Tag: wooden boat

12ft rowing dinghy built by Stirling & Son of Tavistock

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Rowing Will Stirling 12ft Dinghy

Rowing Will Stirling 12ft Dinghy boat Bow and Fairlead Rowing Will Stirling 12ft Dinghy boat Stirling and Son - transom Rowing Will Stirling 12ft Dinghy boat Thwarts Aft sternsheets and transom

Stern of 12ft Dinghy Rowing Will Stirling 12ft Dinghy boat

A recent 12ft rowing dinghy by Stirling & Son

These delicious photos come from regular contributor, boat builder, historian and designer Will Stirling of Stirling & Son. The plans for this boat are available to buy, as his letter below explains:

‘Dear Gavin,

‘Attached photos of the most recent dinghy, a 12ft pulling boat. She is built of mahogany and oak with copper and bronze fastenings.

‘The clocks have gone back now so it is time to string up some lights otherwise the working day is too short.

‘I now have plans available in the following format:

  • two sheets of A2 tracing paper
  • two sheets of A1 tracing paper, a scantlings list
  • a list of materials
  • a CD with photographs of various stages and details of dinghy building

‘The A2 sheets contain the lines draught and consrtuctional detail, the A1 sheets have templates of the moulds and transom with the planking marked out and templates of the backbone members (stem, sternpost, stern knee etc).

‘Plans in this format are now available for a 9ft general purposes dinghy and an 11ft pilot’s punt of circa 1900 and a 17ft salmon boat. These plans cost £50 plus postage and packaging of £2.50 in the UK.

‘Plans without templates are available for a 21ft frigate’s longboat of 1757, a 37ft smuggling lugger of 1835 and a 43ft gentleman’s cutter of 1880.

‘I hope you are well. The Intheboatshed website is going from strength to strength; it is very popular with Google.

‘Best wishes,

‘Will’

Many thanks Will! I do hope your plans go as well as they deserve – it’s only a shame that there aren’t more professional and home builders of these kinds of boats in the world.

Stirling & Son is based near Tavistock, Devon. See the company’s website  www.stirlingandson.co.uk
tel 01822 614259.

Old fashioned and classic sailing boats of the Norfolk Broads, autumn 2010

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On Barton Broad 13 Hunter's Yard sailing cruiser

On Barton Broad 8 Broads sailing cruiser

On Barton Broad 14 19th century Broads sailing cruiser Zoe sails by On Barton Broad 14 19th century Broads sailing cruiser Zoe sails by On Barton Broad 11 RNSA dinghy sails by

On Barton Broad 5 A Hunter's Yard boat sails by On Barton Broad 10 Broads sailing cruiser

Norfolk Broads Wherry Albion Norfolk Broads Wherry Albion How Hill boatshed

Photos of traditional sailing craft of the Norfolk Broads, including everyone’s favourite, the 19th century Broads sailing cruiser Zoe, a Royal Navy Sailing Association dinghy, the Norfolk wherry Albion, and a charmingly dilapidated boat shed. Click on the images for a much larger photo

We’re just back from a short trip to the Norfolk Broads in the Broads sailing  cruiser Camellia, hired from the helpful folks at the Broads Yachting Company, of Horning – and these are some of our snaps. If only we could have stayed longer!

We recently rather enjoyed the book The Norfolk Broads: The Golden Years, which we bought in Norfolk earlier this year. It’s a compendium of photos and descriptions by the charming Broads writer and keen sailor Philippa Miller, and include many shots of familiar scenes from the area going back to early in the 20th century. It’s difficult to get now, but I notice Amazon sellers have a few copies.

Round the Island Race, 19th June 2010

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round the island, sailing boat, racing boat, old boat, wooden boat, isle of wight, needles, cowes

round the island, sailing boat, racing boat, old boat, wooden boat, isle of wight, needles, cowes round the island, sailing boat, racing boat, old boat, wooden boat, isle of wight, needles, cowes

Round the Island yachts racing off the Needles (thanks to Onedition), the 43ft Fred Shepherd designed Maybird, and Ocean Pearl (Vanessa Bird)

This year’s Round the Island Race is coming up on the 19th June, so this seems like a good time to draw attention to this amazing annual spectacle of getting on for 2000 boats all sailing in the same direction for most of a day – if you don’t count the spectators and sight-seers.

Among that huge number there are bound to be quite a number of older and traditional craft, and the photos above are of two that took part last year. My thanks go to Peta Stuart-Hunt for her help in providing intheboatshed.net with its special needs!

Maybird is a Fred Shepherd 43ft (52ft LOA) gaff-rigged ketch that will be competing in her first race since being restored at Saxon Wharf when she comes to the start line on 19th June. She was designed for Lt Col WCW Hawkes DSO, Indian Army (retired) and built by Jack Tyrell at Arklow, Co Wicklow in 1937. She’s had quite a history – in her time, she has been a gentleman’s auxillary yacht, an ocean passage maker and a Greenpeace protest vessel, and now she’s available for charter.

Also a contender last year in the traditional gaffer class, Ocean Pearl was built in 1933 by Nobles of Fraserburgh and registered at Peterhead in Aberdeenshire. At 37ft 6in LWL, she was just under the 40ft length restrictions, which meant that she could fish within the three-mile limit of shore, and between 1933 and 1939 she was worked with nets and lines out of Peterhead. Between 1939 and 1945 she was requisitioned by the Navy and served as a supply vessel in Scapa Flow, before returning to the fishing industry after the end of the war.

She then fished until 1967 before selling her to Joseph Anthony Moore Phillips, father of Captain Mark Phillips, the first husband of HRH Princess Anne, who based her at Whitby, North Yorkshire. In 1981, three owners later, she was taken to Staines in Middlesex to be restored, but was eventually abandoned in a disused tarmac works, where she lay for 15 years before being taken to Combes Boatyard in West Sussex.

Nick Gates took over ownership in 1999 and over the past 10 years has rebuilt her, converting her from motor to sail. She is rigged as a Manx nobby, with standing lug main and mizzen, and sets 1600 sq ft of canvas. Ocean Pearl has been mentioned several times at intheboatshed.net – for earlier intheboatshed.net posts relating to her, click here.