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
Happily, Italy has an association that records the country’s inland traditional boats, cares for them and builds them.
Some of the boats are recognisable flat-bottomed turf boats as you might expect – but others are strange and wonderful.
My thanks to reader Justin Ford for finding this one!
80ft Norwegian search and rescue vessel, JMJ, is on the Stirling & Son slip for a two-year restoration in readiness for cruising and expeditions in the Arctic.
She was the first fully motorised rescue vessel operated by the Norwegian rescue service (Det Norske Redningselskapet) and worked from 1949 to 1978, during which time she saved more than 100 lives. 1949 seems very late for the Norwegians to launch their first motor-only rescue craft, but I guess that may reflect a deep affection for the Colin Archer type…
Oh, and Will Stirling has just qualified as a marine surveyor through the Lloyd’s Maritime Academy, with an average mark of 92 per cent! Congratulations Will!
Stirling and Son is at Devonport and Tavistock – see the company’s website here.
I love the ingenuity of this – ingenuity that solves a problem that happily we never have in Kent…
Read about the remarkable Harry Bryan and his designs and boatbuilding.
I picked up this video via the wonderful Duckworksmagazine, which I don’t get around to boosting nearly as often as I should.