Ahoy, world

I learnt to sail as a kid, zipping up and down Yorkshire’s reservoirs in Toppers and Mirrors. When I was 12 on a water sports summer-camp I piled into a Wayfarer and remember thinking that here was a boat that looked good and could really go places.

My professional life has taken me around the world and I’ve managed a bit of paddling and sailing in between, including skirting up the South Pacific to Sydney with Wollongong Yacht Club and learning to single-hand 16 ft cat boats on the River Charles in Massachusetts with MIT Sailing.

Boats

Curlew

It was on holiday reading Watercraft Magazine when I spotted an advert for an 11 ft clinker “scow”. I didn’t know anything about the Solent Scows but I knew I was interested in owning a wooden dinghy as a day boat, and especially one that could fit in the garage!

A few months later in 2021 I made the trip from Pembrokeshire to Yorkshire with Curlew in tow. Special mention to my mate Martyn for providing the truck, tow-hitch, and banter. Since then I’ve immersed myself in the repair and maintenance of my small wooden boat, replace cracked planks, strengthening for cruising, and adding a jib to as part of teaching family members to sail.

History

Curlew is a West Wight Scow, an 11 ft clinker ply dinghy with a balanced lug sail. Professionally built in the 1980s, the previous owner discovered her in a back garden whilst viewing the house, and returned saying “we don’t like the house but we’ll take the boat!”.

Searching for examples of other wooden boat carpentry I found this video from Evans Boatwork repairing a Scow that I immediately recognised as mine. I knew that the previous owner had had some professional work done on the boat, but it was brilliant to find this video to see the replacement of the deck and addition of side benches.

Contact

Perhaps one day we’ll meet.

Website