Quick one.. an update on the progress of A Boatbuilder’s Story is way overdue… the project is still ongoing but I’ve just had rather a lot of other stuff on my mind. The photography archive is complete and the text is underway with a friend. So, it will still be out in print in the not too distant future. Stay tuned..
It occurred to me that what with spending the summer in the Hebrides and so on that you might have thought this project had fallen by the wayside.. not so, it’s still on-going. It looks like the text is going to be a winter project but the photographs are just about done. There are few gaps in the photo sequences from the original book that I haven’t been able to fill with matching content.. but on the bright side there are an awful lot of interesting photos from the yard that were not in the original edition.. so I’ll use those instead. Like this one for example.. health and safety at work…
found this morning in the boatyard photo archives.. proof that the “extreme sport” of wakeboarding may in fact have been invented in Portmellon in 1927 ;-)
One suspects that aerial moves were not on the menu with this set-up…
Various projects have been moving slower than expected for a number of reasons, including having to repair my carbon paddle after I noticed some damage, so I thought I would post a quick round up..
1. The carbon surf kayak fins.. I have a nice mould now, pictured. The first attempt did not work out when the mould did not release cleanly from the blanks so I went back to scratch, carved a new blank from MDF again and this time coated it in epoxy, which is what I should have done first time around. Lesson learned. It is more work but let me use conventional polyester gelcoat followed by layers of chopped strand mat and polyester resin for the mould itself. With a few coats of release wax the whole lot separated beautifully and now I have a nice mould. I am in the process of sorting a vacuum pump, a situation that should be rectified by the weekend.. so I should have the first fin by sunday evening if, as always, everything goes to plan.. which it rarely does.
fin mould in GRP
2. Boatbuilders Story.. just waiting for the text now, that part of the project is being done my another family member so the project is stalled until I get that. Shouldn’t be long.
3. Sixty Degrees of Latitude.. I received the first hard copy a couple of weeks ago, it looked really nice in print but not quite perfect to my mind so I made a few changes. I should have the second copy in my hands by the weekend.. if I’m happy with that then I’ll make it available to buy….
Other than that.. business as usual.. bikes & kayaks. I’ve not been spending as much time around bikes as I would like simply because I have noticed that I’m not tolerating hard riding as well as I should so probably still recovering from the last year of pedalling in S America. I have also just ordered drawings from the States for a cedar strip kayak, a Petrel design by Nick Schade. Building a strip kayak has been on the list of “must do things” for quite some time.. so no time like the present. It’s a pretty boat, not sure how long it will take me.. 150 hours, possibly more depending on how fussy I get over the fine detailing. I’m thinking some carbon hatch plates and cockpit detailing would go beautifully with a high gloss wooden hull… anyway, I’ll write more about that when the timber is ordered and the build is underway. A few details of the boat below.
Nick Schade design Petrel
v pretty boat
Very conscious of the fact I have not been inspired to write of late… with the Boatbuilder’s Story project and my own portfolio to edit I’ve spending a lot of time in front of the mac such that when not working on either of those projects I’m out on my bike or on the water.. so all I’m going to do today is show you a few favourites I have come across so far as I trawl through, and repair, the archive of pictures from the boatyard… I’ll not add much in the way of text or explanation as that will all appear in the book. For now I am just revelling in seeing a bygone age.. these date from around 1925 to 1935.
this is Percy Mitchell in this pic surveying the Torbay Belle, 1935
the yacht Ark Royal on the beach in 1933 (I think..)
and here she is looking wonderful 78 years later, based in Falmouth (pic courtesy of her owner)
This last item is interesting.. an invoice from Berger Paints in 1942.. middle of the war. I like it because it hints at a gentler, more polite age… how nice it would be if invoices were this gracious today.. and had a little wonky typing as at the foot of this one.
It is time I think that I talked about one of the projects on which I am working… nothing to do with riding bikes in strange places but rather a story about boats. I was lucky enough to grow up in a tiny little Cornish seaside hamlet called Portmellon. I spent my childhood playing among the piles of sawdust and woodshavings in Mitchell’s boatyard there. Good fortune meant that I became a part of that boat-building family when I was just 7 years old. Good fortune also meant that somehow I avoided losing limbs or decapitating myself on the giant saws and other machinery as I built a never ending stream of model boats when the yard was quiet. Now, my step grandfather was a quite famous boat-builder.. a true craftsman. I never knew him sadly but he did leave a biography which was briefly in print in 1968 and is now quite sought after, along with his boats, in the classic boat world. The plan is to get that biography back in print.. it is an important piece of local history as well as a fascinating read. I have a lot of work ahead of me.. 3 boxes of wonderful photographs from the yard going back to the early 20th century, many of them in need of careful restoration. I also plan to introduce an update to the story of the yard. The yard itself closed in 1983 due to the economics of wooden boat building but my stepdad, Gary, is also very well known in the marine world, not as a builder but as a designer, his boats can be found in harbours all over the world.
By way of an introduction the text on the back of the original reads as follows…
“To have a First Class Fishing Boat, you have to have a First Class Boat Builder.’ Percy Mitchell of Portmellon (born 1901) was that man. He was described by Dr Claud Worth, an eminent yacht designer, as “an artist in wood”, and by Commander W B Luard as “one of the finest traditional boat builders in the world”. He is described as a deeply religious man, who never railed against setbacks, but ruggedly persevered, believing that character is shaped and moulded by trials and difficulties. Almost entirely self-taught, his first commission was the Ibis, a Cornish Fishing Lugger, built on traditional fishing hull lines. At 42′ in length, 13′ beam, and 6′ draft (7′ with her working gear onboard) she was one of the biggest Luggers working from Mevagissey for many years, and her catch numbers were legendary. The Ibis is the holder of two fishing records – the largest catch of pilchard ever landed by a Cornish Drift Netter (2346 Stone) & the largest catch of turbot, long-line caught, from the Ray Pitts (English Channel) in July 1952 (896 Stone). In his autobiography, ‘A Boatbuilder’s Story’ Percy Mitchell’s account of the Ibis being built and launched is remarkable. His simple yet moving story is of a struggle against odds to ultimate success and fame. Illustrated with a wealth of photographs and many line drawings.”
I am very excited about this project so do stay tuned for progress, it will be a fascinating read whether you’re interested in classic boats or not.
I am also working on a second book with a street photography flavour.. but I’ll ramble on about that another time :-)
