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ISSUE 27 MARCH 2008 ISSUE 27 COAST AWARDS RESULTS

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COAST AWARDS WINNERS Southwold Pier and nine other reasons to head to the sea

46 PAGES OF HOMES AND SEASIDE STYLE PLUS: TOP TEN COASTAL GOLF COURSES AND TRADITIONAL BOATBUILDING IN FALMOUTH coast PEOPLE rocking thethe boat Against popular wisdom, DAVE COCKWELL saw the potential in traditional boatbuilding. Now, he runs the thriving Boatyard in Falmouth and has taken on a new generation of apprentices WORDS Kate Langrish PHOTOGRAPHS Ben Anders

here’shere’s somethingsomething aaboutbout a wwoodenooden bboat,’oat,’ ssaysays DDaveave CCockwell,ockwell, oownerwner ooff CockwellsCockwells MModernodern & ClassicClassic Boatbuilding,Boatbuilding, inin PonshardenPonsharden nearnear Falmouth.Falmouth. t ‘There‘There ccanan bebe otherother bboatsoats iinn tthehe mmarinaarina – bigger,bigger, ttaller,aller, mmoreore expensiveexpensive – butbut it’sit’s the wooden boat that turns people’s heads.’ Standing in his cavernous boat shed in , it’s easy to see why. The huge sculptural forms – like the skeleton of a blue whale’s belly – tower overhead, seeming more like an art installation than an industry. For Dave and his 15-strong team, the sawing, sanding and shaping of these rib-like curves is a self-confessed ‘labour of love’. time and tide Dave’s affi nity with boats began at an early age – he restored his fi rst when he was just 12, and by the age of 16 he had already established a reputation in his home town of Bristol. ‘Someone asked me to fi x this old wreck,’ he says. ‘The older shipwrights in the dockyard laughed, as they never thought I’d be able to do THIS PICTURE Dave it. But I did, and when that one was fi nished another one was waiting, and it went Cockwell stands in front from there.’ In 2002, Dave and his family moved to Falmouth, a hub of boatbuilding. of his work in progress He may have been looking for a quieter life on the coast, but business began to – the St Mawes ferry – which will be completed pick up – not just from the increase in discerning private buyers willing to pay this spring ABOVE LEFT £400,000 for a beautiful replica of a Bristol Channel pilot cutter, but also from The apprentices local companies. ‘I had been restoring and maintaining a fl eet of wooden boats (clockwise from top left): Joe Coles, David for the St Mawes Ferry Company, and when they needed a new boat, they asked Brunyee, Billy Lambert me to build it,’ Dave explains. ‘They opted for a traditional wooden boat because, and Craig Chad

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‘We turn logs into fi nished boats’ BILLY LAMBERT, 23, from Constantine in Cornwall, has just fi nished his four-year apprenticeship and is now working full time at Cockwells. ‘Before I started my apprenticeship I was working as a deckhand on super-yachts. I got bored of just polishing and varnishing “gin-palaces” all day – I wanted to work with wood. Now I’ve fi nished my apprenticeship, I’m working as team leader on one of our new-builds – the Cockwells Classic Launch. It’s a different technique to the traditional boats, as it’s a simpler structure that’s planked and then covered with epoxy resin. It’s interesting work, but my heart is with the traditional boats. When I worked on the replica of the Bristol Channel pilot cutter, we were literally taking in the timber as logs at one end of the shed, and seeing it through to a fi nished boat on the other side. It’s great that, with just fi ve or six people’s pairs of hands, we have managed to form this thing of beauty.’

as well as having a natural beauty, they also have a versatility in design that fi breglass boats don’t have. The water isn’t very deep at St Mawes, so the ferry only has a depth of three foot six inches – we can build to meet the needs of the client exactly, whereas fi breglass just comes off the shelf.’ The techniques for building the new St Mawes ferry have changed little since the fi rst wooden boats made the trip across the Fal Estuary centuries ago. ‘We use traditional boatbuilding methods. There’s no glue – all the wood is fi xed together with bronze fastenings and copper rods,’ Dave says. ‘It’s the same way that it’s been done for hundreds of years. The only thing we do differently is use electric planes and saws – and that doesn’t make it any better, just quicker.’

the future’s bright ABOVE The boat Dave is passionate about passing on the secrets of these age-old techniques. Back yard stands on in Bristol, the old shipwrights helped him as much as they could, but the decline in the waterfront at the wooden boatbuilding industry meant no apprenticeships were available. It was Ponsharden in Falmouth – a town this struggle that led Dave to set up a formal apprenticeship scheme at Cockwells. famed for its long ‘Very few people have been trained in traditional boatbuilding since plastic boats history of boatbuilding were introduced in the 1970s, and now we have a skills shortage – a local yacht TOP LEFT The view from Cockwells of builder has to bring in Dutch carpenters,’ Dave explains. ‘The apprenticeships make Falmouth Marina and it easier for these skills to be passed on and encourage new blood into a trade that the Penryn River

00 COAST ‘It’s amazing to create something that you know will outlive you’ CRAIG CHAD, 31, from Sydney, Australia, is a second-year apprentice. ‘I’m from Sydney but moved here fi ve years ago. Actually, I sailed here – six months aboard a replica of Cook’s Endeavour. In Australia, I was working in computers. I happened to go on a tall ship as part of a management training course, and it made me realise I didn’t want to sit behind a screen any more, so I signed up to be on the crew of the Endeavour. When I got to , I studied for a foundation in joinery at Lyme Regis International School of Boatbuilding. Then I spent time working for the Merseyside Maritime Museum in Liverpool, restoring old boats, before starting my apprenticeship. I’m learning every aspect, from drawing out plans and putting the hull together to understanding how a boat operates in water. It’s very different from the immediacy of computers – it takes up to 18 months to build one of our boats. But it’s an amazing feeling to create something unique and know that it will probably outlive you.’

