Marcus Lewis restores Troy, starts two Fowey Rivers, and visits Plymouth Classics

[ad name=”intheboatshed-post”]

Troy Class yacht Ruby restoration

Troy Class yacht Ruby restoration Troy Class yacht Ruby restoration Troy Class yacht Ruby restoration

Troy Class yacht Ruby restoration Troy Class yacht Ruby restoration Troy Class yacht Ruby restoration

Troy Class yacht Ruby restoration Troy Class yacht Ruby restoration

Ruby, a Troy Class yacht restored by Marcus Lewis

Cornwall boatbuilder Marcus Lewis has also written with his latest news, and included photos of the  Plymouth Classics Rally. Here’s what he says:

‘I took a new Fowey River dinghy to the Plymouth Classics Rally – lovely venue, lovely people, lovely weather on Saturday though it was pretty wet and miserable on Sunday. I didnt sell any new boats, but there was a lot of interest in seeing a new wooden dinghy, especially from many of the old Devonport Dockyard workers, several of which started their careers as shipwrights only to end up doing other things in the Dockyard.

‘I’ve attached a pic attached of Cornubia (ex Hirta) in excellent shape after her rebuild. She was originally built at Polruan, which is across the river from my workshop. (Photos below)

‘Ruby, the Troy Class yacht I have in for a rebuild, was launched just in time for Fowey Regatta week, and competed in her 80th season of racing. It was a fairly windy and testing week, that was hard work with thankfully little damage.

‘Ruby picked up a third prize one day, which is pretty good in a fleet of over 20 boats. There are photos of the regatta at the Jet Photographic website.

‘In the workshop now are the beginnings of two new Fowey River dinghies (see photos below). I have Tom Trevessey, a graduate of the Boat Building Academy working with me at the moment, putting into practice some of the things he has learnt.

‘Cheers for now, Marcus’

Great stuff Marcus – and thanks for the photos!

Marcus Lewis is based at Fowey, Cornwall. He can be reached on tel 07973 420568 and via his website at www.woodenboatbuilder.co.uk.

Fowey River dinghy Fowey River dinghy in Marcus Lewis' workshop

Two Fowey River class dinghy boat building projects started in Marcus Lewis’s shed

Plymouth Classics 2010 Plymouth Classics 2010 Plymouth Classics 2010 Cornubia Hirta

Marcus’ shots from Plymouth Classics 2010. It warms one’s cockles to see the old Hirta, now renamed Cornubia, in such great shape

Will Stirling’s latest news – a classic cutter, an Arctic circumnavigation and popular dinghies

[ad name=”intheboatshed-post”]

Classic cutter Integrity's hull framing Stirling & Son

Walrus photographed in the Arctic by Will Stirling Stirling & Son General Purpose Dinghy

Cutter Integrity being framed, walrus photographed by Will Stirling in the Arctic, and the bows of a Stirling & Son general purpose dinghy.

The latest Stirling & Son newsletter makes it clear that the yard is as busy as ever.

Will writes that his building shed is dominated by Integrity, a replica 43ft gentleman’s cutter of circa 1880. A cruising racer, she’s a classic English cutter, and here design takes references from Fife’s Bloodhound, Nicholson’s Marigold, Beavor-Webb’s Partridge, Watson’s Vanduara and Dixon Kemp’s Zoraida.

The shape is now defined with all oak the frames up and three planks wrapped around each side. She is a speculative build, so if anyone out there wants to buy a newly built classic, Integrity offers an opportunity that doesn’t come by every day.

The Stirling & Son 9ft general purposes dinghies seem popular – three have been built this year – and the range has been extended with a 12ft version designed and being built to commission.

The company’s range of plans has been significantly expanded this year with six boats now available. Details of each plan pack are on the website.

John Gallagher who built the 12ft sailing dinghy Frolic on our first dinghy building course received an award at the Plymouth Classic Rally for the best new build of 2010.

On their 25th anniversary the South West Maritime History Society awarded four prizes in recognition of significant contribution to maritime history. Will was honoured to be selected for his ‘exceptional research and boatbuilding’ during the Alert and HMS Victory yawl projects.

The National Historic Ships photography competition has shortlisted a Stirling & Son photograph of the interior of the 17ft Tamar salmon boat completed in January of this year. Those shortlisted are to be judged on the 6th of October.

Despite all this activity, Will has also found time to go sailing – and has recently returned from his fourth Arctic voyage. This year, aboard the pilot cutter Dolphin, Roger Capps led a team of three including Will to the far east of Svalbard, making a landing on the particularly remote Storoya, before sailing north west to 80 51N, which is 550 miles from the North Pole. Unlike last year, there was little ice this year. We were able to visit small islands that in 2009 had been visible from a distance of 50 miles, refracted above the pack ice that surrounded them.

The lack of ice may explain the large number of polar bears seen in the area in comparison to the previous year. A circumnavigation was completed by passing through the Hinlopen Straights. We crossed the Barents Sea at an average speed of 3 knts, permanently close hauled, trying to make southing without going too far east, in order to avoid Russia. This resulted in the crew working to windward in F8 winds with waves to suit. They were pleased to reach Hammerfest and the dramatic fjords of the northern coast of Norway.

The next adventure will begin on the 10th of September when Will goes to Galway, Ireland in order to collect a Falmouth quay punt built before the Great War. The boat will receive working repairs before being sailed back to Plymouth where she will be hauled out for a more thorough restoration – she’s destined to become the Stirling family boat for estuary and coastal sailing.

Stirling & Son are based at Tavistock, Cornwall, and can be reached via their website or by phone on 01822 614259.


Ian Baird’s replica of a Dorset crab and lobster boat in the workshop

[ad name=”intheboatshed-post”]

Ian Baird's Dorset crab and lobster boat at the Boat Building Academy

Boat Building Academy student Ian Baird’s project to build a replica of the rare Dorset crab and lobster boat known as Witch of Worbarrow during his course is continuing apace, as it must to be be ready for the big launch on the 9th December.

For more posts relating to Witch and Worbarrow, click here.

Ian, who was a novice woodworker at the beginning of his nine month course at the BBA, has been commissioned to write three articles on his experiences for Watercraft Magazine. The first of his articles will be published in January 2011.

“The centreline structure went together reasonably simply, but the first three planks on either side were really difficult for a fledgling boat builder,’ he reports. ‘The garboard and plank above both return onto the keel and the stern post at an awkward angle and there was a good deal of steaming, rabbet altering and scratching of heads, but we got it right in the end. The third plank was a bit of trouble too, with a tight curve onto the transom, but we are now banging on a plank a day.’

Ian says there has been a lot of interest in Ian’s project: ‘We originally put out a press release to try and winkle out any information we could about the original boat’s life and times, but the response has been more than I could have hoped for.

‘Interest from Intheboatshed.net, local television news and local papers has reached an extraordinarily wide audience and many people have come forward with information and pictures for which I am extremely grateful.’

A pictorial diary of Ian’s project is available at the BBA website.

The launch of the BBA’s March 2010 project boats will take place in the harbour at Lyme Regis, Dorset, at 9am on Wednesday 9th December 2010.

Want to learn more about boatbuilding using the clinker technique? Try John  Leather’s book Clinker boatbuilding at the revived intheboatshed.net A-store.