe, which even in our times must seem very exotic and distant to many of the folks of South Australia, and the beautifully made hand-cut plywood crank mechanism. After all that painstaking effort, I wonder how well it works?

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Round Britain slow sailer and film-maker Dylan Winter has put up an 18-minute piece of film about sailing around the Walton Backwaters, and about the explosives dock at Oakley Quay.

The video is part of his ongoing Keep Turning Left video project and is his first paid-for film download – for the princely sum of $0.99. There’s a taster on his homepage.

Dylan calls the new video 18 minutes of pleasure and the next best thing to sailing. It seems a trifle hyperbolic as claims go – but as we emerge from yet another nasty winter of bad weather and grimmer news and disasters, I’d say that he definitely has a point.

Just looking at the taster, clock the lovely yawl pictured in evening light early on – do I recognise a well known and recently built Alfred Strange yawl? I think perhaps I do…

The Backwaters are a small area of estuary packed with islands and channels, and make an interesting sheltered sailing areafor visiting boaters with a series of quays and settlements around its perimeter. I haven’t been there myself, but it’s definitely on my agenda, and it happens that I’ve been reading about the area while travelling to work in London this week, along with the sad, tired army of London’s commuters.

My companion on the train has been FB Cooke’s unconventional pilot Coastwise Cruising, which turns out to be as refreshing as Dylan’s film. For more on Cooke, click here.

He starts for the Backwaters from the Stour, and as he setsoff I can just smell the sea and the hot summer day to come.

‘After studying the chart we come to the conclusion that we must start at about 8am to make sure of carrying the ebb out of the Stour and down Harwich Harbour to the Cliff Foot buoy… It is a jolly morning, with just a suggestion of haze which means heat later on. We are sorry to say goodbye to Wrabness, but at the same time we are anxious to visit Walton Creek and Hamford Waters which on the chart look intriguing.

‘Getting our anchor, we start away down the Stour close-hauled on the starboard tack.’

Ahhhhh! I think Dylan and old FB Cooke have a lot in common…

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Rocinante at Reedham

Keith Johnston has kindly written in with some photos and the story of a boat that’s often moored at Reedham on the Norfolk Broads. It’s an intriguing boat that looks like a Thames slipper launch, but which nevertheless has a completely different background. I’ll let Keith tell the story:

We were approaching Reedham on the Norfolk Broads when I noticed a boat which looked rather like a slipper launch and, as I had just finished building one, I decided to make enquiries because this appeared to be a boat out of its normal habitat.

There are two boat yards at Reedham so it didn’t take a lot of searching to find the background to this good looking vessel. I found Steve Sanderson at Hall’s Old Boatyard and he was kind enough to tell me the story of this particular boat.

Rocinante as her reincarnation is called, is not a slipper launch at all but a 1903 23ft Norfolk racing launch, the original of which Steve found on a Yarmouth demolition site in an extreme state of dereliction – and about to be burnt.

However, being a proper wooden boat enthusiast he decided that the boat should be restored or at least saved. He brought the remains to his boatyard in Reedham and he began talking to his friends and neighbours about the boat in general. During this period he slowly started to restore at least the hull and over a quite long period, as this boat was his own rather than a customer’s, he got the shape of the hull and eventually the planking into a good enough condition to really go for a complete restoration. As work progressed, one customer expressed interest in having a fibreglass moulding of the boat so that he could have a relatively maintenance-free but first-class looking replica, not for racing but for general leisure use.

Another friend with a boatyard capable of making a fibreglass mould from the restored vessel also expressed interest in having a moulding and so eventually a deal was done, a mould was made and two mouldings were taken from it.

Steve then fitted out one of the fibreglass hulls as a single-cockpit picnic launch with a small diesel engine to comply with the modern speed restrictions and current ecological outlook. As can be seen from the pictures she is a very handsome launch of which both the owner and particularly Steve should be very proud.

On the way back to Wroxham I found the other hull, now fully fitted and moored in Horning. From the river and with a cover on she looks virtually identical to Rocinante – however, I am told that she has been fitted with an American marine diesel engine of 4.8 litres, which should put this launch very definitely back in the racing category!

I did some research and found that launch racing started on Thursday 23rd August 1903; the inaugural race was during Oulton Broad Sailing Regatta Week that year organised by the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht Club under the auspices of the Norfolk Automobile and Launch Club. Six boats competed in a single heat, and the race was won by a steam launch named Monarch – but by 1910 there were big changes. There’s an interesting club history on the website http://www.lobmbc.co.uk.

