intheboatshed.net

Some of the boats Academy students have built in the past: Sadie Snowdon’s dory; Johnny Tyson’s whitehall; Edward Hoogewerf’s Ebihen;Marc Chivers’ pilot punt; Bob Hinks’ Cirrus; and Charlie Hussey’s Seapod the Peapod

If you’re in the area, don’t forget the Boatbuilding Academy’s students are due to launch their boats at Lyme on Saturday, starting at 8.30am. Read this earlier post to find out what boats will be included this year.

Some of the boats Academy students have built in the past: Sadie Snowdon’s dory; Johnny Tyson’s whitehall; Edward Hoogewerf’s Ebihen;Marc Chivers’ pilot punt; Bob Hinks’ Cirrus; and Charlie Hussey’s Seapod the Peapod

Boatbuilding Academy principal Yvonne Green and colleagues have extended an invitation to intheboatshed.net readers to see students launch their boats at Lyme, starting at 8.30am on the 5th December.

The boats are an interesting collection, and will include:

• an 8ft traditional pram dinghy built using trunnels and without adhesives or metal fixings
• a 16ft 6in half-size sgoth niseach
• a 16ft cold-moulded motorboat based on a design by C G Pettersson
• a 15ft 11in Haven 12 1/2 designed by Nathaniel Herreschoff
• a 16ft 10in double-ended clinker Tirrik designed by Iain Oughtred
• a 15ft Chestnut strip-built canoe built from Western red cedar
• a 7ft 10in Auk glued clinker dinghy, again designed by Iain Oughtred

I won’t be able to make it – I live in Kent – but I hope the weather gets better by early December, as I doubt there’s a boatbuilder in the world who would want to test their boats for the first time in the kind of wind we’ve been having too much of lately!

By the way – if any readers do manage to get along and would like to send in some photos and their impressions for publication, I’d love to receive them at gmatkin@gmail.com!

For more on the Boatbuilding Academy, click here!

Boat Building Academy principal Yvonne Green has sent us a final set of photos from the student launch day down in Lyme back in December, this time showing a 12ft glued clinker stem dinghy built by Joe Blathwayt.

Joe, a former architect, has moved to Lyme and wanted a fun beach and sea angling boat with an outboard, and so he built his dinghy on a course at the Academy.  The lines were taken from a 40-year old 10’ stem dinghy, and then adapted for the new purpose.

Now he’s based at Lyme, I gather Joe plans to combine working on boats and undertaking architectural projects.

Yvonne comments: ‘We started a new 38-week course today. It’s always interesting to see the different mix of people who come to us.

‘We showed them photos of the launch and the boats and told them that’s where they would be 38 weeks from now. The news was greeted with some disbelief… ‘

PS Don’t forget to ask for a pdf copy of the Academy’s prospectus for the coming year, as it makes interesting reading. Email Yvonne at office@boatbuildingacademy.com and I’m sure she’ll send you a copy.