Tag: boat builder

Nick Smith 16ft motor launch planked up

Nick Smith motor launch for 2011 - batten shows optional sheerline Nick Smith motor launch for 2011 planked up

Traditional boat builder Nick Smith has sent in this photos of a new 16ft motor launch that he has been working on.

The boat has now been planked up – in the first a batten shows where the sheerline will fall if a buyer prefers an open boat: the second illustrates where the deck would lie if finished off with a half-deck and cuddy.

Nick will be off to the New Forest shortly to source green oak for the timbers; the boat will soon be steamed out and rivetted up – see a video of Nick and helpers steaming out an earlier boat.

Two earlier posts relating to this boat are here and here.

Nick comes from Devon, learned boatbuilding the traditional way and specialises in new builds in clinker and carvel for sail, motor and rowing power from 8ft to 28ft with a special emphasis on West Country style and design, and also takes on repairs and refits from 25ft to 50ft. These days he’s based in Hampshire, and can be contacted by email at nick_smith_boatbuilder@yahoo.com and by phone on 07786 693370.

First Dart motor boat Lady Edyth for sale

Lady Edyth 1908 motor launch built at Dartmouth for sale

 

Lady Edyth 1908 motor launch built at Dartmouth for sale Lady Edyth 1908 motor launch built at Dartmouth for sale

The current owner of 1908 Dartmouth-built motor launch named Lady Edyth has asked traditional boatbuilder Nick Smith to try to find the boat a suitable new owner who understands her provenance and wants to get her back in service in a sympathetic way.

Lady Edyth was built by Lidstones in 1908 – she was the first motor boat on the River Dart.

She has now been dry-stored for years and is now in a garage in High Wycombe, and both the current owner and Nick would like Lady Edyth to return to the Dart or at least the South Hams area. She is 19 foot long, classically narrow in beam, has elegant lines (as the photos above show), and is built in pitch pine on elm with a teak top strake. She won’t appear on Ebay, because she could end up anywhere.

Nick says her hull is in incredibly good condition, and even has her original rudder. However she would benefit from reframing and refastening, some new lengths of pitch-pine planking, new decks, engine beds and engine, and of course some paint and varnish work.

Nick, who completed a traditional boat building apprenticeship as a young man, still specialises in West Country style motor launches and will be happy to offer his boat rebuilding services to the new owner. If anyone is interested please phone him on 07786693370 or email him at nick_smith_boatbuilder@yahoo.com.

In fact, Nick himself is a descendent of the Lidstones boat building dynasty, as his father was a Lidstone. The family, which first emerged at Ledstone near Kingsbridge, were carpenters and boat builders in Dartmouth, but the last one, Win, has now gone, so there are none left. Some time ago Nick found the old boatyard: it’s still called Lidstones, but sadly it’s now waterside accommodation.

Two Witches on show at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall

Andy Wyke and Dorset crab and lobster boats Witch of Worbarrow and Witch of Weymouth Andy Wyke and Dorset crab and lobster boat Witch of Weymouth

Boat Collection Manager, Andy Wyke with Witch of Worbarrow (front) and Witch of Weymouth (back). Boat Collection Manager, Andy Wyke with Witch of Weymouth.

Boat builder Ian Baird’s Witch of Weymouth replica of a Dorset crab and lobster boat is now on show at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall, together with the 100-year old original on which she’s based.

Witch of Worbarrow was built in 1902, and was used for catching lobsters and crabs up to six miles out to sea in Worbarrow Bay, near Weymouth. She is believed to be the only boat of her type still surviving, but after so many years of use is now too frail to put on the water.

While as a student at the Lyme Regis-based Boat Building Academy, Ian decided to build a replica of Witch of Worbarrow and so built Witch of Weymouth. The result is a traditional clinker built boat, with larch planks laid over oak frames.

Naturally, the new Witch is now the only boat of her kind still in use.

‘It would be impossible to recreate over 100 years of modification and wear and tear that her older sister has endured,’ says museum boat collection manager Andy Wyke. ‘Ian, however, took great pains to accurately copy the lines of the old boat and the final result is a beautiful representation.’

The two Witches will be on display together NMMC until end of December 2011.