Thanks Keith! I gather one thing Keith hasn’t been able to clear up is what happened to the original boat. Was it ever fully restored, and if so where did it end up? It would be interesting to know!

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The latest Water Craft will be with us any day

It’s almost time for the next edition of Water Craft magazine to land on our doormats – so what’s in store this time around? Lots of boating goodies as usual – including the first of two big features by our friend Ben Crawshaw in which he reports on his adventures sailing his Light Trow named Onawind Blue. That feels like a real privilege, I must say, even though I’d prefer to seem my design used for rather less extreme adventures…

Here’s what Water Craft editor Pete Greenfield has to say about the upcoming issue:

So – how has boat craftsmanship, amateur and professional, fared through the long hard winter and the much longer and harder recession? In W80, we seem to have some of the answers.

Interestingly, for many professional wooden boat builders, the answer seems to be they are managing rather nicely thank you… though mostly with repairs rather than new builds.

At Peter Freebody & Co, for example, spiritual home of so many traditional Thames craft, Melanie Freebody tells Kathy Mansfield there may be snow on the roof but the boatshops beneath have rarely been busier.

Giving up the well-paid but stressful job in IT to learn to build wooden boats is a good idea for some. Certainly, on a dark dank morning in December when the students of 2009 launched the fascinating variety of craft they’d built at the Boat Building Academy at Lyme Regis, our Dick Phillips detected little stress… though maybe the champagne helped.

No nerves on the part of our tame amateur boatbuilder Peter Goad either, when Messrs Phillips and Chesworth turned up to sail the Cape Henry 21. Perhaps, as Peter explains in his final fit-out article, a five-year project encourages a relaxed and patient frame of mind.

Watch, on YouTube.com, Ben Crawshaw’s reports on sailing a small boat in the Med and you’ll see rather more evident anxiety. And reading about how he built his first boat, a slender lugger called a Light Trow intended for more sedate waters, in a public garden in Spain, you’ll encounter few manyana moments.

More sail than oar but definitely a craft to cope with exhilarating sea sailing, we think Paul Gartside’s free plans, complete with lines and offsets, for his 20ft (6m) lugger will persuade many a putative backyard boatbuilder to stop saying manyana and take the plunge.

As may the editor’s outdoor boat….

But outdoors, as Colin Henwood of Henwood & Dean Boatbuilders explains in his masterclass on painting and varnishing is not the ideal place to give your boat the finest finish for the new season. You need a big tent, kind-of like Water Craft itself.

Buy a subscription now (see the link in our right-hand column here at intheboatshed.net and pay with your credit card via PayPal) or find the March-April Water Craft in your local newsagents – to find a stockist in the UK see http://availability.mmcltd.co.uk

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Scruffie Marine boat kit importer Whisper Boats’ reports that the 18th Scruffie kit boat in the UK is due to arrive at Tilbury in a couple of weeks.

Whisper boss Max Campbell says the new boat will be a Scintilla 24ft trailer sailer, but the most popular Scruffie model in the UK has been the Secret, of which there are 11 in the UK, nine of which are still in build. Scruffie Marine is based in Australia, and its boats are designed by Derek Ellard.

The Secret has a round bilge hull built from plywood – see the photos below showing how this is done. Here’s what Max has to say about it:

‘Essentially, we build a double chine hull, with a narrow, parallel-sided, intermediate chine panel, which is then packed out over-sized with cedar – triangle section down the edges, and square or rectangle section (about 3in thick) in the middle. This is then faired back to a profile – a piece of ply with the curve cut in it. You have then, in effect, laminated up a huge stringer, running most of the length of the boat at waterline level.

‘We hit a submerged object on the River Avon when motoring at a good 5 knots, that skewed the boat sideways a couple of feet, but the only damage was to the surface paintwork! The whole hull is sheathed with glass cloth and epoxy.’

Rounding-out the hull of a Secret: attaching chine panels, bottom panels in place, chine thicknessing with cedar, fairing along side and at transom, sheathing with glass cloth

See Whisper Boats’ Youtube homepage for clips of the Secret sailing.

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It’s peaceful as I write at 7.30 in the evening – but you should see it during the day!

Giacomo de Stefano is building one of Iain Oughtred’s Ness Yawls online this week – but you may have to be quick to catch it judging by the speed he and his friends were working working at when I looked earlier today. Click on the image to see what’s going on.

