Tag: Ian Baird

Two Witches on show at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall

Andy Wyke and Dorset crab and lobster boats Witch of Worbarrow and Witch of Weymouth Andy Wyke and Dorset crab and lobster boat Witch of Weymouth

Boat Collection Manager, Andy Wyke with Witch of Worbarrow (front) and Witch of Weymouth (back). Boat Collection Manager, Andy Wyke with Witch of Weymouth.

Boat builder Ian Baird’s Witch of Weymouth replica of a Dorset crab and lobster boat is now on show at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall, together with the 100-year old original on which she’s based.

Witch of Worbarrow was built in 1902, and was used for catching lobsters and crabs up to six miles out to sea in Worbarrow Bay, near Weymouth. She is believed to be the only boat of her type still surviving, but after so many years of use is now too frail to put on the water.

While as a student at the Lyme Regis-based Boat Building Academy, Ian decided to build a replica of Witch of Worbarrow and so built Witch of Weymouth. The result is a traditional clinker built boat, with larch planks laid over oak frames.

Naturally, the new Witch is now the only boat of her kind still in use.

‘It would be impossible to recreate over 100 years of modification and wear and tear that her older sister has endured,’ says museum boat collection manager Andy Wyke. ‘Ian, however, took great pains to accurately copy the lines of the old boat and the final result is a beautiful representation.’

The two Witches will be on display together NMMC until end of December 2011.

Ian Baird restores a 1961 Burnham on Sea motor launch

Yoma II 1961 Burnham on Sea Motor Boat Company 'Sturdy 16' built at 14ft restored by Ian Baird Yoma II 1961 Burnham on Sea Motor Boat Company 'Sturdy 16' built at 14ft restored by Ian Baird

Yoma II 1961 Burnham on Sea Motor Boat Company 'Sturdy 16' built at 14ft restored by Ian Baird  Yoma II 1961 Burnham on Sea Motor Boat Company 'Sturdy 16' built at 14ft restored by Ian Baird Yoma II 1961 Burnham on Sea Motor Boat Company 'Sturdy 16' built at 14ft restored by Ian Baird

Yoma II 1961 Burnham on Sea Motor Boat Company 'Sturdy 16' built at 14ft restored by Ian Baird Yoma II 1961 Burnham on Sea Motor Boat Company 'Sturdy 16' built at 14ft restored by Ian Baird

Boat Building Academy graduate Ian Baird’s first professional commission is nearly ready to take to the water after an extensive restoration.

Yoma II is a 1961 Burnham on Sea Motor Boat Company-built vessel based on theirSturdy 16 model of the time. However Yoma was built at 14ft to the owner’s specification. ‘We think the original owner, Tony Palmer commissioned a smaller boat to make her more manoeuverable around the small harbour of her home port of West Bay in Dorset‘, says Ian.

‘This was a difficult restoration to take on as a first job. Yoma’s bottom had completely rotted out and everything from the fifth plank down from the gunwales had to be replaced.

‘Working as a one-man band isn’t easy, but I had help from some of the former BBA students from my 2010 course to get through the more difficult tasks, and she is now ready to go once her engine,  an original 1.5hp two-stroke Stuart-Turner, has been put back in.’

Her current owner, John Palmer, will continue to use her from West Bay as the tender to Yoma, a locally-built gentleman’s motor launch built in 1921.

While on the BBA course Ian Baird built the replica Dorset lobster and crab boat named Witch of Worbarrow – see an earlier post on this project here.

Ian Baird restores a clinker-built Burnham on Sea motor launch

Yoma II Burnham on Sea Motor Boat Company clinker motor launch restoration

Yoma II Burnham on Sea Motor Boat Company clinker motor launch restoration Yoma II Burnham on Sea Motor Boat Company clinker motor launch restoration

Former Boat Building Academy student Ian Baird has begun working on his first professional project since graduating in December 2010.

If his name is familiar, it’s because he built the replica Dorset crab and lobster boat Witch of Weymouth featured in earlier intheboatshed.net articles (hot nailing the timbers, crab and lobster boat in the workshop) during his time at the BBA.

His latest project is a restoration of a 1961 clinker motor launch built by the Burnham on Sea Motor Boat Company. It has been extensively used by the owner’s family who purchased it newly built – however, after 50 years her bottom planks and centreline structure are in need of urgent repair.

When he first saw her, Ian says it was difficult to accurately assess the extent of the damage as she was glass-sheathed on the bottom of the hull and keel. However, the signs were that she was not in good shape.

When the sheathing was removed, she needed an entire new centreline structure, new garboards and three further planks either side and re-timbering throughout, as the old timbers fell out when the planks were removed.

‘I was left with a pair of gunwales and a selection of planks,’ says Ian.

‘The gaping hole and stumps of broken timbers gave her a bit of a “hag’s grin” look, but she’s coming together now nicely. The centreline structure has now been replaced and the garboards are now fixed so we are looking at an April launch.’

The restoration will be covered in full in a forthcoming Watercraft article later in the year.