Boat Building Academy students build an Iain Oughtred Humble Bee dinghy

Humble Bee clinker built dinghy photo by Emma Brice 1

 

Humble Bee clinker built dinghy photo by Emma Brice 2 Humble Bee clinker built dinghy photo by Rebecca Joseph

Photos by Emma Brice and Rebecca Joseph

Boat Building Academy students Kyle Paternoster and Rob Hounslow made a traditionally-built clinker pram dinghy to plans by Iain Oughtred and sailed it for the first time on their course’s student launch day.

The 7ft 9in dinghy made to Oughtred’s Humble Bee design is planked in sweet chestnut with a Dorset-grown oak centreline and fore and aft transoms, and green oak ribs.

Her name, Rubee, is a play on words based on Kyle’s grandmother’s name, Ruby, and Humble Bee. The red sails were made by students on a weekend sail-making workshop at the academy run by Jeremy White, managing director of Elvstrom Sails.

Kyle started work as an engineer on one of the biggest yachts in the world the week after leaving the Academy – the role is based on three-month rotations, and will allow Kyle to work as a boat builder in the months he is at home, building and selling his own boats.

He’s a qualified dinghy instructor and in his spare time plans to teach members of his family to sail in Rubee.

Rob, who worked with Kyle on the build, grew up around water on his father’s fish farm on the River Kennet. Rob had done almost every job there is around a fish farm, including making jetties and bridges and working with green oak, but he wanted to master a craft and so decided to join the Academy to learn boat building.

Rob will be using his newly acquired skills at Cockwells Modern and Classic Building at Falmouth, where he will be working alongside fellow BBA graduate Jack Livesey, who graduated in June 2012.

The BBA website has a photographic diary of Rubee’s construction.

 

Jordan Boats supplies Iain Oughtred boatbuilding kits to the USA

Iain Oughtred’s Arctic Tern

Cut-out ply component parts and MDF frames and full-sized patterns for Iain Oughtred’s legendary catalogue of boat plans are now available in the USA from Jordan Boats.

Alec Jordan of Jordan Boats based in Fife, Scotland rang this week to say that the kits are being supplied in the USA by a company in Maine. Apparently, the same outfit also supplies for Woodenboat magazine.

The boat components are made from Bruynzeel and Shelmarine BS1088 marine plywood, which are not Lloyds Type Approved, but have an excellent reputation – Lloyds Type Approved ply kits are also available at an added cost of about 30 per cent.

Jordan Boats’ bank will not yet allow payment in US Dollars through its website, so the only way to order is by getting in touch through Jordan’s contact page and asking for a confirmed kit and shipping quotation. For shipping please remember to include your Zip Code, so please remember to include this together with your phone number and Skype name, if you have one.

Alec says it will take a day or two for his contractors to obtain the shipping quote, but when he has it he will will email it to you together with payment details.

Typical kit prices at the time of writing are: Ness Yawl, $2,208; Fulmar, $3,029; Feather Pram, $744; Badger, $1,254; Auk, $1,076; Acorn, $1,076; 13ft 6in Tammie Norrie, $1,346.

Kits are also available for Acorn 12, Acorn 15, Elf, Granny Pram, Guillemot, Humble Bee, Mole, Puffin, Skerrieskiff 15, 15ft Tammie Norrie, Tirrik, Wee Rob and Wee Seal. At the time of writing, Alec was working on adding the Shearwater and had plans to offer the Caledonia Yawl.

New designs can be added to order.

Jordan Boats

For more on Iain Oughtred’s boat designs, including photos of Chris Perkins’ award winning Macgregor canoe and his new Stickleback canoe, click here.

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