I should explain that Mr de Stefano plans to row and sail this boat from London (he’s leaving on the 15th April by the way) to Istanbul in a kind of new-age bid to forge a new relationship between man and nature. It’s a big ask, but then so is his target of sailing and rowing his way to Istanbul in the space of six months with little or no financial backing.

Anyway, he plans to have his boat built in four weeks, and from what I’ve seen he’s likely to make that target. Click on the photo above to catch a little of the action. See his Man on the River project website here: http://www.manontheriver.com

For many more intheboatshed.net posts about boats built from Iain Oughtred’s plans, click here.

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Wooden Boat Association members of the Melbourne and East Gippsland areas out on the water – click on the image for a video of local members’ boats

The people of Melbourne are going to have fun this coming weekend – for their Victoria Harbour is to be home to the first Melbourne Wooden Boat Festival.

The event involves all of the major wooden boat and classic yacht groups in the area, and is intended to be a great event for boating enthusiasts but also connect the broader public with the spirit of wooden boats, boating and traditional boatbuilding.

It sounds like a big old do, with on-water and landside displays, model sailing and racing boats, trade displays, shanty singers, in-harbour sailing, working boats displays, boat maintenance classes, a shipwright’s conference. Naturally there will be sailing, rowing, steamships, tall ships, knot tying, boatbuilding, book stores, classic powerboats and, thankfully, the coastguard will be on hand to tell people how to do it all safely. It’s all being organised by the local Wooden Boat Association, and I think they’re showing a great deal of enterprise.

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It is entertaining, it doesn’t last too long and it is in a good cause! And if you can’t be bothered with the video, go straight to http://www.keepturningleft.co.uk.

Charles Stock making his customary good use of his wellies. Image copyright Tony Smith (aka Creeksailor) and used with permission

I’ve stumbled across a series of short Youtube videos featuring Charles Stock, a legend among small boat sailors, particularly on the Thames Estuary and East Coast of England.

An enthusiastic sailor since he was a kid, in 1963 Stock created a new cutter-rigged boat for himself using a 16ft Uffa Fox-designed hull made by Fairey and the rigging from an old half-decker he bought in 1948. The result was Shoal Waters, a small wooden boat in which he has sailed regularly ever since without an engine and without a tender – instead, he follows the tides, moors in shallow water and, if he wishes to do so, goes ashore in a pair of rubber wellie boots.

He’s kept meticulous logs and accounts ever since, travelled over 70,000 nautical miles in his boat, written countless articles, taught sailing and navigation to evening classes for decades and wrote an excellent book, Sailing Just for Fun: High Adventure on a Small Budget, which has sold well over 4000 copies.

He also has his own website: http://shoal-waters.moonfruit.com.

Here are the Youtube videos:

Charles Stock 1

Charles Stock 2

Charles Stock 3

Charles Stock 4

Charles Stock 5

Charles Stock 6

Charles Stock 7

Charles Stock 8

Charles Stock 9

Charles Stock 10

Charles Stock 11

Charles Stock 12

Charles Stock talks about choosing the hull for Shoal Waters

Youtube tends to encourage anonymity, so at this stage I don’t really know who recorded and put the clips – but his Youtube home page and extensive collection of videos are here: http://www.youtube.com/user/creeksailor

Creeksailor also has a weblog here: http://creeksailor.blogspot.com

More photos of Shoal Waters in action appear here: http://www.saileastcoast.co.uk/shoalwaters.htm

I’ve also pasted a photo below from Paul Mullings, who has this to say:

‘Hi Gav

Ben Crawshaw sailing Onawind Blue in ‘entertaining’ conditions

Not for the first time, in the middle of a grey British winter, Ben Crawshaw has posted a Youtube clip of himself enjoying sailing his boat Onawind Blue on a sunlit blue sea. He’s obviously having a riot and I’m filled with envy.

There’s a serious message here for all of us: even in the UK this could be you, this summer. Get or build a boat and let’s all go sailing!

For more posts about our friend Ben and his Light Trow, click here.

Photos from Raid Finland some years ago (photos from Richard Wynne); there’s a report on the latest Raid Finland at Duckworks

Henley Whalers group members George Trevelyan and Geoff Probert have organised a rowing and sailing ‘raid‘ event on the English South Coast for modern and wooden boats. It’s scheduled for the few days between 28th July and the 1st August 2010, starting from the Western end of the Solent.

A raid is an organised rowing and sailing passage in company in open boats, sometimes made of wood and traditional, sometimes more modern, powered by sail and oar, and supported by an organiser’s launch or rescue boat. In addition, arrangements are made to carry participants luggage from one overnight stopover to another!

