BBA student Shane Butcher builds composite copy of traditional dinghy Barnacle (offsets included below)

Shane Butcher's composite dinghy 'Dreamer' Photo - Jenny Steer Dec 2011 Shane Butcher's composite dinghy 2 'Dreamer' Photo - Emma Brice

Shane Butcher's composite dinghy 'Dreamer' Photo - Emma Brice Shane Butcher's composite dinghy 'Dreamer' 3 Photo - Emma Brice

Boat Building Academy student Shane Butcher built a gaff-rigged 10ft sailing dinghy while on the BBA’s 38-week course, and launched it on the big student launch day in December.

Shane’s previous life was in civil engineering, however he has always had a passion for sailing and woodwork, and to him a change of career starting with a course at the Academy seemed an obvious next step.

Shane’s build was Dreamer, a composite-built copy of a clinker-built rowing boat belonging to the Academy.

The BBA folks reckon that Barnacle’s stem hull is a good general shape for rowing and sailing, and Ollie Rees, who was on the 2010 long course also built a copy of Barnacle, although  he used traditional clinker construction methods.

The BBA has kindly agreed to share a set of offsets for Barnacle for anyone who would like to build their own version of the boat. They can be downloaded here: Barnacle 10ft stem dinghy offsets provided by the BBA. It’s nice to be able to get something like this for free – thanks BBA!

BBA students build 10ft traditional clinker dinghy

Clinker built dinghy made by Ollie Rees and Tim Herman  Clinker built dinghy made by Ollie Rees and Tim Herman

 

Wally photos by Jon Palmer and Derek Thompson

Ollie Reed built this 10ft clinker dinghy while on the Boat Building Academy’s38-week course over the past winter and spring. It’s a replica of a dinghy called Barnacle belonging to instructor Mike Broome, and is built in mahogany with oak ribs and a mahogany fit-out.

While working as a labourer building building oak barns, houses and doing house repairs, he decided to do the BBA’s eight-week woodworking skills course to learn more about this kind of work – and while doing that was so impressed with what he saw going on with the 38-week long boatbuilding course that he decided to make it his next move.

Ollie felt the long course would take his skills to a higher level and open new doors – and that the skills involved in boat-building would be transferable to all sorts of things and offer a variety of opportunities in the long term.

Tim Herman helped Ollie to build the dinghy. Tim, who comes from Brighton, was previously a tree surgeon. He also plays saxophone with his band, Los Albertos.

With the end of the course nearing, Ollie decided that boat building is the industry in which he would like to work, and is now working locally while looking for a job in a traditional boat yard. Tim is currently building timber-framed houses in the Lyme area and playing with his band.