Photos by Emma Brice and John Palmer
This Yachting World Dayboat was built by Boat Building Academy student Sean Quail, with the help of Charlie Yetton.
Sean joined the BBA’s long boat building course after deciding to make his hobby of woodwork into a career, and went to Lyme after completing his A Level exams – though first he took time out to travel through Australia, Canada and Thailand.
Charlie completed a foundation course at Chelsea College of Art and Design and a BA in fine art sculpture at the University of Brighton, and then worked as an artist’s assistant for a period. He then decided he needed what he called ‘real’ skills – and chose boat building and carpentry as the area in which he was most interested.
The Yachting Day Boat was originally designed in 1949 by G O’Brien Kennedy; Sean’s was constructed using oak ribs, spruce planks and mahogany-veneered plywood.
This is the second YW Dayboat to be built at the academy – see Locky McKenzie’s build, click here. On Sean’s boat, the plank lines were tweaked a little, and the Highfield
lever was left off the forestay in favour of tensioning the rig using the jib halyard.
To view Sean’s weblog of the Dayboat build click here.
I gather Sean is now living and working in Hampshire.
PS – If you’re interested in what the BBA can teach and might consider one of its short courses, take a look at its 2012 short course programme.
