GAIL MCGARVA Career launcher


Thanks to a City & Guilds Access bursary award, Gail McGarva has been able to gain a level 3 qualifi cation in boat building and help keep traditions alive on the Dorset coastline.


I build traditional wooden boats. I undertook City & Guilds training at the Boat Building Academy in Lyme Regis when I was 39. I had careers as an acting teacher and a sign language interpreter, but I decided to make boats the focus of my life – something I wouldn’t have been able to do without my City & Guilds bursary. I haven’t looked back.


After fi nishing my training I started to research building Cornish pilot gigs – they are the perfect embodiment of traditional working craft, but there are only a few


CITY & GUILDS ANNUAL REVIEW 2009-2010


people in the UK building them. This year I’ll be embarking on my third one for Lyme Regis. When I’m building boats on the harbourside people are drawn to them – they touch them and stroke them and they become part of the community.


We took two of my boats to the Gig World Championships – it was an incredible feeling to see them both on the start line. It feels extraordinary to row a boat that you’ve made.


Talking to retired boat builders who took City & Guilds qualifi cations many decades ago, I feel I’m keeping these skills alive. Traditional wooden boat building is a craft in danger of extinction and I’m proud to keep it going. The bursary opened up a whole new world that feels totally right for me.


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