Category: Designs and designers, boat plans,books of plans

Plans for boats, sailing yachts, motor yachts, rowing boats, sailing boats, dinghies, dories, canoes, skiffs, oars, sails – may be free or paid-for

BBA student builds replica of 1916 Morgan Giles dinghy

Replica of 1916 Morgan Giles dinghy photo by Derek Thompson

 

CJenny-Steer-Photography-June-2013-13.jpg  CJenny-Steer-Photography-June-2013-1  Jenny-Steer-Photography-June-2013-11.jpg

Becky-Joseph-June-2013.jpg

Photos by Becky Joseph, Jenny Steer, Derek Thompson

Boat Building Academy Ben Charny built a replica of Pip Emma, a 7 1/2ft clinker built stem dinghy originally built by Morgan Giles for his children in 1916, and which is now part of the collection at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall, Falmouth.

The pictures above show Ben’s boat at the BBA’s class of 2012 student launch held a few weeks ago. A photographic diary of the boat’s build – Ben built it while on the BBA’s 38-week course – can be seen here.

The boat was built with sweet chestnut planking and a black walnut for the transom. Ben visited the museum to take the lines of the original Pip Emma and then lofted full-sized plans for his replica at the Academy, which is at Lyme.

The name Pip Emma is taken from the phonetic alphabet used by Royal Air Force signallers in World War I and means PM, or afternoon. In keeping with this, Ben has chosen to name his replica, Ack Emma, meaning AM.

Ben grew up just down the road from the Academy in the seaside town of Sidmouth, Devon, and has worked far from home as a deckhand and bosun in the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, and crossed the Atlantic.

He has now returned to the Mediterranean as a ships carpenter aboard Eleonora, a 50 metre replica of a 1910 Nathaniel Herreshoff yacht, using the skills learned as part of his training in Lyme Regis.

Ben plans to sail Ack Emma with family and friends, when back at home in Sidmouth.

The launch

The launch took place on an unseasonably wet June morning, but joined by family and friends, Academy staff and Lyme Regis locals, on 12th June, students braved the weather to ceremonially walk their boats from the Academy workshop on Monmouth Beach, down to the slipway, where a crowd of well-wishers had gathered at the water’s edge to take part in the celebrations.

Following a few words from BBA director Commander Tim Gedge and town mayor Sally Holman, Ben’s little dinghy was the first boat to launch.

More information about the academy and the 38-week course can be found on the BBA website.

Does anyone know the background of this terrific model – or the yacht she represents?

Model yacht 2

Model yacht 3 Model yacht 1

The Faversham Creek Trust has been given this model to auction for fundraising purposes – and they would like to know more about it. The drawing shows the dimensions.

Can anyone help? Certainly if the full-sized version was ever built, it would certainly have been an impressive boat. Is it post-WWII or pre-war? And check out that wishbone high in the rigging!

I have a dim recollection that the canoiest and yacht designer Frederick Fenger invented the wishbone schooner and that designer, builder, racing helmsman and pop starn Uffa Fox wrote about them – so I have a sneaking feeling this may be one of his designs. Please email  any information to me at gmatkin@gmail.com and I will pass it on the the Trust. Of course, I will also let readers know when the auction is to be held.

I should add that we’re nearly on the deadline (28th June) for submitting views about the Faversham Creek Neighbourhood Plan.

The questionnaire for this can be completed online or via the Faversham Creek Neighbourhood plan website.

It takes some minutes and there are one or two questions that will likely garner answers that could be misinterpreted, but it’s still important and worthwhile to fill this thing in.  There’s no requirement to answer every question, and you can add comments, for example if you do not think that the right questions have been asked.

PS Historian and verteran campaigner for Faversham’s heritage Arthur Percival has written his own considered and clear submission to the Neighbourhood Plan steering group. Read it here.

George Holmes’ legendary Eel comes out of the shed

Eel 1

The Eel, designed and owned by Humber Yawl Club stalwart, yacht designer, adventurer and artist George Holmes, is a celebrity among boats and has just emerged from boat builder Alan Staley’s shed by the side of Faversham Creek.

She’s looking fabulous, it has to be said, and so I took these shots with my phone. I ran into a friend in the shops who had just done the same thing, and we were all amused when the proprieter accused us of being boat paparazzi. Well, if we are… I hope nobody minds!

There’s some relevant stuff to read at the Albert Strange Association website, and a little more at the Lodestar Books site. And Alan Staley also has a website.