Boat Building Academy students Anna Raussmüller and Richard Jolly built this 14ft 5in by 5ft 8in beam sailing dinghy based on Iain Oughtred’s Gannet design.
However, the boat is strip-planked in red cedar rather than the glued clinker that Oughtred specified. Anna made the change because she felt the strip planking looked more modern and it is supposed to be faster.
‘Yes – Skye is fast and manoeuverable,’ says Anna. ‘It was great to sail her at the launch at Lyme Regis.’
Anna called the boat Skye. ‘She is named after the Isle of Skye, an island I am very fond of, and also the home of the boat’s designer Iain Oughtred.
‘Her name is also a reminder of my time at Lyme Regis, when I would walk to the college each day always seeing a different sky.’
Anna is from Switzerland and runs a graphic design business. She has enjoyed rowing for many years, and became interested in boat building after meeting a builder of racing rowing boats based near to her rowing club.
She then restored a 50-year old wooden Stämpfli single scull racing boat– an experience she greatly enjoyed, and which prompted her to look for a boat building course.
‘The project at the BBA was great and life-enhancing. Skye now belongs to my sister and myself. We will sail her on Lake Zürich. She will attract a lot of attention. There is no other boat with a gunter rig and cream coloured sails on the lake.’
The BBA website has some photos of Skye during building.
Anna is now working for Stämpfli in Zürich – the original source of her interest in boat building.
Richard decided to have a career change after working for many years as a self employed painter and decorator. Originally from South London, Richard enjoys travel and has lived in Australia, New Zealand, travelled around India, and recently joined Anna in transporting Skye to Zurich.
He now has a job with Spirit Yachts, of Ipswich.
The photos below are of Lake Zürich and the workshop where Anna is now working.
Hello,
Your explanations and images ditch my help.
I want to make a e-book about how to build a boat with vele.Barca we built in 1977, but we did not have a camera handy, so I am inspired by your pictures. I hope you do not mind. Thanks