Gavin Atkin's weblog for the sort of people who like looking inside boat sheds. It's about old boats, traditional boats, boat building, restoration, the sea and the North Kent Coast
This is quite something: the log is dug out and the exterior shape cut, then the log is opened out and framed, and then a sheer strake is added.
This is ancient history in action – and arguably marks the change in direction in boat evolution that eventually led to the very earliest beginnings of clinker construction.
Boat Building Academy students Joe Latimer and Alex Lyddon dipped the 14ft Broome Runabout they built on the Academy’s long course at the Academy’s student launch day December.
The photos are by Jenny Steer, Derek Thompson and Becky Joseph.
Named in memory of one of the builders’ late grandmother, the Honda HP40 powered Rita rapidly left the harbour and raced across the bay.
Designed by instructor Mike Broome, the boat is built in stitch and glue, sheathed in bi-axial glass cloth and epoxy underneath a painted finish.
Joe and Alex added their own customisations, which included a burr walnut dashboard, bright finished sapele laid deck, cockpit soles and match boarding.
Joe visite Lyme Regis regularly on holiday as a child, and in 2012 he completed the BBA’s five-day basic woodworking skills short course. That course, and seeing the boats being built in the workshop gave him a taste for woodworking and boat building, and so he joined the 38 week course.
Alex came to the Academy from Surrey. ?As a qualified RYA sailing and powerboat Instructor, he has taught RYA courses in Egypt, Greece and Sardinia with tour operator Mark Warner Ltd.
In April Joe will use his new skills to travel and work his way around Australia. The BBA folks report that he’s satisfied with what he has learned and the skills he will be able to use in future – but also that he’s sad the course is over.
Alex, meanwhile, is exploring maintenance work opportunities with a charter company working in the Greek islands…
See ‘Rita’s’ photographic build diary here.
I think this nice little video tells its tale very well, and I would love to think that similar projects around our coast could transform both the lives of the youngsters involved and also the places where they are take place.
Of course projects very like this are already taking place in Faversham, and well done to the townspeople and the Faversham Creek Trust for making it happen (see this example and also this one). Let’s have more.
My thanks to Alan Thorne for leading me to this YouTube.