Raids are generally non-competitive events, but often include fun prizes to recognise special qualities and achievements, and there are sometimes short sailing or rowing races.

I should explain that the word ‘raid’ here comes from the French organisers of the pioneer events and isn’t meant to imply anyone plans to attack homes and villages en route.

The idea of the raids first became popular in Portugal and Scotland in the 1990s and successful events have been held on the Douro River in Portugal, the Great Glen of Scotland, and in Sweden, Finland, Italy and Holland. To enter boats need to be equipped for sail and oar, and must be able to support their crew out of water after a capsize, and to be righted unaided to carry on sailing. They will be expected to cover around 15 miles daily.

One of the organisers’ objectives is to attract users who own traditional open sailing boats on the Solent, particularly scows and prams, along with the whalers, gigs, yawls and so on more frequently seen at raid-style events. The maximum number of entries for the new event is 20 boats, so I would expect the places to sell out quickly. It you’d like to be involved, contact English Raid via its website: http://www.raidengland.org

Flying 10s at the Lancashire Sailing Club long ago

Can anyone help Robert Macdonald please – he has written in to ask for photos and information about built examples of Flying Twelves.

I could only send him links to the posts we’ve had mentioning Flying Tens – see this and this. I should have added that early in intheboatshed.net’s career I met a pleasant elderly gentleman on a train who had sailed Twelves until recent years but I lost touch with him. The whole thing was too tantalising for words…

Anyway, this is what Robert has to say about his interest:

‘I’ve long been a fan of Uffa Fox. He has a legacy here in Toronto, Ontario where more than fifty Albacores race together every Friday night in the summer. I wish that some of his Flying Fifteens raced here as well!

‘While I was looking at the Uffa Fox website last year I discovered the Flying Twelve, the Flying Fifteen’s little sister. The idea of a sleek little planing keelboat the size of a dinghy got me hooked! I e-mailed Tony Dixon, Uffa’s nephew, and bought a set of Flying Twelve plans, which duly came in the mail. I’m not a boatbuilder and if I do build the Twelve, the project will be in many steps. I’ll probably first try a smaller flat sectioned boat, like a Mirror. If I ever do put a Flying Twelve in the water, it will be a solid and safe, and pretty boat.

‘Tony told me some about the design’s history and I found stuff on the Web (including Uffa’s wonderful story about designing the Fifteen), but there were no photos. Then I came across pictures here on intheboatshed.net of a Flying Ten at the Beale Park Boat Show; it’s the smallest of the Flying family, 14ft long, and designed for junior sailing. What immediately struck me was that it wasn’t a stubby version of the Fifteen, but slimly beautiful like its big sister. Which showed me what I wanted to see but don’t have a boatbuilder’s eye to see clearly from the plans – it’s clear that the Twelve would be a real pocket version of the Fifteen. So I’m grateful to intheboatshed editor Gavin Atkin for the pictures.

‘If you have a picture of a Flying Twelve and could forward it to Gavin (at gmatkin@gmail.com) to post for me and the world to look at, it would highlight the range of the Flying family of sailboats, and I would be very thankful. The story behind the picture would be just as good!

‘Robert MacDonald’

So… can anyoner out there help? If you can, please use the comment button below, or write to me directly at gmatkin@gmail.com and I will be delighted to pass the relevant material on to Robert.

Nathan Richie and Jeroen Porters built this Iain Oughtred-designed Tirrik at the Boatbuilding Academy and launched it at the big student launch on the 5th December.

Although set up as a rowing boat in these photos, the 16ft 10in Tirrik is Iain O’s take on a Ness boat. Double-ended, glued clinker in mahogany ply, the it has a beam of 5ft 4in, a centreboard and, since leaving the Academy, has been rigged as a sailing boat.

Nathan is going to use it to sail with his family. I gather the Tirrik will be featured in the next edition of Water Craft magazine, btw.

As the final photo shows, the designer called in on the Academy during the build – it was meant to be a brief visit, but he but ended up staying overnight and giving the students an impromptu lecture on boat design with illustrations.

Nathan was previously an IT consultant who owned a chain of clothing shops, but he always wanted to get into the marine industry and has previously earned RYA Yachtmaster and TDI diving certificates. It seems to run in the family, for while Nathan was at the Academy, his son Craig joined the 8-week woodworking skills course. They’re hoping to build a 40ft-ish boat when time and money allows.

