Lewenie is a 21ft carvel-built launch with larch on oak frames currently being built by Alasdair Grant of Isle Ewe Boats, based at Isle Ewe on the North Western coast of Scotland.
Alasdair completed the long course at the Boat Building Academy in Lyme Regis in 2009, after building a Beer Beach Boat, and went on to work at Cockwells , repairing yachts and completing new builds. He then moved back to Scotland to work in the Mallaig Boatyard repairing fishing boats, and has now moved home to Isle Ewe where he’s started out in boat building on his own.
Here’s what Alasdair has to say about the project:
‘Lewenie’s hull is finished and I’m beginning the fit out ahead of her launch in July. ‘She’s to have a forward cuddy/wheelhouse with traditioinal laid decks fore and aft, and is to be powered by a 30hp Beta diesel. She will be based in Chichester.
‘I designed the boat when I was working in Cornwall. At the end of the summer last year I left my job in Mallaig Boat Yard to come to Ewe Isle and build the boat .
‘I had planned to fit it out with a couple of berths as a kind of gentleman’s launch when it was finished. But while I was building the hull friend suggested I advertise it so could have the finished boat tailor-made for them.
‘So that’s what I did. A few peope got in touch , one of which was Stephen Comley, a project manager working in Canada.
‘Steve sent his brother and a surveyor to look at the hull and bought it. He plans to retire this year to the English South Coast, where he plans to enjoy fishing in Lewenie.’
See the Isle Ewe Facebook page, and contact Alasdair at
alasdairgrant@hotmail.co.uk .