ibtc trained boatbuilder shipwright
Back working with tom owen, in fowey. with a new restoration on a 6 metre classic racing boat, built in 1947 for the olympics in 1948. Got replanked in traditional carvel in Switzerland a long time ago. now here in fowey, most frames are good and the planking and floors are all good. so deck off and starting with a new beam shelf and onward from there.
I spent 3 months on a interior refit going on in emsworth. putting in new bulk heads, sole bearers and floor boards, reshaping corners to rounds to make more space, many loo steps and former’s, iroko trims, deck beam repairs and putting tanks in place with chocking ply walls filleted into the hull walls
i led the small boat building course. A month long from start to finish boat build. teaching the locals wood work and starting off the educational center in the astillero verde yard in costa rica.
I’m back in costa rica to Join the team again as the work shops manager, run and teach the small boat courses. To improve the courses we have a boat house at the head of ceiba’s stem, and i’m increasing the modals so the students get the most out of their time on the course, such as the oar making class.
Improving the work shops by making tools and improving the way things are ran, and the cycle of wood flow through out the yard. Also making Rigging blocks such as the four triple blocks that hoisted the 2 tone stem into position.
traditional wooden boat building. Repairing teak planking, putting the Angelique stem together and chopping in the back rabbit and buttoning up the hood ends on Zingara an english 34 foot sailing boat being restored. Rigging up boats, Top coat painting and varnishing. Replanking a few stakes on the Alabama life boat. Had a bit of time to sail and carve.
I came up with a small scale drawing of the profile view, coming up with the rocker, shear and stem and stern, and then used an existing kayak’s body plan designs to use the angles of the chines. By getting the actual shear stringers at 12 foot and plotting where the stations will be and clamping the two ends together so I could put the kayaks wide point at the centre in to push the stringers apart giving the natural shape/ curve of the kayak in plan view, then measuring the widths at each station plotted I went back to the body plan view and came up with the height and angles of the chines. Then I checked for fairness of all the stations chines, by plotting them on my profile view. All looked good so to work I went and one day put it all together and it turned out ok.
on ceiba’s yard in costa rica we are providing small boat courses to the local ticos and ticas. using a hard chine design, we are building wooden boats from the small milled up cypress trees that we fell in the mountains. using traditional methods and carvel caulked planks. this is the first one, and we hope to do more courses soon.