Jeroenhas just applied for a job at the North Norwegian Boat Museum. He has also bought the plans for a Francois Vivier le Seil 18, which he plans to start building if – and when – he moves to Norway. His weblog of the course is online – it’s in Dutch but, even if you can’t read, it the photos are worth looking at.

The cut out components of Norman’s skiff wait to be taped and stitched together; the model on his desk proved the principle

Norman Fuller has started work on the rowing version of the Ella skiff, a simple 12ft stitch and glue flattie skiff named after my daughter. He lives in Norwich, close to the Norfolk Broads, and I gather intends to take it to the Barton Broad UK Home Built Boat Rally event in May – so let’s all wish him luck with his project. It’s looking good so far, and I’m pleased to see he built a model first.

Making a model is always a good first step, not least because it boosts the builder’s confidence in the design and the process.

For more on the rowing version of the Ella skiff, click here.

Barton skiff construction drawings

I’m shattered, but it’s been worth it because I’m now ready to share the key construction details of my simple stitch and glue outboard skiff designed for use with a low-powered outboard of 5hp or so – and certainly not much more, not least because the prop won’t fit!!!

I should add that my usual caveats apply here. I have no qualifications to design boats and make no claims for the performance or safety of this craft. I accept no responsibility for any accident or loss that may be incurred during building or use of this boat. What I have drawn must be regarded as experimental.

If you’re still interested, here are my key construction drawings: Barton-skiff-plans-package . Expect them to add up to around a meg, as I’ve included dxf files for those who like that kind of thing. I guess they will also be useful for anyone who wants to check a particular dimension. If anyone finds an error, please let me know!

The notes are sketchy to say the least, but I have it in mind that the bottom and frames should be of 1/2in ply, while the sides can be of 3/8ths. I’d advocate using marine ply, covering it well with glass and epoxy, and using gapped inwales of 2in by 1in, with 1in blocks.

There are people out there who will be relieved to know I’m about to get started on another VERY IMPORTANT NEW PROJECT! I’m saying nothing yet though – it has to remain a secret for now.

See some earlier posts relating to the Barton/Low power skiff project:

Low power skiff – the nested panels
Poole canoes – the motorised flat-bottomed skiffs of Poole Harbour
A model of the Low-power skiff
New low-power skiff sketches and model drawings

Another newly boat in the Boatbuilding Academy launch in December was an Iain Oughtred Auk built by Paul Braker and Joe Flynn. Piggly Wiggly is a 7ft 10in glued clinker design built in plywood, epoxy and mahogany, which  Paul will use as a tender for his current boat and to give he and his partner Sarah’s seven children something to mess about in.

Paul worked in IT until the economic situation made him look at what he really wanted to do – and he chose boat building.

My thanks to the Academy’s Yvonne Green for the photos.

The nested panels for the Low-power skiff. Click on the thumbnail above for a larger image

This may not look like much to you, but to me it represents the latest stage in quite a few hours work, first defining the overall form of the 16ft small outboard skiff project I’m working on for a friend, then developing the panels required to create it, and then figuring out how to nest them into 4 by 8ft panels of ply for stitch and glue construction with the least waste.

As you can probably imagine, it’s been keeping me busy lately – and I need to get it out of the way because I have a VERY IMPORTANT new project to start and complete. Watch out for that, if you’re interested…

What are all the components I’ve plotted here? The top row are the heavy weights – the 1/2in components including the breasthook, bottom, central girder (my friend asked for that to ensure the bottom came out the right shape), the main frames, and the doubled frame on which we’re going to hang the outboard. The bottom row are the 3/8ths components, including the sides, bits of decks and so on. The next task is to plot about a million coordinates to enable my pal to cut the thing out accurately, and with all these parts to work with the task should keep both of us busy for some time!

One thing that doesn’t appear here that I’m also thinking about is a proper name, and I have to say that I haven’t thought of one that seems to suit it. I did wonder about naming it after my grandmother, whose name was Elsie, but she wasn’t exactly low powered. Then I thought about our sweet pet dog during my childhood, but her name, Sooty, doesn’t seem to fit. And then I thought about my elegant sister – but I suspect she wouldn’t thank me for naming a fairly utilitarian boat design after her. So how about a place name? How about the Barton skiff, which might be named after the place where I first conceived the notion that such a boat should exist. What do you folks think? Does this design look like it could be called the Barton skiff to you?

To find out more about this low-powered outboard skiff project, click here and here, and, for something I learned about after drawing this skiff and which seemed to endorse my concept, click here.

ALSO – see the latest post on this project.

