Tag: boat building academy

BBA invites readers to student launch

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Boat Building Academy student launch day invitation

Student launch invitation, showing a Pettersson motor launch made by student Lars Herfeldt and launched last December

The Boat Building Academy down at Lyme is inviting intheboatshed.net readers to attend its big student launch on the 9th December. The event starts from around 8am, with the boats going in the water at around 9.30am.

It will be possible for visitors to see the Academy premises, so long as they don’t get in the students’ way.

Some 18 students are launching boats, and the photos below show the current state of some of them. It looks like very nice work, but there’s still some way to go. Will they make it? I’m sure they will. I won’t be able to make it myself, so if any readers take their cameras, I would be grateful for photos I can publish please!

Click here for the BBA’s short course prospectus for 2011 – in addition to the established offerings, it is offering Colin Henwood of Henwood and Dean instructing a five-day course on renovation and finishing, a two-dayer on rope work and wire splicing, and a three- or five-day half-model making course, the length of which depends on whether you want to make a standard model or one of your own choice.

Last year’s course on building a West Greenland kayak is back, and there’s a new introduction to woodworking skills course, which might reasonably be described woodworking for the petrified.

Wooden boat building in progress at the Boat Building Academy Wooden boat building in progress at the Boat Building Academy Wooden boat building in progress at the Boat Building Academy

Wooden boat building in progress at the Boat Building Academy Wooden boat building in progress at the Boat Building Academy Wooden boat building in progress at the Boat Building Academy

Video: hot-nailing a traditional crab and lobster boat’s timbers into place

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Over at the Boat Building Academy at Lyme, Ian Baird has been making progress on his replica of the Dorset crab and lobster boat Witch of Worbarrow. The timbers of the new boat named Witch of Weymouth have gone in, the gunwales are now in place and the spars almost completely made.

He also gave me the link to this splendid Youtube film clip of the process of hot-nailing her steamed timbers into place. It looks wonderfully frantic to me!

On the boat herself, what’s left to complete are the knees, thwarts and finishing, which must all be in place by the time of the grand student launch on the morning of the 9th December. If you’re in the area and are interested in boats and craftsmanship, do get along!

For more posts in this interesting boat and its origins, click here. Also, look out for a series of three articles describing the build, the first of which is scheduled to appear in the magazine Water Craft in January.

An Islay skiff, a stripper canoe and a model Folkboat – three more summer BBA launches

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Martin McMahon Islay Skiff

Martin McMahon Islay Skiff

James Downs - strip-built Canadian Canoe

Model Nordic Folkboat Tim Price - model Nordic Folkboat

The final three boats launched by Boat Building Academy students this year are a 16ft 5in Selway Fisher-designed Islay skiff built by Martin McMahon, a 14ft 3in Canadian canoe built by James Downs, and a 1m remote controlled model Nordic Folkboat made by Tim Price.

After 40 years of sales and marketing, the lure of boat building training could wait no longer for Martin, who is an experienced sailor. Like a number of other BBA students in the past, he chose to build a Selway-Fisher design, and this time it was the strip planked Islay skiff in red cedar.

James joined the Academy straight from college where he studied carpentry
and joinery.

Originally from South Africa, Tim came to the BBA via Alderney in the Channel Islands.  He built his 1m remote control model of a Nordic Folkboat in his spare time.

The next Boat Building Academy student launch will be 9.30am on Thursday the 9th December. Up to five boats will be launched from the class of march 2010.

The builds include a replica of the traditional clinker-built Dorset crab and lobster boat Witch of Worbarrow (see more of this project here), a 13 ft 6 in cold-moulded electric motor launch, a 14ft Whitehall skiff, a 15ft Chestnut canoe and an 18ft strip-planked, gaff-rigged daysailer.

The latest on these builds can be seen at the BBA website.