Events – Page 52 – intheboatshed.net

Boat Building Academy students launch an adapted Iain Oughtred Fulmar

As the champagne flowed at the 30th Boat Building Academy celebrated 38-week ‘long course’ student launch, this 16ft 8in Iain Oughtred-designed Fulmar was the first boat to hit the water.

Here’s what the academy’s Emma Brice has to say:

The owner of the boat is student Scott Russell, who was helped closely by Jade Randell. Students on the long course build a range of boats, which are then owned by students who pay for the materials at cost.

The Fulmar was named Florence after Jade’s new-born daughter, who was expected on launch day but arrived a week early.

The floating Florence is plan 43 in the Iain Oughtred catalogue, hence the sail number. Built from glued clinker ply construction with a sapele fit-out, the boat has been modified slightly with a small tumblehome to the after sections of the boat, and a deck. Scott and Jade also made a carbon-fibre centreboard and rudder.

Scott chose the Fulmar for its elegant lines and wanted a boat he could take his family (wife, three children and little dog) out on boat trips, picnicking and night-camping expeditions.

The boat will be kept at Portsmouth Harbour, and he hopes sailing it will provide opportunities to meet old and new academy friends.

Elvstrom Sails managing director Jeremy White, who is also the academy’s sailmaking instructor, said he initially thought the usual tan or cream Dacron sails would been the obvious choice for the boat. However, when he saw the light-weight centreboard and rudder he realised the boat would be quite tender, and so recommended black Technora Film sails, which are be a third the weight of Dacron and produce less heeling moment.

Another modern feature is the sail shape. ‘Because Scott will be sailing mainly with his young family, in order to maximise performance, I built the mainsail with a square top,’ said Jeremy.

‘To my knowledge this is the first ever square-topped gunter rig’.

Jeremy was on board Florence during her maiden voyage: ‘We were hit by a huge gust, but the boat behaved impeccably and we bore off onto the plane – she’s a modern classic’.

Scott had served 23 years as a chief artificer in the Royal Navy stationed at Gosport before joining the course at the BBA. He is one of many who have used the forces’ enhanced learning credits (ELC) system to fund part of the course. The aim of the ELC is to help leaving service men to return to civilian life.

Scott’s determination and often infectious craziness promises great things. He is currently looking into designing and building innovative wooden festival sleeping ‘pods’ with fellow course student Will Hide.

Jade joined the academy looking for a new challenge after 20 years working in the construction industry. Jade loves the sea and wanted to learn a skill that would allow him to live and work by the coast, and spend time surfing.

With his new daughter, Jade is taking time to rest before the New Year, and hopes to become a self-employed boat builder, perhaps finding work in traditional boat yards in the southwest to start. He will also help his wife with home interiors work, combining his joinery skills with her leather works business.

There were mixed feelings when we spoke to students days before the launch. For Jade the course had provided a refreshing break from the routine and monotony of daily life and was sad that the student group were not to be working together any longer.

Scott was elated to have built such a complex project but saddened to be leaving what he called ‘the wonderful environment’ of the BBA.

Tim Jarvis-led Shackleton voyage re-enactment to set out mid-January

Explorer Tim Jarvis’s expedition to honour a remarkable 800-nautical mile small boat voyage across the Southern Ocean led by Sir Ernest Shackleton from Elephant Island to South Georgia, followed by crossing South Georgia’s mountainous interior, is scheduled to set out from Elephant Island on around the 17th January.

The expedition will culminate in a pilgrimage to Shackleton’s grave at Grytviken.

Read all about the new expedition here. Jarvis and his group of five British and Australian adventurers hope to become the first to re-enact the original voyage using authentic equipment, including an exact replica of the original ship’s boat, the 22ft James Caird.

The only concessions to the use of period equipment are to be modern emergency equipment and radios, and the presence of a support vessel. However, both are to be used only if the expedition.

Shackleton made his original gruelling journey to South Georgia in order to summon help to rescue the rest of his shipwrecked expedition, who he had left at Elephant Island. Against extreme odds, he and the James Caird’s small crew succeeded in their aim, and became heroes.

In more recent times, Shackleton himself has been singled out for his leadership qualities, which are frequently cited in seminars on business management, and the new expedition has played strongly on this dimension.

From reading about the original expedition, I have to say that Shackleton himself he seems to have been very much loved and respected by almost all of his crew, not least because he had a keen sense of responsibility for their welfare.

How this links with business and other organisations, however, I’m not too sure. Businesses in particular these days tend to regard staff below board level as expendable – employment is a market, after all, and everyone can be replaced as the management schools say. More, with some honoured exceptions, their leaders seem mostly to be utterly unlovable and frightening tyrants, as famous for their tempers as for their self-interest and convenient self-deceptions. Not that their lieutenants would be so foolish as to tell them so…

I’d say Shackleton was very different creature from many of today’s managers. My hope is that the right lessons are being learned from the emerging management legend of Shackleton as leader.

For more posts about Shackleton, the James Caird voyage and the building of the traditionally-built replica made for the new voyage by the IBTC at Lowestoft, click here and click back through older posts.

PS – Go to the comments link below to find a different take on Shackleton himself, and a splendid description of an earlier re-enactment of the South Georgia voyage. Apart from anything else, it makes clear the scale of the problems such a trip can encounter.

The Faversham Creek Trust reports excellent progress

The Purifier Building – before all the work began

The Faversham Creek Trust weblog has put up a very positive report following the trust’s annual general meeting held last week – it’s all great news.

Some 100 members attended and total membership now stands at over 500.

The organisation has raised and spent £60,000, mostly on restoring the roof and windows of the Purifier Building and installing power. More than 40 tons of rubbish and scrap have been removed by hand.

An outstanding issue remains the requirement for a new opening bridge to enable he upper part of the creek to be used, and to allow vessels coming up the creek to access the purifier building.

Kent County Council would like to see a fixed bridge put in place but happily are prepared to put their estimated cost of a fixed bridge, £400,000, towards the cost of an opening bridge, and the trust will shortly publish its conclusions following a survey of the different designs available.

The trust believes comparisons with Maldon in Essex shows the potential of opening up the Creek and increasing the amount of boat maintenance and building work: a comparison with another popular barge centre of similar size, Maldon, shows that town’s tourism is about double the current level of tourism to Faversham.

The trust concludes as follows: ‘We are on track to meet our vision to see the whole Creek energised as an active maritime centre using the basin as a home port for barges and traditional craft, and with repair and maintenance facilities for them right here in the town centre; the Purifier will then become a true community resource at the centre.’

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