Tag: Nick Smith

Nick Smith 17ft carvel 7/8th inch Douglas fir on oak fishing and pleasure boat

You don’t see too many of these. West Country traditional boat builder Nick Smith is selling a new built 17ft carvel built launch fitted with a fully restored 10hp Bukh inboard – what he calls ‘a proper old thumper’.
He started building it from a 24ft, 36in log four years ago, but only completed a year and a half ago.
It’s an offer he’s unlikely to repeat – the centre line went together well enough, but once the planking started Nick realised that building in carvel even at this length and size wasn’t going to be an easy project. Really, he says, it needed two journeymen and was tough work on his own. From now on, it’ll be clinker all the way…
Due to a change in the original customer’s circumstances the boat hasn’t been afloat, but Nick has run the engine on the trailer, and has faired and repainted the topsides, which are still settling in.
The bilges have been filled for a few days so the planking has taken up.

See eBay for prices and details – but be quick, for the auction is only open for another day. 

Nick Smith-built half-decked motor launch afloat

This is the charming 16ft Nick Smith-built clinker-planked half-decker Isla afloat, I think in Scotland.

She has basic camping accommodation for overnight or the weekend, with a double bunk, storage and a small cooker, and I have a feeling a boat might appeal to quite a lot of folks…

Nick trained in Salcombe as a traditional boat builder in the 1970s. To learn more or to contact him, check his website. For more on Nick’s boats, click here.

20ft clinker motor launch up for sale

Boatbuilder Nick Smith is selling this 20ft motor launch, Bamboo Viper, which he built for himself in 2004, on eBay.

Nick served a four-year traditional boatbuilding apprenticeship at Edgar Cove Ltd, Salcombe, Devon, 1976 to 1980, and has been building and restoring wooden boats ever since. He says his boats all show a distinctive Salcombe influence.

The boat is in top condition, as he has spent six weeks refurbishing her earlier this year, including taking the engine out. She’s been on his mooring at Christchurch for the last two months, with the cover on, when not in use.

She is fitted with a 15 hp Yanmar 2YM twin diesel inboard, and the price includes a purpose built galvanised and braked road trailer.