intheboatshed.net

The new Tideway in build at Good Wood Boat – click on the thumbnails for a larger photo

Traditionally built 12ft Tideway dinghies are available to order after a gap of ten years – and the new version of the boat will be on show at the RYA Volvo Dinghy Show.

The new Tideways are being built by Good Wooden Boat Company after the company’s Stephen Beresford met the Tideway Owners Association (TOA) at last year’s show and was impressed by the boat itself, and by the association’s activities and enthusiasm. Good Wood Boat specialises in building boats using Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) certified approved sources. (The company also builds Uffa Fox’s Redwing sailing dinghy, of which more later.)

The TOA says that the new boat has already been bought by an existing Tideway owner and its members are very excited by the prospect of the new boat joining the fleet.

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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.

Dodo – click on the thumbnails for larger photos

Currently on show at the National Maritime Museum, Dodo was built and designed by 19-year old William Bergius and his younger brother Walter in Glasgow, in 1896.

Fitted with a removable keel of 50kg, she was the first of a series of boats by that name belonging to the Bergius’s, and seems to have been built with camp-cruising in mind. In 1897, a very confident young William wrote the the editor of The Yachtsman in the following terms:

‘Sir – I have read with great interest the letters regarding “Multum in Parvo” cruisers, and cannot help thinking that most of your correspondents want far too big a boat. Last year my brother and I built a boat in which, despite the small size, we can easily sleep three.’

Dodo is quite a big boat in a small length: she’s 14ft 6in in length, 5ft 4in in beam and a draft of 2ft 4in with her keel attached, and with a sail area of no less than 150sqft in a low-profile gaff-rigged mainsail and roller-mounted jib; despite her fairly hard bilges amidships (they’re less hard towards the stern) and small keel she will have been an energetic performer. William Bergius deserves our admiration for creating such a useful little boat.

I don’t think anyone would build a small keelboat like this for open-boat cruising now, but looking at Dodo, I kept thinking I’d seen something a little like her more recently, and now I think I’ve worked out what it was. Take a peek at John  Welsford’s Pilgrim drawings, and see what you think – of course much has changed, but some things – including the rig, generous freeboard and use of a sensible half-decked arrangement decks – are not so very different. Of course, if I wanted a boat to go cruising in myself, I’d take the modern conveniences and comforts of John’s boat every time.

Finally just to show the world what fabulous buildings the museum occupies, I’ve added two more shots for readers’ entertainment.

The Royal Observatory from the NMM’s colonnades; the NMM buildings, the Palladian-style Queen’s House and the Old Royal Naval College with the River Thames and the Isle of Dogs beyond