Category: Rowing boat

A new site for canoe yawl enthusiasts

canoe yawl, dick wynne, george holmes, eel, canoeyawl, humber yawl

George Holmes’ influential canoe yawl Eel

The canoe yawl deserves more prominence, and so Dick Wynne and friends have set up a website devoted to this type of boat at www.canoeyawl.org. I hope it’s a great success!

Here’s what Dick and co say about their venture:

We want to draw attention to today’s and tomorrow’s canoe yawl designs and not be seen as a purely historical group. But fear not, we love the pioneers too — one of the CYA ringleaders sails a 19th century design. Our aim is to represent all known canoe yawl designs, past and present, on these pages — it’ll take us a while to flesh out the design archive, with more designs, and more words to those already present.

  • If you have designed a canoe yawl, we want to hear from you and to give you some free advertising.
  • If you own a canoe yawl we want to hear from you with your experiences of it.
  • If you’re selling or buying a canoe yawl, we want to help you.
  • If you are none of the above and just like canoe yawls, we want to hear from you anyway!

The folks behind canoeyawl.org have a magazine in the pipeline that we hope will appear twice a year, and some interesting practical initiatives to discuss. I hope it’s all a great success.

PS – if you’re interested in canoe yawls, you may want to check out one of the seriously good reads of the year: Holmes of the Humber.

Boat Building Academy students launch a 14ft rowing skiff with wooden fit-out

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Boat Building Academy, Jon Palmer, Ben Larcombe, Justin Adkin, glass-fibre construction, wooden fit-out, Atlantic Rowing Race, Beale Park, Thames Boat Show, BBA, David Johnson, Wessex Resins, Sliced Bread, Ian Thomson, Nestaway, sectional dinghies

Boat Building Academy, Jon Palmer, Ben Larcombe, Justin Adkin, glass-fibre construction, wooden fit-out, Atlantic Rowing Race, Beale Park, Thames Boat Show, BBA, David Johnson, Wessex Resins, Sliced Bread, Ian Thomson, Nestaway, sectional dinghies Boat Building Academy, Jon Palmer, Ben Larcombe, Justin Adkin, glass-fibre construction, wooden fit-out, Atlantic Rowing Race, Beale Park, Thames Boat Show, BBA, David Johnson, Wessex Resins, Sliced Bread, Ian Thomson, Nestaway, sectional dinghies

Built by Boat Building Academy class of September 2009 students Jon Palmer and Ben Larcombe, this 14ft rowing skiff was designed by Justin Adkin.

Justin’s design gave Jon and Ben an opportunity to explore glass-fibre construction with a wooden fit-out.

Before the course Jon worked as a product designer, and Ben held down a variety of jobs ranging from snowboarding instructor to pattern-making apprentice. Both were looking to learn practical skills that would broaden their horizons in woodworking and boat building.

Unfortunately for Jon and Ben, rowing athlete Justin (he won the 05-06 Atlantic Rowing Race) broke the foot-rest while testing the boat at the Beale Park Thames Boat Show just before the BBA student launch day – but  Ben and John were back in the workshop working on the boat by Sunday evening after the show, and the boat was ready in time for the big launch.

I gather Justin hopes his new design will provide the basis for a new rowing racing class – but more generally says that it’s designed for short- to medium-length coastal regatta rowing races. The design was carved from a block, lines taken and lofted, and is loosely based on Whitehalls and flashboats, but with fuller forward sections to help it to lift when rowing on the open sea. The result is not as tippy as a flashboat, say the BBA folks, but still a test to row. Justin has recently built a fixed-seat version, which he says is very quick.

Visiting the Boat Building Academy David Johnson of Wessex Resins commented on the excellent design and told Justing he should call her Sliced Bread because, he said, ‘it had to be the best thing since’. The name may have stuck.

Since finishing the course Ben and Jon are setting up a workshop working with Ian Thomson (BBA graduate in June 2008) whose company’s Nestaway sectional dinghies have taken off.  Meanwhile, Ben and Jon have been asked to quote for building a traditional rowing boat and another of the Sliced Bread skiffs.

The September/October issue of Water Craft magazine will be out soon

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Water Craft magazine September October

Editor Pete Greenfield has sent us his preview of the September/October issue of Water Craft magazine.

Click here to subscribe to this excellent publication!

Here’s what he says about the next issue:

‘In our September/October 2010 issue – in good newsagents from 26 August – you’ll find….

•Some 16 years designer Nigel Irens launched his radical 30ft (9m) lugger named Roxane. Now Dick Phillips has built a not-so-conventional gaff-sloop version in wood and Peter Goad has sailed her….
•Did you see the BJ17 at the Beale Park Boat Show? Bart Jan Batts asked Nigel to redesign his 3-masted 17’ (2.2m) King Alfred School Expedition Boat– with a Roxane-style lug rig. Kathy Mansfield sailed her.
•And talking of 17-footers, Alice Driscoll says the new water-ballasted BayRaider 17 from Swallow Boats is two boats in one.
•Designer Paul Gartside presents home builders with full plans and offsets for an easy-to-build 9ft (2.74m) tender.
•It’s less than a year since Alec Jordan launched his first kit-built 22ft (6.7m) St Ayles skiff for the Scottish Coastal Rowing Project. Now as many as 22 are in build, and six community groups have completed – and raced – their own boats.
•And, talking of Scotland, did you know that when Robin Hood wasn’t up there riding through the glen, he was surfboating in Wales? We didn’t either. And when Ridley Scott’s new film Robin Hood needed a fleet of mediaeval surfboats, Mark Edwards’ Bridge Boathouses had to make them without chopping down Sherwood.

Plus the best of the Beale Park Boat Show, Water Craft’s own Amateur Boatbuilding Awards and all our regular features.’

Once again, Water Craft offers excellent value – the tender plans alone will be worth ten times the cover price. Get your subscription now!