Well, that’s it: Friday was the last day of my one year boatbuilding course at the International Boatbuilding Training College in Portsmouth’s Historic Dockyard.

The last few days were spent on fettling and making tools for clinker planking, which will be used at the College (see below), and later at home. My gripes are all ready to go, and I have made a small steam box to steam the hood (forward) ends of clinker planks.

On Thursday, we has a masterclass from Bob, our Senior Instructor, on how to ‘pay’ caulking seams with hot pitch.

Thursday is, by tradition, Thirsty Thursday. With an end of term mood in the air, we loaded up a car with two dustbins full of scrap wood and headed to the Hot Walls area of old Portsmouth, just next to the Round Tower. A few drinks at the nearby Still and West, and a bite to eat, and we took our firewood onto the shingle beach outside the Hot Walls, and had a bonfire … and some more to drink! It was a lovely way to mark the end of our time at IBTC Portsmouth.

We had a tour of the RN Museum workshop on Friday afternoon. Here, there are teams of riggers, shipwrights and conservators working on HMS Warrior, HMS Victory and the other parts of the RN museum’s collection.

Amongst many interesting pieces, the most fascinating for me was a section of Victory’s mizen mast, removed after the battle of Trafalgar.

Sadly, HMS Victory is slowly being munched away by death watch beetle. Here are a couple of photos of the results:

Victory’s rigging also needs regular maintenance and replacement.

When I spotted this mug sitting nearby a shipwright’s bench, I was reminded that have been advising patients for over thirty years – and not just patients, I might add!

In my experience, advice is rarely followed when sought, and almost never welcomed, let alone followed, when offered without request!

Clearly the shipwright has learnt this too, and has a healthy, if cynical, view on the matter.

I have not quite cast off from IBTC. In a fortnight’s time, I am going to spend two or three weeks completing the planking on the 10ft Paul Gartside dinghy that the next group of students have already lofted, set up and started to plank up … the very same dinghy that I have decided to build myself at home. I will be working with Bob Forsyth, and it’s the chance of us working together, and my having a masterclass in dinghy planking along the way, that made me decide to do this. I am looking forward to using the gripes and steam box I have made, and will let you know how it goes.