Photos by Jenny Steer and Andy Blundy
Boat Building Academy student Derek Thompson built a strip-planked George Holmes-designed Humber yawl with help from fellow students Christian Skeels and Ryan Johnson.
On retiring, Derek and his wife moved to live by the sea at Seaton, Devon. He previously worked as an IT engineer and as a ski instructor, and had lived variously at Barrow in Furness, where he grew up, Australia, USA, and Hemel Hempstead.
Holmes’ Cassy was originally drawn up in 1883, and Derek’s aim was to recreate it using modern building methods, and the boat he built, named Mikassy, is sheathed with glass cloth and epoxy resin, and planked in Western red cedar with yellow cedar decking.
The name Mikassy is a nod to the original Holmes design called Cassy, and also to Mikasa Street in Barrow-in-Furness, where Derek was born.
Rather than a single centre-plate, Mikassy has two bilge plates in order to allow Derek to sleep on board if he wishes. To see a photo diary of Mikassy’s build, click here.
Christian, who also worked on the pilchard larker built during the same course, is a member of the Humber Yawl Club, which has a number of boats similar to Mikassy.
On of the youngest students on the course last year, Ryan came to the BBA after working in the motor industry in ; after working on Mikassy and several other student boats, he finally built his own West Greenland kayak – of which more in a later post!
