Modern boatbuilding – Page 74

The Medway by paddlesteamer

VIC 56, just outside Chatham Dockyard. Click on the images in this post (and most others!) for much larger photos

The weather forecast predicted strong winds and thunderstorms – so I decided against going sailing. But what to do instead? Julie and I decided to take a river trip down the Medway on the wonderful paddlesteamer Kingswear Castle, starting from Rochester Pier, just by the city’s impressive Norman castle, and these are a selection of photos from the outing.

I hope you’re seated comfortable, for there are lots of shots here – and quite a few questions. If you know the answers, please fill me in using either the Comment button below, or by emailing me at gmatkin@gmail.com.

TID 164, VIC 56, redundant lightships on the Medway

The river had a lot to show us that was intriguing, to say the least. What’s the story, we wondered, behind this neat little schooner? Or the pretty and comfortable-looking motorsailer?

There was this beautiful old cutter – is she a conversion? And this pretty little clinker built pocket cruiser. And what about this elegant cruiser apparently on the brink of going somewhere?

Two photos of the same old-fashioned yacht, and a smack yacht moored near Upnor Castle

This old fashioned chine-hulled dayboat, very like one I’ve seen many times moored at Queenborough – I wonder whether they were made by a local builder? I’m sure generations of visitors have been intrigued by this sinking building in the grounds of Chatham Dockyard

Old smacks stand ready for a race; Harvest Queen looks like a converted wooden motor fishing vessel

There was this pocket cruiser – I haven’t figured out to which design she was built, but will be looking her up – and this smart Dutch tjalk, and the small Thames barge Whippet

Hope of Porthleven, and cormorants guarding their buoys

Steam tug John H Amos – I gather there’s hope she will be restored; a mystery yacht I’d like to know more about; one of the forts known as Palmerston’s follies

A Squib returns from Sunday racing; a motor fishing vessel that looks a lot like Jay Cresswell’s model of a ring-netter

Another very well looked-after MFV conversion, Thames barge Edith May is also looking great following her restoration

The Medway’s Cold War-era Russian sub, however, is very down-at-heel

You can’t moor here; and here’s why

Finally, what’s this craft? I’ve never heard of the Bella-something of Dover, and the Internet seems to be unaware of her also. What is her future to be, I wonder?

The Medway Pilots webpage has a useful history of the River Medway.

Alan Stancombe makes a nice job of his Cinderella open canoe Marie Rose

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Alan Stancombe’s Cinderella

Congratulations to Alan Stancombe on completing his good looking open canoe Marie Rose, built to my Cinderella design. I particularly like the small bouyancy boxes, and the carrying handle/beam strap/whatever it’s called.

Here’s what he has to say about it:

‘Hi Gavin:

‘I thought you might like to see the end product. You can see that I fitted the buoyancy tanks, which look quite nice. My only real problem was with the fillets. I taped them while the epoxy was too soft and consequently they are very lumpy. Also where I dot and dabbed between ties they were too big. Because there was no rebate and the joints were just butt joints I did not want to sand them down too much. Next time I will let them set before adding tape. The problem with this is that you get air bubbles in the joins.

‘Anyway it doesn’t look too bad for a first go built not from a kit. My varnishing skills are improving; I compromised on the paint/varnish and used International Interdeck inside as a non-slip medium.

‘Thanks for your help and great design.

‘Alan’

Plans for building Cinderella are included in my book Ultrasimple Boatbuilding, and are also available from the free boat plans page.

PS Have you used the little logos below yet? They allow you to share this post via Twitter or Facebook, save the link in Google or your own web browser, and finally you can email the link to a friend. Handy, I’d say…

Eric Allen builds and sails a model Ella skiff

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Eric Allen took these photos of a model he made using my Ella skiff boat plans – and I think it’s rather cute. He calls it Nereid, and here’s what he had to say about it:

‘I recently built a somewhat modified Ella skiff sailing version model, and figured you would appreciate hearing about it (as it is built from your design). I tweaked it to give it a Marconi rig and a jib, and added an over-sized bronze keel.

It was built on the cheap, and I have precious little experience, so it may not be the prettiest, best constructed, or most finished model, but it actually does sail. Quite well, in fact. It loves to beam-reach, and can really zip if it catches the wind on a broad-reach.

I am glad I found your website. I was looking for plans to build a simple yet nice-looking free-sailing model, and your plans fit my needs perfectly. Thank you for such a useful site and such well laid-out, logical, and easy to follow plans.

Sincerely,

Eric Allen’

Well done and thanks Eric – receiving something like this is a great start to a day.

For more on the Ella skiff, including the full-size and model plans for both the rowing and sailing version, click here and here.

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