JOHN’S BOATYARD
KYLE ABINGDON PAUL JANES
CRAFTSMANSHIP Yard News WOODBRIDGE
Albert Strange Mist comes on
In our 25 years afloat, we’ve helped to save a few old boats, through putting out pleas for basket cases in the magazine and online, often with the warning words “or else it’s the chainsaw”. In the last few months, owners have come forward for a Finesse 24 and at least two Stellas. The Albert Strange 26ft (8m) canoe
yawl Mist featured in an appeal five years ago (see inset photo), and has made great progress since being taken on as a retirement project by shipwright John Krejsa of Woodbridge, Suffolk in 2007, as Paul Janes reports: John has now rebuilt the hull of
Mist, using the original 1907 hull as a template. He used cold compressed American white oak for the timbers and sourced larch for planking from the Forest of Dean. “That way,” he explained, “I could be fairly sure they would be knot-free when cut.” He replanked most of the hull with the new larch but used iroko for the sheer
LONDON THAMES
New yard, new boat
A boatyard on the tidal Thames in West London is undergoing major work to turn it into a DIY yard for classic boat projects, a resource that should prove popular given the lack of space in the capital. Lot’s Ait Yard dates from the late 19th century when it was a builder of the Thames lighters that would unload ships in the Pool of London. The yard grew until the 1950s, but after that, the modern age of motorways and containerisation arrived on the Thames, and around 1970 the owners locked the doors and left. It lay fallow for 41 years, in which time it was occupied by ‘pirate’ boat restorers and squatters; everything valuable was taken, including the beautiful maple floor.
82 CLASSIC BOAT FEBRUARY 2012 The yard is now in the hands of
John Watson, a recent graduate of Lyme Regis Boat Building Academy. He is leasing the site off the owner, Thames Lighterage Company, who are halfway through the job of turning Lot’s Ait into a serviceable yard with a new bridge to the north bank of the river, a 5,000sqft (465m2 8,000sqft (743m2
) boatshed, ) of hard standing,
water and electricity; and a legacy from the yard’s past – a slipway designed for 80ft lighters. The official, and unlikely, completion date is 1 January, 2012.
Left: The Lot’s Ait boatyard site Right: a replica of a 1920 William Hand launch
1920 LAUNCH REPLICA Downriver in Greenwich, two boatbuilders recently laid off the Cutty Sark project have set up shop and are near the end of building their first boat. It’s an 18ft (5.5m) semi-displacement, three-quarter decked motor launch built to lines drawn circa 1920 by William Hand, noted American naval architect.
One of the pair, Kyle Abingdon of newly-formed Abingdon Marine Carpentry upriver in Old Windsor, hopes it will do 18 knots.
Inset: Mist, as found on the beach Main photo: John has reached the decking stage, but without commercial pressurest is taking his time
and bottom three planks. He is now decking with quarter-sawn larch. John has epoxy cold-moulded many pieces, including laminated iroko frames, floors, deck beams and knees because he says cold-moulding is stronger than using sawn timber. He was unable to find good teak for the cabin sides and chose khaya instead.
“Mist is similar to Sheila, which I helped restore in 1995 (CB111), but with a deeper bilge to allow sitting room under the deckhead,” he says. About a year ago, John was joined by boatbuilding student Tim Smith. There is still much to do but John is enigmatic when asked about launch date. “One day soon, perhaps...”
Compiled by Steffan Meyric Hughes +44 (0) 207 901 8055
steffan.meyric-hughes@
classicboat.co.uk
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