‘The ferry is going to be sailing past my house every day’ JOE COLES, 16, from Flushing in Cornwall, is just a week into his apprenticeship. ‘I’ve had little boats since I was seven and I’ve always tinkered around with them. At school I was much better at working with wood than I was with the academic stuff, so I decided to do a boatbuilding apprenticeship. When you start, you begin with the easier jobs. I’m learning how to join, and at the moment I’m doing the “plugging” on the St Mawes Ferry, which means hammering little round pieces of wood into all the holes. At school we drew these things on the computer, but you learn so much more when you’re actually doing them with your hands. It’s great working on the ferry, as it’s going to be sailing right past my house every day. I’m going to feel very proud to think that I worked on it, even if it’s just a little bit.’ coastFEATURE PEOPLE HERE

BOATBUILDING IN THE UK ✹ Traditional wooden boatbuilding was in its heyday during the 1920s and 30s, when virtually every coastal town had its own boatyard. ‘Most yards employed around a hundred men, so there were thousands working in the industry throughout Britain,’ says Alan Staley, chairman of the Wooden Boatbuilders Trade Association (wbta.co.uk). The introduction of plastic and fi breglass boats in the early 1970s meant these skilled craftsmen were no longer needed, and now the WBTA estimates there are only around a hundred small yards dotted around the coast. ‘But in the past few years, there has ‘We can get the most out of been a defi nite resurgence,’ Alan every single piece of says. ‘My yard in Faversham has timber’ more work than ever before. People DAVID BRUNYEE, 22, from Mylor in Cornwall, is are realising that a wooden boat will a second-year apprentice. last a lifetime – they want to enjoy ‘My parents own an original pilot cutter, like the one Dave is the beauty themselves and then building a replica of, so I’ve got a particular bond with old pass it on to their grandchildren.’ wooden boats. After fi nishing school, I did a course at the And there’s also renewed interest in International Boatbuilding College in Lowestoft, and then the craft: ‘Courses in boatbuilding started my apprenticeship here. I enjoy the fact that there are full up and there’s demand for are so many different aspects to boatbuilding. Last summer, ABOVE Each member more – the youngsters are keen on of the Cockwells team I spent a lot of time in the wood yard and learned about timber the industry again and that can only is a skilled craftsman selection. Cockwells is unusual, as most boatbuilders buy in and adds his own style be good news for the future of the wood. You get a much better quality if you saw it yourself. to each project – here, wooden boats.’ David is working on a We can get the most out of every single piece of timber, and piece of wood using shape it exactly to our requirements. It can be tough work and a smoothing plane. there are some monotonous tasks – like smoothing the outside Solid pieces of teak, THE ST MAWES mahogany, chestnut of the hull with a power planer for the whole day – but it’s the and walnut are used FERRY ultimate satisfaction to see that boat roll out of the boat shed to ensure top quality ✹ A ferry has been transporting and know that you’ve played a part in creating it.’ passengers between the old fi shing harbour of St Mawes to the port of Falmouth since 1869, but this spring will see the launch of a new boat, was in danger of dying out.’ Cockwells currently has fi ve apprentices and demand designed and built by Cockwells. for places is high but, with each apprenticeship taking four years, Dave can only The new passenger ferry has taken take on more as new projects come in. 18 months to build, costing in the Sustainability is a key word for Cockwells – not just for the workforce but for region of £350,000, and will take the environment, too. ‘We use timber from plantation stocks – the larch, for in the sights of St Mawes and example, is from a forest in Inverness that was planted specifi cally for building Pendennis Castles, and even a few fi shing boats. There’s so little demand for it that most was being used for railway dolphins if you’re lucky, during its sleepers,’ Dave says. ‘It feels good that we’re using wood that people don’t want 20-minute journey across the Fal. and turning it into a beautiful thing.’ The ferries run every day apart from Cockwells has also introduced a tree-planting scheme, with fi ve times the number Christmas Day, departing hourly of larch and oak they use being planted in woodland around Cornwall and the South during the winter and three times West. ‘The oaks will take another hundred years before they reach the right size,’ an hour in the summer. Adult tickets Dave says. ‘But it’s nice to think they might be used by future generations of cost £4.50 single and £7 return. boatbuilders in Cornwall.’ Cockwells, it seems, is going to be turning heads in For information and bookings, marinas for generations to come. coast call 01872 861910 or visit Cockwells Modern & Classic Boatbuilding, South West Shipyard, Ponsharden, kingharryscornwall.co.uk. Falmouth, Cornwall (01326 377366, cockwells.co.uk).

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