An exhibition of Exeter-based photographer Jenny Steer’s work featuring Lyme’s Boat Building Academy and its boats and people is to be held in the town at The Malthouse in Lyme Regis from the 25th to the 30th May, from 10 to 5 o’clock each day.
Jenny’s title for the show is ‘Shot Across the Bows’.
Here’s my slightly edited version of the press release:
BBA principal Yvonne Green said ‘Launches are a very important part of the Academy’s calendar, celebrating the end of our ‘long’ 38-week courses and the beginning of students’ new careers as boat builders. Students’ families and friends, well wishers and the town come down to the Cobb to cheer as each boat, testament to the students’ new skills, goes into the water for the first time.
‘Launches are very happy occasions, but we are all very conscious that after them people who have worked closely together for nine months go their separate ways. Jenny originally came to a launch as the friend of one of our instructors, but when we saw how her photographs captured the beauty of the boats and the spirit of the occasion we asked her to be our ‘official’ launch photographer.’
The launches are now attended by hundreds of people, and Jenny’s photographs have illustrated articles on the launches in Yachting World, Classic Boat and Water Craft in addition to other magazines.
‘I absolutely love photographing the boat launches at the Boat Building Academy,’ said Jenny. ‘There are so many interesting and diverse boat designs from quirky to more conventional. The atmosphere is extraordinary and I feel privileged to be involved in such an important and special day.’
To complement the photographs two of the traditional clinker boats Jenny has photographed will be on loan from their owners for the exhibition. Witch of Weymouth is a replica of a 1902 Dorset crab and lobster boat, Witch of Worbarrow and was exhibited at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall following the December 2010 launch. Rubee is a very pretty little pram dinghy planked in sweet chestnut on oak, an was launched in December 2012.