Category: Small boats

Special offer: one-to-one tutoring from BBA instructor Justin Adkin for just £125/day

 

Traditional clinker Yachting World Dayboat build instructed by Justin Adkin, and a composite, wood fit-out sailing and rowing skiff designed and built by Justin. Click on the photos for a much bigger view

The Boat Building Academy is making an offer that’s unlikely to be repeated too often – one-to-one tuition with instructor Justin Adkin at the rate of £125.00 per day – the BBA’s usual charge for a short course.

The story is that Justin took a sabbatical to build an ocean rowing boat to be rowed through the North West Passage in one season. However, at the last moment the funding fell through and so Justin has an unexpected gap in his diary.

Anyone who would like some personal coaching in traditional or modern wood or composite construction, repair or restoration can book from one to five days of private tuition with Justin at the Academy – to find out more, email office@boatbuildingacademy.com or ring 01297 445545.

BBA students build a Eric Hvalsoe-designed rowing and sailing dinghy in cedar

  

  

Photos by Emma Brice, Philippa Gedge and Jenny Steer

This lightweight Hvalsoe 16 rowing and sailing dinghy built in cedar was made by Boat Building Academy students Rob Murphy and Matt McGlade with the help of Matt Cowdery.

Read about the Hvalsoe 16 and its sister the Hvalsoe 13 at the website of  veteran Seattle boat builder and designer Eric Hvalsoe.

Rob wanted a boat that he could enjoy with his family, and chose this design as he wanted a lightweight boat that he would be able to use in protected waters and be able to launch by himself.

I gather Rob is ‘chuffed to bits’ with Skylark – he’s pleased with her light weight and finds it easy to manage, launch and recover the boat by himself. He has now sailing her in Poole Harbour and Stithians Reservoir – a fresh water lake in Cornwall – with his family on a recent holiday.

Skylark sails and rows very well and Rob says that his kids haven’t managed to break any part of her yet!

Rob has recently taken over a new workshop in Briantspuddle near to Bere Regis in Dorset and is starting a new boat building and repairs business to be called Blue Lias Marine. Once it has been set up, he has promised to let me know his web address, which I will post here.

Before attending at the BBA, Matt McGlade completed 20 years in the army during which time he acquired a range of useful skills. Having learned woodwork and boatbuilding at the BBA, he has now moved to Bolton, where he is continuing his studies.

Matt Cowdery who had previously worked on superyachts worked on Skylark in its earlier stages but moved on to a glass fibre restoration  project. He’s now working at Reading, building wooden frames for restored Bentleys – a line of work that that has a lot in common with boat building.

Boat building at Martha’s Vineyard

Beautiful boats and an inspiring underlying story – even if it does have more than a touch of Hollywood style sentimentality about it.

Thanks for the link Hans-Christian Rieck!