Win an eight-week BBA boat building course in the Gail McGarva workshop raffle

Gail McGarva and friends working on lerret at the BBA

There’s always something going off down at the Boat Building Academy, and this time it’s a raffle to raise money for a permanent workshop for Gail McGarva. You could win an 8-week BBA boatbuilding course…

The Academy folks are very keen to keep Gail in Lyme – as well as having superb woodworking and teaching skills Gail also manages to involve a wide selection of the local community. For example, when she was building a lerret recently she organising a ‘knees-up’ in which a widely disparate group of people came together to help make knees; the group ranged from royal warrant holders to socially excluded young adults. See the photo above.

It’s a mark of the BBA’s enthusiasm that it is prepared to raffle its courses which – a £1 ticket could win you any of the following:

  • First prize: an 8-week woodworking course and £100 towards materials for a personal project piece
  • Second prize: a 5-day traditional wooden boat building or wooden boat restoration short course
  • Third prize: work for a day with Gail in her workshop

For more information see the BBA’s raffle page. Tickets can be bought on line or by ringing the Academy’s office.

Christine DeMerchant builds an Apple Pie plywood and epoxy dinghy

Christine DeMerchant builds Chuck Merrell's Applie Pie dinghy

Christine DeMerchant builds Chuck Merrell's Applie Pie plywood dinghy

Christine DeMerchant is having a great time building an Apple Pie plywood and epoxy dinghy from plans drawn up by Chuck Merrell. The aim is to use it as a tender to her sailing cruiser.

Follow her progress here. The plans she’s working from are here, and there’s a nice article explaining how Chuck came to draw the plans here. Merry Christmas everyone – and if you read the last link, you’ll know why I say that.

The Apple Pie is about as small as a boat can go and still be useful, and I think it makes a great quick get-afloat summer project; a couple of winters ago I suggested it would also make a good mid-winter kitchen-table kind of project.

Either way, if you haven’t yet taken the plunge and built your own boat, and don’t know if it’s an activity you would enjoy, this could be the way to go.

PS – Check Christine’s message in the Comments link below. She has completed and launched the boat, and is as pleased as punch with it. There’s a YouTube clip showing just how well it works.

Boat Building Academy students’ launch day summer 2011




Lyme Regis Boat Building Academy boat launch 2011

Reader Fraser McGruer sent us this link to his video of the Boat Building Academy students’ launch day summer 2011, which took place a couple of weeks ago.

I don’t often like the music people use as background to their videos, but I very much enjoyed this one, and I hope you do too.