Johnny Tyson builds a 14ft Whitehall at the Boat Building Academy

Johnny's boat leaves the workshop

Johnny’s 14ft Whitehall leaves the workshop on launch day

Johnny workshop 1 Johnny workshop_1 Johnny workshop

And thats all there is to it AK Johnny champagne Johnny Tyson

Boat Building Academy student Johhny Tyson built this John Gardner-designed 14ft Whitehall together with his pal Jerry Reeves, and launched it down at Lyme along with other students’ projects back in June.

The materials Johnny used were West African mahogany on oak with a West African mahogany keel. I gather that following the launch he took it to the Portsoy Scottish Traditional Boat Festival.

There are photos of the build here at Johnny’s website.If you happen to run a boatbuilding business, need staff and like what you see, I gather he’s looking for a suitable job…

I should point out that John Gardner’s books are a tremendous body of work if you’re interested in American boat types, and some of them have been available at very keen prices in recent years it’s well worth checking Amazon – I’d suggest in particular that Building Classic Small Craft including 47 sets of boat building plans is a bargain at less than £15.

My thanks to Academy principal Yvonne Green for the photos.

For more on student launches at the Boat Building Academy, click here.

2 thoughts on “Johnny Tyson builds a 14ft Whitehall at the Boat Building Academy”

  1. Gav,

    " I gather that following the launch he took it to the Portsoy Scottish Traditional Boat Festival." – indeed he did and splendid she looked too, a glassy sea and excellent light produced some nice reflective snaps. I spotted her in the car park on the Thursday after the Maritime Seminar and took a diversion to spend a few minutes having a good gander. A most lovely piece of work which kept attracting my lens on the Saturday, unfortunately the one time she was out at sea I was not present to record the event, merely glimpsing her at some distance. She did seem to perform as well as she looked. I would second the commendation of Gardner's tome, a word of warning to would be builders though – the book is a diverting minefield of temptation, turn a page and there is yet another beauty calling out to be realised. More than enough there to keep this ageing builder going for the rest of his days if only I can crack the decision process!

    Chris

    Reply

  2. Hello, I just found this nice report of our launch day. Thanks so much for your compliments. I just wanted to add that the boat was built by myself and my mate Jerry Reeves. You can see some more photos of the boat and the build here: http://johnnytyson.shutterfly.com/

    Cheers for now

    Johnny

    ps anyone know how to get a decent job in boat building?

    Reply

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