Gavin Atkin's weblog for the sort of people who like looking inside boat sheds. It's about old boats, traditional boats, boat building, restoration, the sea and the North Kent Coast
Simon Papendick of J-Star Boats is currently restoring a 14ft Kenneth Gibbs-designed Halcyon class Dinghy.
Readers may remember an earlier series of posts from Simon recording his restoration of a small gaff cutter, Gadfly II, that was built by well known Whitstable boatbuilders Anderson, Rigden & Perkins. The posts record his work in restoring the boat and preparing her to sail again, but also his success in researching the boat’s history. To find that series of posts, click here and follow the older posts links.
The latest posts on Simon’s weblog show stages in the job of replacing cracked planks, and putting in new green oak ribs.
There’s some information and photos of a Halcyon dinghy sold by the auctioneers Bonhamshere and a restoration project of a similar boat here (you have to scroll down quite a way to find it).
Said to be the world’s oldest complete motor ship, the hundred-odd year old Chauncy Maples is to return to her old job as a clinic ship on the banks of Lake Malawi – once she has been thoroughly repaired and updated. Read all about the project and donate here.
Malawi is a poor country – more than 78 per cent of her 16.3m population live in poverty. Those who live along the lake travel by canoe, and have little or no access to medical care.
The project to repair her has already raised more than a million pounds – roughly half the money required – and once the job is complete, it is expected that she will be viable for at least another 30 years.
Her history is fascinating. At 38.4 metres long and with a displacement of 250 tons, the Chauncy Maples was ordered in 1898 by the British Universities’ Mission to Central Africa. She was drawn up by Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s son Henry Brunel and Tower Bridge designer Sir John Barry, and was then built in Glasgow by Alley & McClellan at a cost of £13,500.
She was then disassembled into 3,481 parts, shipped, carried overland to Lake Malawi on the heads of local people min packages weighing up to 25kg, rebuilt and then launched on the lake, where she remains to this day.
When the hull parts of the hull were galvanised, the numbering system was hidden and so the engineers in Malawi had to reassemble the jig-saw of parts before the boat could be launched in 1901.
In World War I she served as a troop carrier and gunboat, then in the 50s became a fishing trawler, in the late 60s was converted to become a passenger and cargo vessel.
My thanks to Rowing for Pleasure’sChris Partridge for alerting me to the Chauncy Maples project.
The Fife Regatta 2013 (28th June-5th July) and the Bosham Classic Revival (6-7 July) are at different ends of the boating spectrum – but they both look great fun.
And of course the Fife Regatta has the best poster we’re likely to see this year! I gather it will shortly be on sale from the website.
The Fife Regatta is an invitation-only in which beautifully restored and maintained William Fife-designed and built sailing yachts return to their birthplace on the River Clyde to take part in a regatta. It will be a stunning sight.
Over at Bosham in Hampshire, the aim is to see as many classic dinghies and keelboats as possible racing around Chichester Harbour. It sounds damned fine to me…