John  Watson and Dave Snelling’s 12 1/2 Haven on student launch day in December

John Watson and build partner Dave Snelling built the Joel White Haven 12 1/2 version of Nat Herreschoff’s 12 1/2 Buzzard’s Bay Boy’s Boat during their course at the Builtbuilding Academy, reports principal Yvonne Green.

While the original design has a full keel, the Joel White version has a centreboard, making it possible to bring the boat into  shallow waters and easier to trailer. The boat is Douglas fir strip planked and sheathed in glass fibre, has a cast lead ballast keel, and is 15ft 11in in length with a beam of 6ft 1in.

Neither John nor David were doing practical work before they came on the course at Lyme – for the last thirty years John has worked in corporate law in America, while Dave, although he worked in the marine industry at the beginning of his career, has been working in IT. Yvonne says the boat was quite an achievement, but John and Dave were incredibly focused on the course and worked steadily to complete it in the six months they had on the main workshop floor.

16ft gentleman’s runabout Lola, built to a design by C G Petterson, and photographed at the Boatbuilding Academy’s student launch day in December

Lars Herfeldt built this very pretty motorboat during his Boatbuilding Academy course at Lyme using plans by the Swedish designer CG Pettersson.

Academy principle Yvonne Green reports that Lola, which is named after one of Lars’ grandchildren, is a 16ft cold moulded motorboat made from two layers of 3mm plywood with a final layer of mahogany veneer laid fore and aft to simulate a more traditional carvel planking construction.

While on the course Lars wrote a weblog that includes the boat build but also of his life while living at the Academy on the course – it’s in German but includes many excellent photos including a series showing one of the famous Beer luggers going about. He also played Father Christmas at the Academy Christmas dinner, at which Yvonne says he managed to look as if he’d stepped out of a Norman Rockwell illustration.

For more photos from the student launch, check out Edward Pearson’s Picasa photo set of the event.

Intheboatshed.net readers may be interested to know that Lars is returning to the Academy in September to instruct a residential course on building West Greenland kayaks in September, at which up to eight students will build a traditional kayak over ten days – course members will stay at nearby Trill Farm and build the boats in the farm’s  magnificent old barn.

Many thanks for the story Yvonne – and don’t forget to tell us more about the kayak course, as I think there will be some interest from readers!

Richard Chamberlain has written to ask for information about a Falmouth boatbuilder that seems to be called Shed 55, which used to be locaed at the docks in the town. This is what he has written:

‘I have purchased a 1970 cruiser originally called Windana and that was owned at that time by Derek Bell, a builder of Camborne and then Feock, Truro. In 1987 she belonged to Ray Law of Northwich, Cheshire and was renamed Emaray, and again changed hands around 1995 to Peter Sheene of Letchmore, Herts, who again renamed her, this time to Sandpiper 93.

‘Between being built and 1987 she had a wheelhouse fitted making her a trawler yacht. From the many photos and paper work I thought she was a “one off” boat but by chance I saw the last few minutes of a documentary in which a boat that was Sandpiper’s twin escorting three yachts through the Suez Canal. I believe this boat was called either Lady Pamela or Pauline and would love to know if anybody can help me trace Sandpipers ’sister boats’.

‘Sandpiper is now moored in Alcudia, Mallorca and is being restored her to her former glory. She is glassfibre over wooden ribs and very strong: her hull is in perfect condition. She has a solid teak deck all round. The interior is all hand finished in mahogany, with all doors hand-made and fitted with louvres.

‘Richard’

Please contact me at gmatkin@gmail.com and I’ll pass the message on the Richard – alternatively, please use the comment button below.

It’s almost impossible to pick out my favourite posts of the year – there are simply too many, and for too many different reasons.

For example, the editor-residents of Intheboatshed.net Towers would have no difficulty picking out the students’ launch at the Boatbuilding Academy in December, but for entirely different reasons we’d equally easily choose the astonishing details of the wherry yacht Hathor, or the various posts on the zulus of the Scottish West Coast, or the review of the lovely new book Holmes of the Humber, or, for that matter, the story of the Iain Oughtred-designed St Ayles skiff and the Scottish Coastal Rowing Project.

And how remiss would we be if we failed to mention Ben Crawshaw’s awesome sailing exploits in his Light Trow, or Dylan Winter’s wonderful Keep Turning Left videos about sailing anti-clockwise around the coasts of Great Britain? I’d like to offer my apologies if I’ve left out your favourites here, but I’m working from memory here – I simply haven’t got the energy required to re-read the 250-or so posts I’ve put up this year.

