Category: Small boats

Kayak building at the Boat Building Academy, Lyme, in September

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The Boat Building Academy at Lyme Regis has organised a 10-day West Greenland kayak building course starting on the 27th September.

The instructor is Lars Herfeldt, who first paddled a kayak in the 1960s and was the first to import British sea kayaks to Germany. In the 1980s he started making paddles and in 1989 built his first skin-on-frame kayak with Svend Ulstrup, who learnt the skill in Greenland.

Lars has now made over 400 paddles and 30 East and West Greenland kayaks and is a member of Qajaq USA. (He also completed one of the BBA’s courses recently and completed a very cool old-fashioned Swedish-style motor launch.)

While the course will be instructed and run by the Boat Building Academy, it is fully residential and takes place at nearby Trill Farm, which specialises in sustainable living skills, organic farming, natural remedies and more.

Over the ten days of the course students will each build their own made-to-measure kayak, using either linen canvas or ballistic nylon, and a paddle – the ballistic nylon kayaks will be completed and paddled in the sea at Lyme Regis before the end of the course.

For more details on the West Greenland kayak or the course, call Yvonne Green or Emma Brice on (0)1297 445545.

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The Semaine du Golfe at Morbihan 2011

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Semaine du Golfe press photos – the top photo was taken by Quivillac, the following three by Lamour, and the final shot by Boisdron

Another day, another excuse to put up some atmospheric photos! These shots are from the Semaine du Golfe, which takes place every other year in the wonderful Gulf of Morbihan, on the coast of France. Next year it runs from the 30th of May to the 5th of June.

There’s the usual busy programme of sailing, racing and partying, and this year the attendees include a special flotilla from Wales and a delegation from the southern Basque Country.

For more information, see the impressive press pack.

Filming with Nigel Royall and his traditional Norfolk gun punt and lighter

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The geezer in the hat and the little green boat is Norfolk boatyard proprieter Nigel Royall; in these pictures he’s demonstrating the use of an old-fashioned gun punt with a 3ft beam and a small Norfolk Broads marshman’s punt or eel punt for a local film maker. Here’s what he had to say about the adventure:
‘Dear Gavin,

‘How nice to hear from you, I have often looked at bits and pieces on your web site.


‘Last week I recreated eel picking and sculling and firing a punt gun to fowl for a local amature film maker and we will put some photographs of this on our own website shortly.

‘It was most ‘interesting’ to see how my little gun punt Plover handled with an 11ft sculling oar and a rather large cannon balanced on her bows!

‘We are also slowly restoring a very old River Ant gun punt that is on long term loan to us from the  Museum of the Broads that I hope to eventually refloat, again photos should arrive soon.

‘Nigel’

I’d like to see that recoil in action from a suitable distance and direction!
For an earlier post about Nigel’s adventures with gun punts click here. Also, for a piece about eel fishing in the old days, click here.

PS – There’s been some discussion about these photos at the Wooden Boat forum, which has prompted Nigel to send us some interesting remarks. To read what he has to say, click here: Wooden Boat forum contribution.

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