clinker – Page 26 – intheboatshed.net

Build dinghies and learn boatbuilding with Stirling & Son

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9ft dinghy; 11ft pilot punt; keel, hog and stern assembly of pilot punt; dinghy building course in full swing; dinghy backbone assembly

Will Stirling has written to say that the plans he’s been drawing up for a traditional general purpose 9ft clinker-built dinghy and an 11ft pilot punt of circa 1900 are now are ready for sale to the boatbuilding public, and has kindly attached a few photos.

Each set of plans comprises two sheets of A2 tracing paper, two sheets of A1 tracing paper, a scantlings list, a list of materials and a CD with photographs of various stages and details of how the boats are built. The A2 sheets contain the lines draught and consrtuctional detail, while the A1 sheets include templates of the moulds and transom with the planking marked out and templates of the backbone memmbers (stem, sternpost, stern knee etc). The plans are priced at £50 each. In the near future, further plans in the same format will be available for a 17ft salmon fishing boat that Will is currently building.

Plans without templates are available for a 21ft frigate’s longboat of 1757, a 37ft smuggling lugger of 1835 and a 43ft gentleman’s cutter of 1880.

Stirling & Son are also now running dinghy building courses in which each student builds their own 9ft dinghy – and the the next course is starts on Monday 1st February 2010 and will run three days a week for 17 weeks, finishing on the 26 May. The cost of the course per student is £3,350 including materials, and I gather there is still one place available!

For more intheboatshed.net posts relating to Will Stirling and Stirling & Son, click here.

Contact Stirling & Son on tel 01822 614 259 or via the website at http://www.stirlingandson.co.uk .

William Atkin’s sweet Vintage dinghy

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Dave Clemmer’s Magic Wing, built to William Atkin’s Vintage plans

Some boats start from a special place, even before the designer or builder begins to sketch out their lines, and so it was with Vintage, a 10-foot sailing dinghy drawn by Willam Atkin in October 1919 for Thomas Fleming Day.

Day remains a well known figure and was hugely in his day: for many years he edited the famous Rudder magazine, and famously gave low-cost cruising a huge boost by crossing the Atlantic in a small chine-hulled cruising boat, Seabird. (Click here for an earlier post about a William Atkin cruising boat design based on the Seabird.)

William Atkin, whose name in boat designing is almost a by-word for ‘wholesome’, wrote this of her: ‘… she is a burdensome little packet… a round-bilge, lapstrake boat… From keel to masthead, stem to stern, Vintage was designed precisely as suggested by Captain Day. He had in view a nicely balanced boat which would sail well, row easily and, at the same time, be in her element under the urge of an outboard motor; a small one, of course’.

The boat pictured above is owned by Dave Clemmer and I understand largely built by Eric Hvalsoe.

Maritime weblinks guru John Kohnen has spent some time with the boat and likes it:

‘I’m quite impressed with Dave Clemmer’s Vintage, Magic Wing. It’s a Good Boat. Last year at Port Townsend Dave took me out in her, and with two big guys aboard she sailed well and felt quite safe – even when Dave stood up to fool with the rig. This year Dave let me steal her and go out by myself. He’d just acquired a set of light, balanced spoon oars and she rowed like a dream… She moved along pretty good for a 10ft dinghy… Magic Wing is a little boat, but big enough to be used as a real boat, not just a tender. Billy A did good!’

Dave also got in touch to point the way to a splendid Flickr photo set of Magic Wing’s construction, and to lend his support for the Vintage design:

‘The Vintage is an excellent little 10-footer, is great as a tender, and is decent for one person to go on multi day adventures with camping and anchoring gear. She is a very stable and safe boat for her size. For sailing, the Vintage actually likes a lot of wind. She turns on a dime. I haven’t come close yet to capsizing her, and I’ve yet to feel the need to reef (I’m sure I’ve been in 20+ knot winds on some occasions). I find her rather slow in terms of sailing speed, but I’m sure I’m expecting too much for a 10 footer for speed. The Vintage does very well rowing with one person in the boat, and can keep up with longer boats (as Eric can attest). Rowing with more than one person (once the transom dips into the water) is considerably slower.’

Eric Hvalsoe’s email to me agreed with much of what Dave had to say – though he argued that Magic Wing’s speed under oars might owe something to Dave’s strong arm and posh oars – and added that there is some narrative about building Magic Wing on his web site http://hvalsoe-boats.com/ (from the opening page, look for a link to archives). However, he adds a small caution: ‘Vintage should not be mistaken for an easy build,’ he says. ‘I believe we made several improvements in construction detail over the information provided by Atkin.’

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Small motor launch Louise built by Nick Smith complete but for her varnish

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Hampshire-based boatbuilder Nick Smith wrote this week with photos of his current motor launch building project Louise. Here’s what he has to say:

‘Louise will be launched in the spring, as the owner will be doing the varnishing over the coming months. Normally I would be a bit reticent about this, but having seen my customer David Eschbaeschers’ varnish work and woodwork on his steam launch I was confident she would be finished to a high standard that would be as good as I would do it.

‘Louise to my eye has a more ‘motor dinghy’ look than the last project, Lisa, which is more ‘motor launch’ – the one foot difference in overall length has seen to that, together with the fact that Louise is narrower and has a flatter sheer.

‘I’m very pleased how she has come out and so are the owners, they will be dry sailing the boat and go all over the country’s rivers and estuaries through the season.

‘Thats it for now. After a break I will be starting a restoration job on a 15ft clinker launch my oppo found under an oak tree at Beaulieu. So will keep you posted on that one.

‘Nick’

Nick wrote again a couple of days later with a photo of Moiety, a boat he built 17 years ago.

‘Moiety’s owner has sent me these pictures of the boat at The Thames Traditional Boat Rally at Henley this year. I originally built and planked Moiety in 1992 and fitted her out six years later, so she was completed in 1996, so the hull is 17 years old but the completed boat only 13 years old. She is 16 foot 4 overall with a beam of six foot four, and a lot of boat for her length.’

Moiety at this year’s Thames Traditional Boat Rally

Thanks Nick – I’m looking forward to hearing about the restoration job.

For more photos of Louise during her build click here.

For photos of the previous build Lisa click here.

Nick comes from Devon, learned boatbuilding the traditional way and specialises in new builds in clinker and carvel for sail, motor and rowing power from 8ft to 28ft with a special emphasis on West Country style and design, and also takes on repairs and refits from 25ft to 50ft. These days he’s based in Hampshire, and can be contacted by email at nick_smith_boatbuilder@yahoo.com and by phone on phone on 07786 693370.

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