News From The Boatshed

RESCUE . RESTORE . RECORD

Want to know more about what’s happening with the workshop? Are you interested in learning about the boats that have found their way to the boat shed ? Want updates on some of my newest and most exciting projects? Well, you’re in the right place. Check out some of the updates below to stay in the know about all this and more. I enjoy sharing my newest finds, stories from my customers, and features on my latest projects.

Lilian

Lilian is a 1900 sprat skiff built by Kidby of Brightlingsea in Essex.

There are only four of these Essex Heritage Workboats left now. I am proud to say that I have saved and rebuilt them all now, with Lilian being the last and latest of these very special vessels.

She is 20' 10" long with a beam of 8'. With the centreplate down she draws 4'.

Designed to carry barrels of sprats filled to the brim with sprats would been unloaded from the Stowboaters anchored up in the channel. They would have then been taken by these boats to the Hard and unloaded to carts that then took them to the yard where they were salted in preparation for export in the main.

One from the Archives

RIPPLE was restored in 2010 and then attended the London Boat Show.

Ripple is the first of the Thames Estuary One Design Fleet built in 1910. He designer was the yacht architect Morgan Giles. He designed many One Design Fleets around the coast over the early 20th Century.

Ripple was found in a garden about 20 yards from where she was built in Tollesbury Essex. Famous for its connection to the America's Cup Contenders at the time.

When we moved her there was a parcel a postman had put under her for safe keeping twenty years prior !

Preserving History

Its not just rebuilding a wooden boat for me.
It keeping the lives of the people who who had these boats commissioned over a hundred years ago.
By ensuring the vessels are saved and brought back to a standard where they can be used again means that the owners will keep them safe. It important that they have a function in the future otherwise it will prove harder to justify the expense of saving them.
They need to be part of the coming years and memories of those who will be sailing them long after I have finished my stint.

The Boatshed: News & Updates