Traditional Boatbuilding Fair Isle, Shetland – one of a series of videos about Shetland and Fair Isle made by Liz Musser.
Category: Traditional clinker
Clinker plans and boatbuilding
Lake Titicaca: small boats and floating islands made of reeds
Note traditional boat, mid right
Rather like a small version of Kon-tiki
Rather like a small version of Kon-tiki
My old mate Ian Wright kindly sent me this collection of photos from Lake Titicaca. here’s what he says:
‘The traditional reed boats are presumably made on the islands, for that is what the floating islands are also made from – reeds. The wooden boats are probably made on the shore somewhere. There is quite a significant town there on the Peruvian side.
‘The boats are used as the primary means of transport on the islands – there is no way of getting to the shore other than by water.
‘I was struck by the similarity between the traditional craft and Heyerdal’s Ra and Ra II vessels, although they were considerably larger.
‘Lake Titicaca is shared between Peru and Bolivia – the border runs through the middle. As well as being the highest regularly navigated waterway in the world, it is also the deepest. At the time I was there they had not reached the bottom!’
Thanks for the shots Orv, me old mucker!
Read more about Lake Titicaca, the astonishing Uros people and their reed boats and islands here. Read about Thor Heyerdahl’s 1969 and 1970 Ra expeditions here.
I must say love Heyerdahl’s scheme to select crews of great diversity in race, nationality, religion and political viewpoint in order to demonstrate that people could cooperate and live peacefully – it’s something to remember at a time when politics everywhere seems to be more polarised, dirty and vicious than it has ever been.
Boat Building Academy students launch a traditional Norwegian faering
Back in December a bunch of proud Boat Building Academy class members launched a clinker built Norwegian faering built to Iain Oughtred’s Elfyn plans.
The boat was was built by student Neil Hammond and the rest of the class, including Ross Wheeler-Clayton.
Planked in Scottish larch on steamed green oak timbers, she has laminated oak stems, a solid oak keel, Douglas fir thwarts and centreboard case, and spruce spars.
She has two rowing positions and a balanced lug rig – her sails were made by the students as part of a sail making short course at the Academy.
Neil came to the Academy from Somerset: his previous career has ranged from rigging and drilling in both the Persian Gulf and North Sea for the oil industry, to managing and directing IT and engineering services for the MET Office.
With a love for water sports and the sea, Neil has RYA Yachtmaster qualifications and is a keen kayaker – and came to the BBA because he wanted to learn skills to build his own boat.
Ross, who worked closely alongside Neil, was at 18 one of the youngest members of the class. He joined the Academy straight after completing A-Levels in film, media, sociology, philosophy and ethics.
He is a young ambassador for the Meningitis Now charity and is a member of the Young Fire-fighters and MOD Combined Cadet Force.
With particular interests in traditional boat building skills, Ross thoroughly enjoyed constructing the Elfyn’s copper fastened traditional clinker hull.
See the Elfyn’s build diary here and for further details about the Level 3, 38-week boat building, maintenance and support course, click here.