History – Page 139 – intheboatshed.net

BBA student builds replica of 1916 Morgan Giles dinghy

Photos by Becky Joseph, Jenny Steer, Derek Thompson

Boat Building Academy Ben Charny built a replica of Pip Emma, a 7 1/2ft clinker built stem dinghy originally built by Morgan Giles for his children in 1916, and which is now part of the collection at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall, Falmouth.

The pictures above show Ben’s boat at the BBA’s class of 2012 student launch held a few weeks ago. A photographic diary of the boat’s build – Ben built it while on the BBA’s 38-week course – can be seen here.

The boat was built with sweet chestnut planking and a black walnut for the transom. Ben visited the museum to take the lines of the original Pip Emma and then lofted full-sized plans for his replica at the Academy, which is at Lyme.

The name Pip Emma is taken from the phonetic alphabet used by Royal Air Force signallers in World War I and means PM, or afternoon. In keeping with this, Ben has chosen to name his replica, Ack Emma, meaning AM.

Ben grew up just down the road from the Academy in the seaside town of Sidmouth, Devon, and has worked far from home as a deckhand and bosun in the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, and crossed the Atlantic.

He has now returned to the Mediterranean as a ships carpenter aboard Eleonora, a 50 metre replica of a 1910 Nathaniel Herreshoff yacht, using the skills learned as part of his training in Lyme Regis.

Ben plans to sail Ack Emma with family and friends, when back at home in Sidmouth.

The launch

The launch took place on an unseasonably wet June morning, but joined by family and friends, Academy staff and Lyme Regis locals, on 12th June, students braved the weather to ceremonially walk their boats from the Academy workshop on Monmouth Beach, down to the slipway, where a crowd of well-wishers had gathered at the water’s edge to take part in the celebrations.

Following a few words from BBA director Commander Tim Gedge and town mayor Sally Holman, Ben’s little dinghy was the first boat to launch.

More information about the academy and the 38-week course can be found on the BBA website.

Troys at Fowey

Troy class keelboat racing at Fowey

Fowey boatbuilder Marcus Lewis has written to say that he’s had Shimmer, T4 of the Troy Class, in the workshop for a bit of attention, including 11 new ribs, rudder refitting, and painting all over – what he calls the usual maintenance stuff.

Shimmer was built in Fowey by AH ‘Archie’ Watty during the winter of 1929/30. She was made for the local squire Colonel Edward Treffry, and was sometimes sailed by his daughter, Elizabeth.

The old photo below shows Shimmer winning the Royal Fowey Yacht Club Regatta race in 1930 with the colonel at the helm. As the results show, Shimmer started her career in fine style.

In 1946, the boat was sold and bought by author Daphne Du Maurier’s husband, Lt Gen Sir FAM Browning, only to be bought back by Elizabeth Treffry around 1953.

Two of the older Troys are now for sale, T6 Ruby and T7 Sapphire, both in good condition, and still competitive boats, but both are to be sold on condition they do not leave Fowey, and that they continue racing. (The Troy fleet now number 28, four of them built by Marcus in recent years.)

There is more information about these boats on Marcus’s website: www.woodenboatbuilder.co.uk

The sad sight of decaying sailing barges in the mud at Hoo

These shots of sailing barges sinking into the mud at Hoo seem particularly poignant.

The creeks of North Kent are littered with the bones of sailing barges, but where most are interesting reminders of the distant past and add interest to the mud, these barges are an especially sad sight, not least because just a few short years ago many of them were either afloat or were in restoration and appeared to have good prospects.

The photos were taken by Mick Nolan of the Thames Sailing Barge Trust, which maintains and charters two sailing barges, SB Centaur and SB Pudge. Thanks Mick!

The TSBT has a Facebook page here. I have pals who are holidaying aboard one of their boats this very week.

Googleing reveals a little information about the barges in the photos.

The Mersea Museum list reveals that SB Alan was built in London in 1900 and was operated by the London and Rochester Trading Co of Rochester.

The Thamesbarge.org.uk site records that SB Remercie seems to have been built at Harwich by McLearon 1908 for Horlocks, became a motor barge in 1962 before being re-rigged as a barge yacht in 1972. She arrived at Hoo as rebuilding project 1994.

SB Spinaway C was at one time one of the last Ipswich barges still working, along with SB Cambria. She was built at Ipswich in 1899 by Orvis and became a yacht in 1967.

There’s a reference to her winning the 1963 Thames barge match in the hands of skipper Moggles Morgan here, and there’s a Thamesbarge.org.uk link including photos here.

I haven’t found much online about SB Ethel Ada (Ipswich) except that she’s a different boat to the London SB Ethel Ada. I don’t know anything at all about SB Adriatic, but SB Felix was built by Cann in 1893. Like many she became a motor barge and was sold out of trade in 1972 and became a yacht barge. Read about her here.

SB Scotsman was built at Sittingbourne by Wills & Packham 1899, became a motor barge in 1953 and was later a houseboat at Faversham Creek – where I remember seeing her. There’s more information here.

Thamesbarge.org.uk reveals that SB Dannebrog was built at Harwich in 1901 by McLearon. She was de-rigged in 1955, then re-rigged for a period in the mid 1970s before spending some time in St. Katharine’s Dock – there’s a striking photo of her looking scruffy but afloat in the dock on the Thamesbarge.org.uk website. She was sold in 1992 for restoration at Hoo.

By the way – if you’re interested in caring for one of these splendid vessels and in the fortunate position of being able to do so, there is a short list of boats for sale here.

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