With the hit-counter below cruising gently towards our millionth, what were readers’ favourite posts? There seems little doubt that the posts that have caught most people’s interest have been about free boat building plans. For example, the post announcing the boatbuilding plans for the Julie skiff 15ft 8in plywood flattie rowing boat has been viewed a whopping 27,647 times. We think it goes to show how powerful is the draw of free plans – but also how effective an advert on this site can be.

A little behind that comes a favourite with model makers and admirers of small Scottish skiffs, A challenge for home boatbuilders: a sweet 10ft clinker-built double-ended skiff, our boatbuilding plans for the sailing version of the 12ft plywood Ella skiff and for the boatbuilding plans for the Sunny 14ft plywood rowing flattie.

Why not let us know what your favourites of the year might have been? We’re very friendly and can be reached at gmatkin@gmail.com.

What will next year bring at intheboatshed.net? It’s impossible to say who will be in touch and what they may send me for publication. I only hope they continue to do so. In the meantime, I can tell you about two projects that are in the works here, the Low -power outboard skiff, and a mark II stitch and glue version of the well tried Light Trow rower-sailer in both its rowing and sailing versions.

Poole canoes, photographed by John Lockwood

Home Built Boat Rally UK (HBBR) member John Lockwood has sent me these photos of a British Isles flattie I hadn’t known about until recently: the oddly-named Poole canoe.

The British Isles aren’t generally thought of as the home of flat-bottomed boats, and I can’t tell you how often I have told me that a flat-bottomed boat can’t work. And yet, there are quite a few around our inland waters and even on our coasts, including the turf boats and flatners of Somerset, the punts of the Rivers Thames and Cam, various gun punts, the Fleet trow and the Wexford cot. And, of course, going up-scale a range of lighters and coastal barge types including the celebrated Thames barge have flat bottoms.

So I was pleased a few weeks ago to learn of the Poole canoe a few weeks ago, and I’m now grateful to John for capturing these slender flattie skiffs with his camera before the original wooden boats disappear. I have the impression that they range up to around 22ft by 4ft or a little over. Thanks for the informative shots John!

A message from ‘Tranona’ on the PBO forum suggests that the boats built in the area for use in Poole Harbour were built by eye – and that British Seagull proprieter Mr Weyhope spent years experimenting to get the best speed out of the boats driven by a Seagull 102 model, which I’d guess was a 2hp type. Looking at the boats in these pictures, they mostly have the small amount of rocker I would expect for a low powered boat, though one or two seem to have rather flatter runs, which would suggest they were intended for a bigger power plant.

In this connection, some weeks ago I put up a post linking to an online ad in which someone was selling an old Seagull outboard still in its original packaging, and accompanied by a set of drawings for building a flat-bottomed skiff, which I suppose is likely to be one of Mr Weyhope’s designs. I’ve posted a tiny thumbnail of the drawings at the bottom of this post, and although it only affords a little information there seems little doubt that the ‘20ft trunnel boat‘ it presents is a Poole canoe, or something very like it.

I must say that I’m particularly interested in these boats at the moment, as they are so similar to a design project I’ve been working on for a friend for some time, and I can’t help feeling that they’re a kind of endorsement of the basic idea.

My project is a little different – my ‘client’ wanted a flat-bottomed design he could build in his garage and that would work with a 4-5hp motor rather than Mr Weyhope’s 2hp model – but the drawings I made before I’d even heard of the Poole canoe seem very like the South Coast boats. See my initial drawings here.

I plan to complete them as soon as I can decide whether the end of the prop should be inside or outside the transom when raised – I notice that the long wells seen in most of these photos imply that the prop is inside the well when the motor is raised – and yet I wouldn’t want to find a flailing prop in my well after hitting an underwater obstruction. Does anyone have any insights on this question?

By the way, I gather GRP Poole canoes are still made for fishermen by Salterns and that the yard has developed a higher powered 22ft model designed for sun bathing, fishing and exploring Poole Harbour, and powered by a 30hp electric start outboard. It even comes with a sun deck, picnic table, cool box, navigation lights, fishing rod holders, a tray in the stern for ring netting and flush decks. All of that seems a long way from the boats in the photos!

Thanks for the shots John!

Osbert’s nicely shaped John Welsford designed Walkabout dinghy

I’d like to draw attention to Osbert Lancaster’s weblog, Firth of Forthy by sail and oar.

