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
This is Quest – a 32ft nobby built in 1902 by HE Dalrymple and currently at Whitehaven – and she needs a new owner in a hurry due to some sad circumstances, and she’s in danger of being broken up. Contact me at gmatkin@gmail.com and I’ll put you on to the owner.
Learn more about nobbies at the Nobby Owner’s Association website.
My thanks to Fowey boat builder Marcus Lewis for the tip.
Photo: Peter Facey, via Wikimedia Commons
Heritage Lottery Fund officials have announced that a bid to develop Portsmouth Historic Dockyard’s Boathouse no 4 to include a traditional boat building training centre run by the International Boatbuilding Training College has successfully passed the first stage of its application for funding.
If the bid is successful, Boathouse no 4, which was constructed during the massive 1930s period of re-armament and used for constructing the secret three man midget X-Craft submarine during World War II, will be restored and opened to the public as the Boatbuilding & Heritage Skills Training Centre.
Visitors will be able to watch traditional boat building in action, as well as enjoy exhibitions on the story of small boats in the British Navy.
As well as securing the future of Boathouse 4, the project is expected to help produce the craftsmen needed to preserve iconic ships such as HMS Victory and HMS Warrior, although graduates will leave the academy with carpentry and engineering skills to enable them to develop careers in the marine and heritage sectors more generally.
The Portsmouth branch of the IBTC will be in addition to the long-established college near Lowestoft in Suffolk.
See the Heritage Lottery Fund announcement.
Eighty-year-old Interlude built by Hornby in 1938 to a design by A H Comben is now the property of Steve Whittle, who saved her from destruction two years ago and now plans to get her back as close to her original condition as possible, and to take her up to Lake Windermere.
Once she’s there he intends to take groups on trips round the lake and its beauty s pots, stopping at hotels for lunch – and all in a 1930s style.
It sounds like a good wheeze to me! Steve hopes that this work will fund Interlude’s upkeep and make sure she’s around for at least another 80 years.
From a comment by a G Newstead on this post, it seems Interlude was the subject of a write up in the boating magazines when she was built, due to her design and speed. There also this tantalising entry on the National Archives website.
In the meantime she’s at Taylor’s Boatyard in Chester (the final photo above shows her being craned into the Shropshire Union Canal), and Steve would very much like to gather some more information, as up to now he has had little success in learning about Interlude’s story.
If you have anything to add, please send it to me at gmatkin@gmail.com, and I’ll forward it to Steve.