On Thursday 24th October our group of five students, together with two ex-students and two Instructors, headed west on a ‘jolly.’
First off, we visited Tommy Nielsen’s yard, situated in the historic Gloucester docks.
Everything on Gladys is massive in its scale. This is a major restoration.
Her new decking is Douglas fir. All the seams are being caulked, just as we have done, with caulking hammer and irons, but here with oakum (hemp that has been mixed with tar), for its longevity.
Her hull is getting three layers of oak planking, which are fixed to the original frames, and to each other, with a combination of bolts, spikes and droves. The shortest of these – the six inch droves – are square-sectioned nails. They are driven into pre-drilled holes in the planks with a pneumatic hammer, but have to be finished off with a sledge hammer. Heavy work!
Masses of oak is being used here. Someone commented that it was a waste, given that the ship is to be used for corporate entertainment. In my view, restoring this vessel properly, making her fit for another hundred years, is an end in itself. Also, there are very few outfits in the UK that could do this scale of work, and having these projects is an important part of maintaining the industry’s skills and capacity.
The yard has three main income streams: new build/restoration, rigging, and the film industry, where their skills in rigging classic ships are particularly useful. They send teams around the world to work on projects. Quite an outfit!
After an overnight stay in Bristol, we visited the Underfall yard, which is truly the heart of the Bristol City harbour. Here, there are a collection of boat builders and allied trades, and a massive collection of Victorian machinery for controlling the level of water in the harbour, and maintaining the docks.
As we walked to our next boatyard stop, just 10 minutes away, we passed an open shed, where some people were readying their gig for the next season. Gig racing is most popular in Cornwall and the Scillies, but clubs are taking up the sport elsewhere – including, as we found, in Bristol.
Our last yard visit was to a small two-three man outfit. The owner commented that there had been times when he didn’t know if the business would survive into the next month, and he had diversified into online boat supplies sales, which was helping. Clearly, the business life of small artisanal boatbuilders is a precarious one.
There are some big companies, but not many building in wood. Here, there are opportunities for young apprenticeships. However, apprenticeships are not available or suitable for older entrants to the industry. And, as in many other areas, adverts for shipwright/boatbuilder vacancies ask for evidence of experience.
Thankfully, I am not dependant on finding work in this industry, though I would like to make use of the skills I have learnt. Just as well as, generally speaking, classic boatbuilding job opportunities are limited, and then mainly self-employed/sub-contractor in nature. It was interesting to hear how the couple of ex-students who had joined us on this trip, and who had graduated 18 months ago, were managing to find such work. It’s out there if you’re prepared to seek it out, develop networks, are willing to move about and to be flexible. Not an easy life though – especially for those with commitments.