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
Howard Chappelle’s classic study of the sharpie, The Migrations of an American Boat Type, is available from the Gutenberg Project among many other wonderful things.
It comes complete with the drawings and photos that have fascinated so many boat dreamers over the years – including myself.
My thanks to Paul Mullings for spotting this one!
Boat Building Academy students Luke Cooper, Casey Milburn and Seby Rubatto built this 14ft 9in by 4ft Whitehall rowing skiff made of glued plywood this summer.
Luke, who is from Devizes, was 18 years old when he joined the academy and had just completed A levels – the story goes that he met BBA graduate Ian Thomson at the Southampton Boat Show and immediately decided to sign up for the long course.
(Ian was at the show exhibiting his now well known Nestaway boats range of nesting boats, which he’d started to develop when he was on the 38-week BBA course.)
When Luke visited the academy for an interview before joining the course, he noticed a similar Whitehall skiff that 2010 season student Matt Cotterill was building at the time, and so Luke decided to build the same boat on his course. There’s a diary of Matt’s build here.
The boat itself was built from a Robert A Pittaway design obtained from the Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut, and appears in the book 87 Boat Designs – a Catalogue of Small Boat Plans from Mystic Seaport. The plan dates from 1973, and the original boat is said to be still in service at Mystic.
The book Aak to Zumbra- a Dictionary of the World’s Watercraft states that a Whitehall skiff was originally used on the Columbia River in the mid-19th century.
I gather Luke is pleased with the boat and plans to keep it as a rowing boat for himself and his family to use.
Before relocating to Lyme, Casey lived in Antibes in south-eastern France, raced Optimists and Lasers, and from the age of 15 began spending his holidays teaching sailing at Club Nautique D’Antibes.
He completed his Yachtmaster qualification at the age of 18, and then spent three years crewing on super yachts before attending at the BBA.
Casey has returned to France where he is working with friends developing a boat repairs and maintenance business.
Seby came to the BBA from Trieste in Italy – it was his first visit to the UK, and so he spent his time both learning boat building and improving his English. Seby has now returned to Italy and is looking forward to starting a career in boat building.
Photos of Eagdyth taken by Jenny Steer and Phillipa Gedge
Eadgyth built by students Boat Building Academy students Matt Goode and Jay Preston is a 16ft 6in by 4ft 9.5in Iain Oughtred Elfyn design built in plywood, and fitted out in sapele with oak detailing.
She has a balanced lug rig, and traditional kabes – strong timber supports for oars – rather than the usual rowlocks for rowing.
Matt chose the design after coming across an article about faerings – double ended Norwegian boats – in a magazine in the BBA boat bookcase. He liked the look of them but perhaps most of all its Scandinavian origins called out to his soul. After a little more research, Matt found plans for a more modern version drawn up by Iain Oughtred.
Having launched her, Matt reports that he is ‘absolutely chuffed’ with the boat, which he plans to use for family sailing with his son, Richard, and his wife – if she feels brave enough to sail with him.
For 20 years, Matt worked as an engineer in the automotive industry in Cardiff, but was made redundant in June 2011; while researching different career options, he came across the BBA website three days later started the first of four short courses, by the end of which he had been bitten by the boat building bug and enrolled onto the 38-week course.
After finishing the course Matt has now returned to Cardiff and has been doing voluntary work helping to fit out a 65ft schooner Prince Madoc, together with his son. Recently have been helping to set up the World of Boats, which opens at Cardiff on the 23rd August.
Jay is now employed by the Good Wood Boat Company based in Cumbria.
The company prides itself on creating beautiful hand crafted classic boats using ‘responsibly managed and ethically sourced timber’. They are also the first boat building company to gain Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), certification meaning that all wood used to build their boats has come from responsibly managed forests.