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16ft traditional West Country motor launch Lisa receives her engine

Hampshire-based boatbuilder Nick Smith has just sent me these photos of his current motor launch building project Louise as she has her engine put in place.

Here’s what he says:

‘Louise now has her engine fitted, her decks laid and her middle thwart in place. The next jobs are fitting coamings, gun’l cappings, bulkheads, side seats, rudder and tiller, engine controls, exhaust, fuel lines, sole boards and a list of smaller finishing off bits. Luckily for me, the customer is going to do the majority of the varnishing.

‘She may look like identical to the last build Lisa, but at 16 foot Louise is a foot shorter and less beamy at six foot, and her sheer is much flatter – you can see from the photos of Lisa on the water at Noss Mayo that she has quite a high bow for coastal tripping and fishing. [See the link below - ed]

‘So Louise is less ‘cocky’. I have built her smaller, lighter and finer, because the owners will dry sail her and need to be able to launch and recover easily.

‘The engine is a Vetus twin cylinder diesel rated at 11 hp , plenty of power for a boat of this size.

‘Thats it for now! Regards,

‘Nick’

Thanks Nick! For more photos of Louise during her build click here.

For photos of the previous build Lisa click here.

Nick comes from Devon, learned boatbuilding the traditional way and specialises in new builds in clinker and carvel for sail, motor and rowing power from 8ft to 28ft with a special emphasis on West Country style and design, and also takes on repairs and refits from 25ft to 50ft. These days he’s based in Hampshire, and can be contacted by email at nick_smith_boatbuilder@yahoo.com and by phone on phone on 07786 693370.

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A seriously cute Italian speedboat in the rain at the Beale Park Thames Boat Show. As usual, click on the thumbnails (including the big one) for much larger photos

This Avenger 21 made from carbon fibre belonged to offshore powerboat racer Tommy Sopwith, and was a tender to his yacht Philante V

Thunderbolt III belonged to hydroplane racing legend Len Melly

Two Broom speedboats. The upper example is for sale: see the third image above

1964 Tremlett 14 Zulu originally built for inshore racing

This message from a reader arrived just today and I hope the writer won’t object to my using his words anonymously: ‘I have had more fun on the internet since signing on to your site than I have in the last three years. You do a great service. Thanks A. Reader, USA’

Intheboatshed.net regular Jeff Cole has sent us a disk of splendid photos from the Australian Wooden Boat Festival at Hobart, Tasmania some weeks ago.

Jeff has kindly sent us many photos and images over the past couple of years, and his interests range far and wide across the boating and shipping scene, I rather liked some of these steamers and motor-powered craft – and of course the steam driven outboard is a hoot. There will be more to come over future weeks.

Many thanks Jeff!

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