Gavin Atkin's weblog for the sort of people who like looking inside boat sheds. It's about old boats, traditional boats, boat building, restoration, the sea and the North Kent Coast
Plans for boats, sailing yachts, motor yachts, rowing boats, sailing boats, dinghies, dories, canoes, skiffs, oars, sails – may be free or paid-for
Norfolk Broads boats racing, photo by Robert Henson, image from
the Wikipedia. This photo is from 2004, but could easily have been
taken fifty years ago. That’s part of the magic of The Broads
•Fifty years ago, schools on the Norfolk Broads were teaching kids to build boats.
•A lifeboat restoration at Walton, Essex is nearing completion. Read more here.
•A large wooden powerboat takes shape in a boatbuilding revival at Leigh, Essex.
Instructions on how to build a skin-on-frame Greenland kayak. If you’re interested in these boats, the chap responsible, Wolfgang Brinck, has a busy website that’s well worth exploring, and also a weblog.
Here’s what he says about himself:
‘I build skin on frame boats and make paddles and teach other people how to build skin boats and make paddles. Skin on frame technology may seem like retro technology but in fact is the wave of the future. There’s no technique for building small boats that is faster and uses fewer materials than skin on frame. It is the boat building method of choice in a world of dwindling resources.’
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Tom Naismith’s Laurent Giles-designed Sandppiper Surprise
won the Water Craft Awards at the Beale Park Thames Boat
Show this year. As usual, click on the photo for a
much larger image
Finally, we have the boat that won the Water Craft Boatbuilding Awards for this year – Tom Naismith’s striking Laurent Giles-designed Sandpiper, which he has named Surprise.
Although only 20ft on deck, she’s clearly a big boat for her length, and Tom reports that she took seven years and £20,000 to build.
Sandpiper is the big sister to the smaller Sanderling – and the even smaller but much better known Jolly Boat. I think Tom deserves a prize just for completing her, but I hope she now gets some serious use, as I’m sure she makes a comfortable little ship.
By the way, I notice that there’s an 18ft version for sale at Boats & Outboards, and there’s also a picture of one of these boats on the Classic Marine site.