Category: Boatbuilders and restorers

Professional and amateur boat builders and restorers

Mouseboats built and launched at Faversham

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Folks on a training course at the Faversham Creek Trust’s Purifier Building led by local boatbuilder and repairman Alan Thorne have been building Mouseboats to my free plans – and yesterday they launched four of them on a pond at the head of the Creek.

A good crowd turned out to cheer and witness the event, and even the local press arrived with their cameras!

A fifth Mouseboat also turned up to be launched – this one was built by Terry Croucher, who has been working as an assistant to Alan.

Plans for the Mouseboats are available free from the Yahoogroup Mouseboats. To obtain them you have to sign up to join the  Yahoo (and the  Yahoogroup). Alternatively, some folks prefer to buy my book published some years ago – it is available from Amazon, but be warned that the new prices is a lot less than some folks are charging for second-hand copies!

The 8ft Mouseboats cost very little to make and are typically very light – they can be carried in one hand, yet can allow folks to go on the water very conveniently. Hundreds have been built around the world.

The boats built by Alan’s group are the Minimouse model with an easy to build flat bottom, but other similarly easy to build types for different purposes are available from the Yahoogroup.

20ft clinker motor launch up for sale

Boatbuilder Nick Smith is selling this 20ft motor launch, Bamboo Viper, which he built for himself in 2004, on eBay.

Nick served a four-year traditional boatbuilding apprenticeship at Edgar Cove Ltd, Salcombe, Devon, 1976 to 1980, and has been building and restoring wooden boats ever since. He says his boats all show a distinctive Salcombe influence.

The boat is in top condition, as he has spent six weeks refurbishing her earlier this year, including taking the engine out. She’s been on his mooring at Christchurch for the last two months, with the cover on, when not in use.

She is fitted with a 15 hp Yanmar 2YM twin diesel inboard, and the price includes a purpose built galvanised and braked road trailer.

Herreshof – an introduction

Herreshof

There aren’t too many Herreshoff boats to be found today around the UK – though there’s one local to where I sail – but I think he’s well worth reading about, and this article provides an introduction.

‘Herreshof… is recognized as the most influential American yacht builder who ever lived. For nearly three decades his boats dominated the America’s Cup race, and today the hundreds of his boats that remain are regarded as marvels of design and engineering.

‘Born in Bristol [USA] in 1848 to a boat-building family… Herreshoff enrolled at MIT in 1866, excited about the potential of marine steam engineering to create high-performance boats… Herreshoff had a few notable successes harnessing this new form of power. He designed the first steam-powered fishing boat and the first steam-powered spar torpedo boat. The latter was just fast enough to inflict a crude form of violence. “You ran up, jammed the torpedo into the boat, smashed it into reverse, and got out as fast as you could… ”

‘Herreshoff’s greatest success — and the place where his genius really shined — was in yacht design. Between 1893 and 1920 his boats won the America’s Cup six times with names like Vigilant, Defiance, and Resolute.

‘In 1876 he introduced multi-hulled boats to yacht racing when his catamaran Amaryllis won the New York Centennial Regatta in a walk. “He trounces everyone… His boat was going 19- to 20 miles an hour, and most yachts were going 8 to 10 miles per hour…. despite his convincing win, Herreshoff did not take home the trophy. “Shortly thereafter they disqualified him”‘

Read the article here, here, here, here and here.