Category: Racing sailing craft

Teignmouth and Shaldon Museum opens Morgan Giles exhibition ‘Launched in Teignmouth’

Morgan-Giles exhibition at Teign and Shaldon Museum 1 Morgan-Giles exhibition at Teign and Shaldon Museum 2

A special exhibition at the Teign Heritage Centre is celebrating the people and work of the Morgan Giles shipyard from 1921 to 1968.

The exhibition will be held at the Teign Heritage Centre from Friday 8th March to Friday 5th April 10am to 4.30pm from Tuesdays to Saturdays.

On display will be some Morgan Giles plans including some from pre-1914 days, racing yachts in the ‘20s and‘30s, and luxury motor cruisers of the ‘50s and ‘60s.

Other items will be specialist craftsmen’s tools, archive photographs, models and oral histories. There will be a featured display about the Lady Cable built in 1923, and other important boats, such as the Hispania yacht built for the King of Spain.

On Saturday 23rd March at 11am there will also be a free talk about the Lady Cable from Lyn Yeoman of the Lady Cable Trust. The Lady Cable is a pleasure boat that went to Dunkirk and was apparently the last small boat to leave the beaches.

Morgan Giles were internationally famous for the elegant design of their boats and very high quality of workmanship, having employed highly skilled craftsmen, shipwrights, engineers, joiners and riggers, many of whom are remembered in Teignmouth today.

For visitor details please see the Teign Heritage website www.teignheritage.org.uk or phone 01626 777041.

I’m grateful to the Boat Building Academy folks for letting me know this was going on. Never ones to miss an opportunity (good for them) they added that BBA student Benjamin Charny is currently building a Morgan Giles-designed clinker-built dinghy – there’s a photographic record of the boat going together here.

Benjamin’s project was recently mentioned by a piece in the Western Morning News: ‘In another corner Benjamin was making a tiny rowing boat: ”It’s eight foot long and I have taken it from a West country design by Morgan Giles. He built the original in the 1930s for his kids and I got the lines from the Falmouth Maritime Museum.

”This will be the only copy around. I have loved doing it.”

The 20th Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Traditional Boat Festival, 22nd and 23rd June

Portobello and Queensferry

STBF1 (1) Little and Large Skiffs tied up at Portsoy harbour 2

The 20th annual Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Traditional Boat Festival will take place at Portsoy on the 22nd and 23rd June.

Amazingly, crowds in excess of 16,000 are expected – which is quite a thought for those who think traditional boats are a minority interest.

Traditional wooden boats from all over the UK and beyond will congregate in the historic 17th century Portsoy harbour. Visitors can learn how to paddle a coracle, hop aboard restored fishing vessels, and see the crews of the St Ayles Skiffs rowing regatta race on the open seas.

The music programme will once again feature the very best of traditional music. Popular Scottish folk singer and former presenter of BBC’s Travelling Folk, Archie Fisher, will headline the Friday Showcase Concert on the eve of the Festival – supported by the internationally celebrated shanty band Kimbers Men, and local group The Lennox Family.

Festival-goers should watch out for the opportunity to learn a shanty or two and perform a ‘maritime work song’ on stage on the Sunday.

For more information about the Scottish Traditional Boat Festival and to buy tickets visit www.stbfportsoy.com.

Tiernan Roe of Roeboats issues his newsletter – while his boats star in the Game of Thrones

Tiernan Roe microcruiser workshop

It’s always good to hear of a boat builder, repairer and restorer is busy despite the straightened and worrying times in which we live. Here’s Tiernan Roe’s newsletter about the doings at Roe Boats down at Ballydehob, County Cork:

Well it’s been a busy few months here at Roeboats. I’m currently finishing up the interior refit of a Squib keel boat, all of the wooden interior has been replaced with low weight plywood and epoxy coated to limit water absorption and hopefully keep the boat as a light as possible. Of course a fiberglass hull is going to be heavier than a wooden one and probably absorb as much water. Doing this job has reminded me of how much I dislike fiberglass as a material.

I’ve also been spending much of my free time developing plans for the Belfast Lough One Design ‘Jewel‘ class designed by Linton Hope. There’s not much information available about either the designer or the boats, but I think they could be excellent day-sailers/classic racers for the 21st century. More anon. [Read about the Jewels in Folkard on pages 309-312.]

I’ve also been busy building a 16ft micro cruiser for a repeat client. It’ll be a one-person, self righting, yawl-rigged sharpie very similar to the Catbird I built in 2010. I should have the planking finished soon: she’s scheduled for a May launching, just in time for summer.

Other news is that the boats I built for the HBO Game of Thrones TV series are featured in the trailer for season 3, which is way cool (I’ll have to get a tuxedo for all of the Oscars I might win). Watch it here you’ll see the boat around the middle of the clip, don’t blink or you’ll miss it. It’s the one on fire.

That’s all for now, next issue will most likely include the launching of the boat above and a schedule of where you can see some Roeboats on the water during the Summer.

Tiernan can be reached by phone (tel +353 (0)28 38973 and +353 (0)86 158 6937 [mobile]) and via his website.

I must say I’m amused about the Game of Thrones thing… I never imagined I’d be posting about it!