Tag: nmmc

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.

Three of the NMMC’s exhibits are on the water – and please vote to support the museum

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Andy Wyke onboard Curlew at the NMMC, aileen, pipkin, curlew, nmmc, national maritime museum, cornwall, national maritime museum cornwall, falmouth quay punt, falmouth regatta, catboat, cape cod catboat, yacht racing aileen, pipkin, curlew, nmmc, national maritime museum, cornwall, national maritime museum cornwall, falmouth quay punt, falmouth regatta, catboat, cape cod catboat, yacht racing

Pipkin, Curlew and Aileen

The pontoon at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall is busy again, now that summer is here: after a winter in the museum workshop Curlew, Aileen and Pipkin are all in the water. All three can be seen sailing up and down the river Fal throughout the summer.

Curlew is the oldest boat returning to the pontoon. A Falmouth quay punt that has travelled the world as a yacht, her career is one of the most varied, as it ranges from fishing boat to leisure cruiser to race winner.

Aileen is the very first St Mawes One Design. She was designed by Frank Peters after he was defeated in races off St Mawes, and was built for speed. She won three Falmouth Town Regatta Class races.

Pipkin is based on the design of the Cape Cod catboats and is used by the volunteers to hone their sailing skills.

On the subject of the NMMC, I’ve been asked to ask a favour of intheboatshed.net readers. It seems that the Our lighthouses: life on the rocks exhibition has made it to the semi-finals in the Best heritage project category of The National Lottery Awards, and needs your votes to make it through to the final.

Just 10 Lottery-funded projects are in contention. Voting is now open now and ends at midday on Friday 18 June.

To vote call 0844 686 7951 (calls cost 5p from a BT landline) or log on to www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/awards (which is free).

National Maritime Museum Cornwall devotes a big show to lighthouses and their keepers

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Relieving the shift on Bishop Rock Lighthouse 1969 (thanks to Gibsons of Scilly); Portland Bill Lighthouse, Dorset (thanks to Trinity House); a storm lashes Longships Lighthouse (thanks to Tim Stevens, image courtesy of Trinity House)

Happy New Year! Lighthouses: Life on the Rocks is the title of a major new exhibition at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall from February 2010.

For centuries the men who operated these iconic beacons of light protected our seas in a very hands-on way, but the UK’s last manned lighthouse was converted to automatic operation in November 1998. This exhibition will therefore explore the lives of the last of the lighthouse keepers before their histories slip out of living memory, and explain the feats of engineering that lie behind the building of the lighthouses themselves.

It will feature a large array of objects including a massive four tonne optic, and there will also be a reconstruction of a lighthouse’s living quarters featuring original curved furniture from Godrevy Lighthouse.

The keepers lived a life of strict routine and isolation, and to fill their time would engage in all sorts of interests including poetry, crafting ships in light bulbs, and supplementing their limited supplies using surprising techniques such as kite fishing.

The exhibition is supported by Trinity House and the General Lighthouse Authority, which is lending a large number of artefacts to the exhibition, which complements the authority’s own heritage centre at the Lizard, and by grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund.