Tag: boat

A classic flattie skiff on the river Vilaine, Brittany

 

Here are a few shots taken from the water of what seemed to me to be a classic small working skiff built from what looks like solid timber we sighted on the river Vilaine in Brittany while on holiday a few weeks ago.

It’s crude, heavy, basic and all the rest, but its interest lies in the fact that in England, just across the Channel from Brittany, we don’t really have boats like this – to the extent we often think of them as being exclusively North American boats, thanks to the work of American language authors writing in English such as Howard Irving Chappelle.

But I’m pretty sure the American models, some elegant, light and nicely made and some heavy workhorses, some called just skiff or maybe sharpie skiff, flat iron skiff or flattie skiff or a range of other names, must have developed from European craft like this one.

PS – In answer to Doryman Mike Bogoger’s query in the comments below, here are two photos of the interior of a somewhat different boat local to the same area as the skiff above. These are used for tending mussel beds etc in the Vilaine estuary. I don’t know how closely these boats are related, but I think their construction is broadly similar.

 

Dylan sails his Duck Punt for the first time – and loves it

Keep Turning Left sailor and film-maker Dylan Winter has launched and successfully sailed his new Duck Punt for the first time.

He’s absolutely delighted with the little sailing canoe, which slips along as nicely as those made by earlier Duck Punters on the Essex coast. And there is the added bonus that he seems to be able to sail and film at the same time without falling in – which I’m pretty sure is what would happen to me if I tried the same trick.

Here on the upper floors of Intheboatshed.net Towers, we’re cheering for several reasons.

It’s always great when someone successfully builds a little boat and enjoys it on the water, and the news seems even better when the builder is in the UK. Round here, amateur boatbuilding projects are nothing like so frequent as they should be, given how much water we have to play with.

I’m pleased, too, that the little Duck Punt shows clearly how effective narrow, flat-bottomed boats can be. The British tend to believe all boats must be round bottomed to be any good, and that therefore building a boat is just too complicated to be worth considering. Dylan’s little punt gives the lie to that myth, just as did all the other duck punts that came before it.

Still more than all this, the project is a tremendous example of cheap and simple sailing.

Here’s Dylan’s page linking to his Duck Punt film; links to John Milgate’s original plans are also available on his website.

PS – Fans of Dylan’s adventures should bag a copy of the latest issue of PBO magazine, which includes an excellent feature-length article by the man himself.

Rescue Wooden Boats starts restoration work at Morston

Rescue Wooden Boats Rescue Wooden Boats

Rescue Wooden Boats is a fairly new charitable trust established in 2010 with the aim of restoring and use old wooden craft, and to teach people about their history and the skills involved in their construction, maintenance and use.

The organisation, which has premises at Morston, has acquired three boats:

  • Lucy Lavers (pictured above in her heyday, and as work began in December 2011), a single-screw Liverpool-type lifeboat built in 1940 for Aldeburgh Lifeboat Station. Her first service was the Dunkirk evacuation in the early part of World War II. She later served as a relief lifeboat at Wells-next-the-Sea and elsewhere along the East Coast. She was donated to Rescue Wooden Boats by the Dunkirk Little Ships Restoration Trust
  • Black Beauty, a North Norfolk crab boat built in 1950 by Emery for Dick Davis. She was donated by Andy Frary, who used her as a crab boat until the mid-1980s
  • Bessie, a whelker provided by Trevor Farman. She was built by Johnson in the mid 1930s for the Cox family who whelked with her out of Wells-next-the-Sea for three decades. Squeakie Bishop then bought her and used her for angling parties from Blakeney and then Gorleston, where she continued to be used as a pleasure and fishing boat. She is one of only a few remaining Johnson-built whelkers but is said to be in reasonably good condition

As is the way with these things, the Rescue Wooden Boats folks need members, donations of money, materials and skills. They are currently searching for an original canopy for the Lucy Lavers – if you know about one, please contact them!