Gavin Atkin's weblog for the sort of people who like looking inside boat sheds. It's about old boats, traditional boats, boat building, restoration, the sea and the North Kent Coast
Norfolk film maker Jonno of Big Sky Productions has written up the process of installing on new keel to the underside of the magnificent White Moth, a Norfolk wherry built for pleasure purposes in 1915. It all started with propping the boat up and sawing off most of the old keel – read all about it here!
Mal Nicholson and the Spider T crew will have more to chew on than most when they consider their summer’s adventures, having sailed a 1920s Humber sloop from Keadby to Arbroath and back.
The purpose of the boat’s trip was to attend Arbroath Sea Fest, and join in the marking of the 200th anniversary of the building of the Bell Rock Lighthouse, by Robert Stephenson. (I’m pleased to note a connection here – in building the Bell Rock Light, Stephenson was assisted by John Rennie, whose son Sir John Rennie was responsible for the New River Ancholme Drainage Scheme, which created the river that provides Spider T’s home berth.)
As you’d expect, their trip was marked by a series of minor mishaps and fascinating encounters, unforgettable landfalls, great thundering dawns and glorious sunsets. A series of posts here at intheboatshed.net recorded the northward trip, but you can read about the whole thing on a special page on the Humber Keel and Sloop Preservation Society’s website.
A series of local newspapers covered the story of the Spider T’s visits to ports along the way, including this one recording the moment when the boat and crew called in at Hartlepool.
PS – Dig the great photo on the HKSPS homepage showing a keel skipper working his boat out of harbour using a sweep, with his rudder hard over and a tender in tow. Now there’s a challenge, yotties!
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Boat Building Academy student Ian Baird’s project to build a replica of the rare Dorset crab and lobster boat known as Witch of Worbarrow during his course is continuing apace, as it must to be be ready for the big launch on the 9th December.
For more posts relating to Witch and Worbarrow, click here.
Ian, who was a novice woodworker at the beginning of his nine month course at the BBA, has been commissioned to write three articles on his experiences for Watercraft Magazine. The first of his articles will be published in January 2011.
“The centreline structure went together reasonably simply, but the first three planks on either side were really difficult for a fledgling boat builder,’ he reports. ‘The garboard and plank above both return onto the keel and the stern post at an awkward angle and there was a good deal of steaming, rabbet altering and scratching of heads, but we got it right in the end. The third plank was a bit of trouble too, with a tight curve onto the transom, but we are now banging on a plank a day.’
Ian says there has been a lot of interest in Ian’s project: ‘We originally put out a press release to try and winkle out any information we could about the original boat’s life and times, but the response has been more than I could have hoped for.
‘Interest from Intheboatshed.net, local television news and local papers has reached an extraordinarily wide audience and many people have come forward with information and pictures for which I am extremely grateful.’
A pictorial diary of Ian’s project is available at the BBA website.
The launch of the BBA’s March 2010 project boats will take place in the harbour at Lyme Regis, Dorset, at 9am on Wednesday 9th December 2010.
Want to learn more about boatbuilding using the clinker technique? Try John Leather’s book Clinker boatbuilding at the revived intheboatshed.net A-store.