Tag: boat

Boats built by Boat Building Academy students

[ad name=”intheboatshed-post”]

Ian Thompson folding dinghy Nestaway

Ian Thomson and his Nestaway folding dinghy

Yvonne Green, principal of the Boat Building Academy at Lyme Regis has kindly sent us some photos and details of boatbuilding projects by recent students. Thanks Yvonne!

Ian Thomson joined the Boat Building Academy’s 38-week course because he wanted to develop a sectional dinghy, now known as Nestaway. Since leaving the Academy he and the student who helped him on the build have set up a workshop in Dorset and will be exhibiting at the Southampton Boat Show this year. Readers may also have seen it at the Beale Park Thames Boat Show this year.

In an earlier life, Ian was sales director for Nauticalia, so I’m sure he has the enterprise to make a success of the Nestaway, if anyone can do it.

The Nestaway photographed at the Beale Park Thames Boat Show

[ad name=”link-unit-post-bottom”]

Three hundred kilometres in a 15ft boat

[ad name=”intheboatshed-post”]

Ben Crawshaw's Onawind Blue cruises on the coast of Spain

Light Trow Onawind Blue tied up somewhere on the Spanish coast

Ben Crawshaw of The Invisible Workshop is back from a 300 kilometre trip in his boat Onawind Blue and, not surprisingly, seems to be simultaneously shattered and happy. Why not leave a comment of congratulations on his weblog?

Here’s a quotation:

‘You can’t travel 300 kilometres over the sea in a little boat without a lot happening. We had our share of calms and light headwinds, we had long sessions of gut busting rowing under a blazing sun, we had contrary currents and large rolling swells; conditions so frustrating and tiring that I was ready to let mermaids lure me overboard into the cool waters. We had a rat stowaway in the forward locker for 24 hours and we ran aground off a small rocky island. We saw the Tramontana wind and helped heave a 30-foot sailing boat off rocks after it’s anchor dragged in the cove where we sheltered from the fierce blow. We had some fantastic sailing with following winds, at one point so strong that I could only continue sailing by rigging the double-reefed mizzen sail on the main mast and then, with only 1.2 metres of sail cloth, we still sailed at 6 knots. I discovered the most idyllic coves, met fantastic, welcoming people, got drunk, ate some great food and let the sea in through every pore in my body so that now, on land at last, life seems impossibly dry.’

Ben has a great story to tell over the next few weeks, and I’m looking forward to it!

[ad name=”link-unit-post-bottom”]

A postcard from Torquay, March 1914

[ad name=”intheboatshed-post”]

Torquay postcard, dated 1914

The latest addition to Jeff Cole’s wonderful collection – a postcard from 1914

This postcard is a new item in Jeff Cole’s collection. It’s a postcard that was sent on the 5th March 1914 to a Miss J Crookhall, Tasmania. Just months from the outbreak of World War 1, it seems so long ago but now that many people live well into their 80s it’s little more than a lifetime away.

The message reads ‘In this one you can see the little pleasure steamer from Torquay. It is about to go across I think. Best wishes, Eadie.‘

The boat number in the centre of the photo BM127, which would make sense in a picture of Brixham. If you’d like to see more old photos from the days of sail at Brixham and along the Devon coast, I would recommend this link Old photos of Devon from the Francis Frith Collection – there are some fabulous photographs in these books, and the prices for many of them from ABE very reasonable.

Thanks Jeff!

[ad name=”link-unit-post-bottom”]