intheboatshed.net

Saturday, Portsoy 2009. Not really a day for a race! As usual,
click on the thumbnails for some nice big photos

Award-winning lapstrake boat builder and Iain Oughtred boat plan specialist Chris Perkins has written to tell us a little about this year’s Scottish Traditional Boat Festival at Portsoy, and to share some of his photos. If you enjoy these, there are lots more at his weblog Strathkanchris’s Little World.

‘A few snaps for you from a very sultry Scottish Trad Boat Fest. Went to the seminar on Thursday. The session with the Swedish boatbuilders, the Ravinis brothers, was brilliant and I would have liked more, Iain Oughtred’s talk was enjoyable if a bit rushed, and  our American visitor Bob Walser on shanties was enjoyable – he has a good voice. I’m afraid that for me the history of the clippers, although well presented, wasn’t of great interest – they are far too big! Unfortunately I had to leave before Nigel Irens talk.

‘Saturday was a magical day. We were up at 05:30 so we could make the three-hour drive over in plenty of time to see the boats away. Lots of boats, bright skies and very little wind so the race turned into a bit of a drift around on glassy water – but the consolation was that the light was pretty darned good and created some good shots – well I like to think so!

‘It was an event that I think you and Julie would have hugely enjoyed. As always there was far to much to see and hear in the one day, one of these days I will take a boat over and ”do” the weekend properly.‘

Well Chris, it sounds irresistable. I’ll talk with Julie about 2010… Thanks for the photos!

I should add that Chris is a leading light of the Home Built Boat Rally group of British-based home boat builders.

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Photo by Kathy Mansfield

The harbour at the Scottish Traditional Boat Festival, Portsoy

This year the Scottish Traditional Boat Festival at Portsoy has been extended by two days this year to include a symposium of fascinating speakers from around the world, in addition to the boating programme.

Special seminars on shanty singing, boat design, sail weaving and gansey knitting will take place around the harbour, and the renovated Salmon Bothy opened last year will host exhibitions, demonstrations and entertainments, and there will even be a genealogical research facility for those wishing to explore their roots.

The Bothy, which opened at last year’s festival, is now a fully fledged museum of Portsoy’s history and the salmon fishery.

The programme of music, song and dance will feature internationally renowned shanty expert and singer Bob Walser. Bob is a hugely experienced performer, speaker and tutor, and is currently researching sea shanties and sailors’ songs as part of an international team preparing a heavyweight critical edition of the James Madison Carpenter folklore collection, funded by the British Academy and the National Endowment for the Humanities (USA) with the cooperation of the Library of Congress, the American Folklore Society and the Elphinstone Institute at the University of Aberdeen.

Click on this earlier intheboatshed.net post on James Madison Carpenter to hear some sailor’s voices from the past.

In fact, the more I look at the various bits of information available, the more I realise that Bob is just one of a stellar collection of speakers at Portsoy this year. Son of Aberdeen and now resident in the US, singer, knitter and weaver Noman Kennedy will demonstrate and perform.

Singer-demonstrators Bjorn Lunde and Johanne Tvedten from Norway will teach and demonstrate boatbuilding skills to children, while Fair Isle boatbuilder Ian Best will speak on the origins of Norwegian and Scottish traditional boat building.

Aberdeen Maritime Museum keeper John Edwards will discuss the great clipper ship traditions of the North East, while world-renowned yacht designer Nigel Irens will describe current and future development in boat design.

Wooden Boat magazine editor Matt Murphy will speak on the great classic yacht designs and small boat design legend Iain Oughtred will talk about the influences that create the best boat designs.

Read all about it at the Scottish Traditional Boat Festival website.