In Search of Inspiration - July 2010

The Scottish Traditional Boat Festival was held at the end of June and I went up to have a look - wanting to get some ideas for interior layout, rigging, etc. but leaving with other, unexpected impressions. The number of trad. wooden boats seemed to be down a bit compared with 4 years ago when I last went but some of the boats were familiar. The Reaper and her sister ship the Swan were looking as magnificent as ever and there was the inevitable glass fibre Drascombe lugger and longboat.
The St. Ayles skiff - an Iain Oughtred design with kits from Jordan Boats - http://scottishcoastalrowing.org - was new to me though and quite appealing. Among the others, there were some very nicely made craft but I was struck by how some had the unmistakable appearance of a 'kit boat' - not sure why - I think the varnished plywood construction was simply too evident. This wasn't true of the St. Ayles skiff, however.

Marine ply is a great material to work with and is very serviceable (as it should be for the price!) but I think many builders like to leave it exposed just to show that it's a wooden boat - doesn't really work for me though - perhaps reminds me of the popularity of plywood furniture in the 50's. So, it'll be a paint job for me I think - nice black hull and a bit of oiled mahogany perhaps - we'll see.