Two festivals: the Beale Park Thames Boat Show and Scottish Traditional Boat Festival

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Scenes from previous Beale Park Thames Boat Shows

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Scenes from the Scottish Traditional Boat Festival at Portsoy (last two supplied by the organisers, but I think taken for them by Kathy Mansfield)

Two of the most important boat shows featuring wooden boats are coming up – but for some reason this year I don’t seem to be hearing much about them from anyone.

The shows in question are the Beale Park Thames Boat Show from the 4th to 6th June  near Pangbourne on the River Thames (click here for information), and the Scottish Traditional Boat Festival on the 26th-27th June at Portsoy (click here for more information).

You exhibitors out there, why don’t you get in touch and tell me what you’re going to be showing and why you’re so proud of them, and why people should go along and see your stuff – and throw in a couple of photos while you’re at it? There’s still time, it’s very easy, I can be reached at gmatkin@gmail.com, and this site gets 800+ interested visitors a day. It should be a no-brainer…

Stand by for the May/June issue of Water Craft magazine due in a few days

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The May/June issue of Water Craft magazine is about to come out, and editor Peter Greenfield has sent us his customary preview. Here’s what he says:

‘April, moaned Mr Eliot, is the cruellest month. Obviously, he also had suffered the seemingly interminable wait for the weather to warm up enough for varnishing the gunwale. What to do while you’re waiting? Well, the new Water Craft is out on the 22nd, with…

Two French connections: last year, Tim O’Connor loaded his elegant Oughtred Acorn on the car roofrack, hitched up the caravan and went sailing the lakes of Limousin. And much more recently, in March in fact, Kathy Mansfield caught the Eurostar for a long-planned visit to the amateur boatbuilders of Nautique Sevres, near Paris.

Back in Dorset, professional wooden boatbuilder Gail McGarva builds Cornish pilot gigs and in the first of a two-part series, she explains not only how but why. However, If a 32ft (9.8m) clinker rowing skiff is a tad too ambitious for you, see Paul Gartside’s complete plans for a 12’ (3.7m) outboard skiff. Clinker too challenging? Build the hard-chine flat-bottom pocket cruiser called the Stevenson Weekender, like Jeremy White. Or you could go to boatbuilding college, like Lars Herfeldt from Berlin who learned to build a Petersson Runabout at Lyme Regis.

Still too wintry? Time to read designer Andrew Wolstenholme’s report from Dusseldorf on the latest in electric propulsion… And designer Paul Fisher’s description of his new Felix electric launch… And designer Matt Newland’s introduction to the Bayraider 17, which he hopes to exhibit at the Beale Park Boat Show, 4-6 June. Where you’ll also find Water Craft, together with a St Ayles Skiff – see W79 – and one of Gail’s gigs.

Finally, it must be warm enough now! Time for a varnishing workshop with master boatbuilder Colin Henwood

It’s particularly good to see the Home Built Boat Rally group’s Tim O’Connor getting a mention, and also Lars Herfeldt – see photos of the the launch of his handsome gentleman’s runabout here.

You will be able to find the May/June 2010 issue in good UK newsagents from the 22nd April – this website will find you a newsagent stocking the magazine. Alternatively, buy a subscription here and support both Water Craft and intheboatshed.net at the same time.

More old photos of Scoter

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Doug Grierson has sent in some more old photographs that will no doubt delight the large numbers of people who have been following the Scoter story. Thanks Doug!

For more on this famous old bawley-derived yacht that was so admired by Maurice Griffiths and which passed through a long line of owners including artist Colin Grierson and son Doug, click here.

The first image is from a postcard sent by an earlier owner of Scoter to a recipient in Essex in 1907; Doug doesn’t know how or when it was passed to his mother.

The two photos of Scoter from 1994-5 at Woodbridge and Maldon show later coach roof and original windlass and circular fore-hatch; the final item is a scanned image of a water-colour by Colin Grierson dated 1932 showing the rig she had when he bought her in late 1930.