Gavin Atkin's weblog for the sort of people who like looking inside boat sheds. It's about old boats, traditional boats, boat building, restoration, the sea and the North Kent Coast
Perhaps because it was made into a film, Longfellow’s dramatic poem is today more often remembered in sayings and references than as a poem. However, it used to be a popular recitation, so I thought I should try bring it back to public attention. The Wreck has been a remarkably enduring meme, given that the poem … Continue reading “The Wreck of the Hesperus”
This 14ft Paul Gartside-designed Skylark traditional clinker-built dinghy made by Boat Building Academy student Jim Higginson with help from fellow students Paddy Uniacke and Mark Bestford is planked in slow-grown Douglas fir, which was also used to construct its birdsmouth-style mast. A similar 12ft Gartside-designed dinghy built by an earlier student caught Jim’s eye on a … Continue reading “BBA students build and launch a clinker Paul Gartside Skylark dinghy”
It’s the bowsprit that hits you between the eyes. Clock the size of it: with something like that you could sail her into port and knock the back wall out of a dockside crimper’s best bedroom… The 73ft schooner HMS Pickle is a replica of the 1799-built original HMS Pickle, which had the honour of bringing … Continue reading “HMS Pickle moves to Gibraltar”