He’s recording two projects at the same time: setting up a new canoe and kayaking club and building one of John Welsford’s Walkabout cruising dinghies. Of these two, I think it’s safe to say that the Walkabout is the most difficult – but there’s no doubt that Osbert is surmounting his challenges and turning out a beautiful looking boat. As one of his neighbours said: ‘You must be fair chuffed.’

Osbert’s a member of the UK messabout group UK Home Built Boat Rally.

Miles away in a place where the weather is much warmer than it is here, Jacques Molinaris’ carvel-built Mouseboat called OSM has been launched and sailed for the first time from a Vietnamese beach. He writes:

‘Good evening Gav.’

‘OSM is born, I launched her four days ago. She is a nice little fast boat, even if some things have to be improved like the shape of the sail and the kick-down rudder system.

‘I think she is heavier than the ply original design: about 90kg.

‘Sailing conditions are often difficult in NT bay and unhappily I have been rolled down by the shore surf when landing. Nothing broken on the boat (she is very strong) but I got a sprained knee! I’m forbidden from walking for three weeks but I am happy with my boat… See you again

‘Jacques’

It sounds like a success to me, even if the water Jacques sailing upon is a little wilder than I had in mind when I designed her! Get well soon Jacques – I want to know how she goes please when you get those little details right.

For more on this boat and the free plans for building it, click here.

I’m charmed today that Edward Powers has sent me these photos of his model of the Low-power skiff I’ve been designing for a friend, and which I have written about here at intheboatshed.net.

Thanks Edward! I’m grateful for the photos of his smart model boat, and for the reminder that there are people out there who would like me to finish the drawings – I will, just as soon as I’m confident I’ve drawn an outboard well that won’t cause any problems. For more on the Low-power skiff, including initial sketches and a download for making a model, click here.

Water Craft editor Pete Greenfield has written to say that the January-February issue of his magazine will be in the newsagents from the 17th December. Here’s what he has to say:

Well, if you’ll permit the conceit that a boating magazine can have a sub-plot, this issue’s can be summed up as: What a difference a wooden boat specialist can make.

Wooden boat specialists like…

Alec Jordan of Jordan Boats who joined forces with the Scottish Fisheries Museum to launch the Scottish Coastal Rowing Project, commissioning Iain Oughtred to design the 20ft (6m) St Ayles Skiff, which local groups can build from a modestly priced pre-cut plywood kit. Amateur wooden boat builder Chris Perkins describes how they built the prototype.

Wooden boat builder and designer Matt Newland of Swallow Boats combines ply-epoxy hull construction with water ballast and carbon spars to produce the 20’ (6m) Baycruiser, the most innovative and exciting small cruising yacht in years.

Wooden boat designer Francois Vivier whose p-ractical pocket gaffer Meaban is now also available as a pre-cut plywood kit for home completion.

Wooden boat builder and designer Paul Gartside of Nova Scotia gives us full plans + offsets for a traditional round-sterned workboat with so much character you’ll want to get a craftsman to build her for you. But who? Perhaps one of the members of the…

Wooden Boatbuilders Trade Association. Wherever you live in the UK and whether you want a wooden boat built or restored, using traditional or modern methods, there’s a WBTA member not too far away with all the skills to do the job.

And one wooden boat builder who will be long remembered around Cornwall and beyond…

Ralph Bird, the great Cornish pilot gig enthusiast who sadly passed away in November, having built no less than 29 gigs and enthused a whole new generation of rowers.

It sounds like another great issue packed with material to me. It’s nice to see the old practice of magazines publishing plans coming back, and good also to see the WBTA getting itself some publicity, by the way.

Subscribe to Water Craft now

Reader Brian Pearson has kindly given me permission to put up a few of the photos he and his son took of the Boatbuilding Academy’s student launch day last Saturday. Thanks Brian!

He tells me that it was a really nice event with lots of people, a watery winter sun – which was great after all the terrible weather we’ve been having – and lots of lovely boats and happy boat builders with their families.

There will be more when principal Yvonne Green manages to send some over together with details of the boats, as I hope she will – and perhaps with luck the students themselves will chip in also.

I must say there are some delightful pieces of work here – particularly the pram with no metal components of any kind. Take a bow, boatbuilding students of Lyme!

Here’s some more of my brother Matt Atkin’s striking photos from Hong Kong - to see an earlier post click here. Once again, I don’t think either of us can say much about what the boats are, but it’s fascinating to see shots of a working and dwelling boat-using culture so very different from the one we know here in cold, rainy winter-bound Kent.

Thanks once again Matt!