intheboatshed.net

Diana Berry, a descendant of six of the original Mystery
crew, names the Spirit of Mystery; the crowds turn out
to watch the ceremony. Click on the images for a
bigger picture! Photos by Mark Lloyd of Lloyd Images

Spirit of Mystery naming ceremony - Pete Goss’s replica Cornish lugger is named by original crew descendant Diana Berry.

Royal timber helps restore historic Lynn fishing boat

For love of a boat - racing seine boats on the River Teign

The ancient wooden boat retrieved from the Huong River in May - marine archaeology in Vietnam

Lance Lee and Lansing Madura - Indonesian fishing boat revealed by the weblog Indigenous Boats

Photos of the new pilot gig Rebel, built at the Boat Building Academy -
in the first Gail McGarva sits under the boat she project-managed.
As usual, click on the thumbnails for much larger photos

Lyme Regis’s well known Boat Building Academy agreed to build a pilot gig for the newly formed Lyme Regis Gig Club just over a year ago. It doesn’t normally undertake commercial work but this was a commission the Academy couldn’t refuse, according to principal Yvonne Green.

Former student and British Marine Federation Trainee of the Year 2005 turned instructor Gail McGarva project-managed the build and involved as many students and members of the local community as possible, including evening classes for members of the gig club to make their own oars - all of the school contributed even down to knocking in a rivet.

The students were not involved on a day to day basis as they were busy with their own boats but because the gig was in the main workshops it seems to have made a useful teaching aid, and Yvonne reports that the gig was launched on the 29th June with due ceremony. The mayor, the vicar, the town crier, students and the town all came, blessings were read, salt was strewn and the gig was rowed successfully across Lyme Regis’s sizeable bay.

‘The pilot gig measurers said it was one of the best gigs they had seen,’ she adds with pride.

Lyme Regis Gig Club named the new boat Rebel after the Duke of Monmouth, who started his 17th-century rebellion against the Crown on Monmouth beach, where the Boat Building Academy now stands.

Follow the link for more on the Boat Building Academy.

The Telegraph newspaper recently published a long feature on the Academy. I’m envious by the way - I wish people would commission me to write pieces like that!

For more intheboatshed.net posts including material about pilot gigs, click here.

IBTC class of 2008

The International Boatbuilding Training College at Lowestoft in Suffolk is having an open day on Saturday the 11th October. It’s the only weekend day in the year that it’s open to visitors - so grasp the opportunity and get along if you can. It sounds very much like a grand day out to me…

Whether or not you can make it, you might be interested in these photos kindly supplied by Gill at the college - as usual, click on the image and a larger photo should pop up.