boatbuilders – Page 4 – intheboatshed.net

Who can save this Johnson & Jago 2 1/2 tonner now lying at Maldon?

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Johnson & Jago-built 2 1/2 tonner Dzorbha

Marinestore at Maldon sent an email to me (and probably many others) appealing for someone to take on this 1936 Johnson & Jago-built 2 1/2 tonner.

More details and photos can be found at the Marinestore weblog, but the basic information is as follows:

Dzorbha has been abandoned by her owner. Her planking and ribs are pitch pine on oak in good condition. She has no sails and her mast is long past its sell by date. Overall, she will need a lot of work by a true enthusiast. She can be viewed at Shipways Yard, North St, Maldon CM9 5HQ, in the back row against the fence.

Marinestore says it will accept any reasonable offer (the owner she goes to is more important than what we get). There will be a lifting charge to load her on to transport if required and we will allow a week for the new owner to get things organised. Please email any queries that you may have to chandlery@marinestore.co.uk – all offers by email must be in by 12pm on the 31st July.

I’ve emailed to ask for more photos and some history, but haven’t had a reply – but maybe you’ll be more lucky!

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A traditional Hebridean lugger built by Harris boatbuilder John Macaulay

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One of the treats of the Beale Park Thames Boat Show was seeing one of John Macaulay’s traditional Hebridean skiffs full of old-fashioned boatbuilding features.

Note the short floors and ribs, for example – they’re very much what one sees in a Viking ship or Viking canoe. What’s more, the oarlocks and oars obviously belong to a time before the fashion for adopting rowing racing practice brought in round oars in round oarlocks capable of being rotated.

For an earlier post on Macaulay, click here.

This interesting article sheds light on the man himself: John Mcaulay Boatbuilder. Of the virtues of wooden boats he says: ‘There is only one boat worth having and that is a wooden boat. They are unique; one off and beautiful. How anyone with any sensitivity could choose a plastic hull over a wooden one made by hand, I will never know.’

Here’s another newspaper piece in the Stornaway Gazette describing the restoration of a Western Isles boat.

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Traditional boats of Ireland photographed by boatbuilder and weblogger Tiernan Roe

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Heir Island lobster boat Rose and Galway hooker An Faoilean

Heir Island lobster boat Saoirse Muireann owned byhistorian and
author Cormac Levis

The two gaffers in the upper photo are Rose an Heir Island lobster boat on the left and An Faoilean a Galway hooker on the right. The Saoirse Muireann below is another Heir Island lobster boat, and is owned by historian Cormac Levis author of the well known and highly regarded book Towelsail Yawls describing the sailing lobsterboats of Heir Island and Roaringwater Bay.

The photos have been sent in by Tiernan Roe, boatbuilder and weblogger based at Ballydehob, West Cork.

From the 1870s to the 1950s, sailing boats dominated the lobster fishery of Ireland’s south coast, and the lobstermen lived a semi-nomadic lifestyle over a hundred hundred nautical mile stretch of coastline in the small open boats, yet it’s said that until Levis did his research and wrote Towelsail Yawls, their way of life had been in danger of passing unrecorded. I should add that although it was published as recently as 2002, the book already seems difficult to find – which seems to suggest that he did an excellent job.

As a bonus, here are three photos of a John Atkin Ninigret 22ft outboard boat that Tiernan’s currently building being turned over at his Ballydehob workshop. Follow his weblog Roeboats at http://roeboats.wordpress.com/.

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