It might be (nearly always) wet and (sometimes) windy but it ain’t cold down here in Devon. It is mid January and I have yet to wear a coat to work – although a waterproof has come in handy for the rain. Working in the dark is, however, a common and regular occurence. This one, … Read more
With our arrival in South Devon this autumn I appear to have started off working as a spar maker – just for now at any rate. Getting established as a boatbuilder when you don’t have a lot of local contacts has it’s own challenges, of which more later, but to get off the mark down … Read more
At 4pm the sun shone for a few minutes. Just in time to show me where I still needed to do some more fairing to Lizzie May’s new counter planking. I got to learn a bit about steaming heavier stock with this one. The new planking is 1 1/4″ oak and getting the short lengths … Read more
Fixing old boats is what I do most of and an awful lot of what I get to fix is made of teak. Prima facie this seems quite reasonable and sensible. Teak rubbing strakes, toe-rails, decking, saloon furniture; They all get damaged and need, ideally, like-for-like replacement. However, when like-for-like means sourcing timber of questionable … Read more
Writing a magazine article is probably the nearest that I am likely to get to doing marketing work, other than sailing of course. Anyway, Watercraft Magazine recently (Nov/Dec 2011 issue) published an account, written by me, of building a 4.5m Peterboat. To my knowledge this is the first 4.5m Peterboat built since Norman Whyte of … Read more
This summer I was doing some refit work on Mat Ali. She is a Harrison Butler Khamseen, built in peninsular Malaya during 1935. An interesting boat with lots of stories to tell no doubt. Part of the refit work meant removing the (non original) rubbing strake to access the chainplates and once off it became … Read more
For some time I have been thinking about a new boat for myself. Building one that is. Before I can really get started I need to sell Seapod. Lovely though she is, I can’t accumulate boats so … Seapod is for Sale. I built her in 2008 and have used her each summer since. I … Read more
One of the good jobs over this winter has been to assist with the winter refit of the Cornish Pilot Cutter, Lizzie May. On a boat of this size, used for chartering, there are always a collection of broken locker catches, sticking doors and minor breakages to attend to. One of the more photogenic tasks … Read more
Well, another year is just about over and I’m still working as a boatbuilder. This year has been pretty varied and I had my first quiet patch this year with little to do for a couple of months. Fortunately it was sailing weather so quite a lot of that got done this year. Finishing the … Read more
The manufacture of the Peanut class dinghy was, from what I can gather, a job creation scheme that took place in Norway in the early 1960’s. You can read a bit more about it but for me, Puffin the Peanut was a great re-finishing project. Owned by Richard since about 1964 Puffin had, by the … Read more