Traditional steel Dutch dinghy and Forest & Stream skiff compared

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pam w skiff

pram w skiff halftotal Pram dingi w Cadeau and Seneca BILD0318

Dutch dinghy and steel-built Forest & Stream skiff

Over in Holland, Hans-Christian Rieck has taken these photos of a traditional steel-built Dutch dinghy of a type often used as tenders to steel-built barges and other craft. They’re strikingly curvaceous little boats, given that they’re made from plates of sheet steel, particularly when compared with the steel-built Forest & Stream skiff seen in the background.

The F&S skiff is being smoothed with filler prior to being painted and having its woodwork fitted. I will be fascinated to hear how this boat works – and I trust it does work well in steel, as it will presumably have a theoretical life time of 80 years or more. I’m pretty sure it will be fine, by the way – it’s clearly greatly scaled up from the 12ft ply dink I drew some ten years ago no, and that will no doubt compensate for the extra weight of the hull. I’d like to take a trip to see it once she’s in the water if that’s ok please Hans-Christian!

Hans-Christian’s workshop trains youngsters in the metalworking skills, and the steel dinghy belongs to the Graf Ship Association – it is destined to be cleaned and refinished.

Here are some earlier images of the F&S skiff, and of a ship, the Jantje ready to be transported to Nordhorn after being sandblasted and sprayed.

skiff starboard2 Skiff total forward buoyancy2

antje04antje02

The steel-built Forest & Stream skiff makes further progress

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Skiff turned over

Total with 5 m motor punt behind Fore Bulkhead for buoyancy aft bulkhead 2

Over in Germany, Hans-Christian Rieck has written  with news and photos of the steel-built Forest & Stream skiff he’s making with some unemployed kids.

I should explain that steel-built dinghies are common on the German and Dutch coasts, and that many sea-going and coastal barges are equipped with them.

Here’s what he says:

‘Hello Gavin,

‘As you can see in the pictures, the boat is now in her normal upright position and we are starting the interior work. You can see the bulkheads for the bouyancy are in place and are awaiting welding. The frames are still with their metal profiles which keep them at the right distance, but the welding will soon be over and they will then be removed.

‘I think within the next two weeks the metalworks wil be over an then the painting an the woodwork will start.

‘Yours

‘Hans-Christian’

The boat behind the skiff is a 5m motor punt project completed some time ago.

Thanks for the photos Hans-Christian!

For more on the Forest & Stream skiff and for the free plans Hans-Christian is working with, click here.

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What it’s really all about…

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Out to sea

Barge boat Barge boat 2 Red sails

Smack 3 Smack 2 Smack

Click on the images for much larger photos. The one at the top
makes a particularly fine background – click on the thumbnail,
then click on your right mouse button when the large image loads

We’ve just got back from a blissful weekend’s sailing around the Swale in our little Ian Proctor-designed Prelude, and here are some photos to prove it. From the top: an unknown yacht making her way seaward at low tide in the morning light; two shots of a boat belonging to one of the local sailing barges (there are two shots because one reveals something about its hull form – for more more on barges, click here); an unknown yacht rides the afternoon tide; three shots taken by Julie of a smack at Tester’s yard at the mouth of Oare Creek.

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