Paul Gartside and his West Country boats
Paul Gartside, resident of Nova Scotia, Canada, has not actually worked out if he’s Canadian or British – and by the sounds of it he doesn’t really care either way. “I think I might have dual nationality,” he says. “I’ve got an out-of-date British passport somewhere I think…” Paul was raised in his father’s boatshed in the Cornish village of Malpas, on the outskirts of Truro, upriver from the harbour of Falmouth on Bar Creek. “Can you imagine how much fun it was to be brought up in a boatyard?” he asks. He soon joined forces with his father, running the full-service yard, where they built wooden, and later GRP, yachts and a few working boats. A spell at the Scottish McGruer yard followed, but in 1983, in the aftermath of a deep recession and with VAT on new boats at 25 per cent, Paul emigrated to Canada at the age of 30. “I’d always written off Canada as a
frozen wasteland until I went there – BC is like Canada’s California!” Three years ago, Paul moved from British Columbia to Nova Scotia, where he now runs his design and build yard from the town of Shelburne. One look at the list of stock plans on his website suggests that you might take a man from England’s West Country but you can’t necessarily take the West Country from the man: among other things, Paul has become the man in Canada to provide boats inspired by that rugged stretch of English coast. “You get steered by your customers in that sense,” Paul
says. “Someone wants a particular boat, then someone else sees it, and they want one too.” Paul describes himself as a boatbuilder first, although his designs are popular in Britain, partly as a result of the efforts of Watercraft magazine, as well as in a number of other countries, including Croatia and Finland, where other ‘Alvas’ are taking shape. “More of my boats are in build
than afloat though,” adds Paul with a chuckle. “For many people, and I’m one of them, the real journey is not just to sail a boat – but to build one and sail it.” Paul’s philosophy on amateur boatbuilding is to keep
“The real journey is to build a boat and sail it”
30ft (9m) as the upper size limit if you’re building alone, “at least if you want to keep your marriage together”. It’s a size of boat that enables its owner to go anywhere and that offers “an intensity of building experience rarely felt with larger boats, where simple relief at getting through is the lingering emotion.” Paul encourages home builders to stick to traditional build methods of carvel and clinker, to source wood locally and to eschew the use of glues. “Toxic glues mean latex gloves, frequently a respirator and, inevitably, a reluctance to involve your children. I’d go traditional every time.” On design 109 (Alva), he offers the
following: “It’s a very simple, very buildable, beautiful little cruising yacht
that could take you anywhere and at the end of it all you have a recognisable type that you might be able to sell.” Alva is not specifically a Quay Punt yacht; she takes
after a number of West Country workboats with her straight stem and long keel. She is characterised by solid build (Alva, with closely-spaced frames, weighs 8 tonnes), reasonable beam and a deep draught that gives 6ft (1.8m) of sole-to-deckbeam headroom without the need for an ugly, boxy cabin trunk. This draught also, of course, gives good directional stability, a strong righting moment and good windward ability. Alva has an easier turn to the bilge than Curlew, a true Falmouth Quay Punt, and a slightly smaller rig although, as we discovered, she’s quick enough to keep up with any gaff-rigged yacht out there.
Paul Gartside, Tel: +1 902 875 2112,
gartsideboats.com
ALVA LOA
30ft (9.1m) LWL
28ft 8in (8.7m) BEAM
9ft 9in (3m) DRAUGHT
5ft 9in (1.8m)
SAIL AREA 663sqft (120m²) plus topsail 92sqft (8.5m2
)
DESIGN DISPLACEMENT 18,000lbs (8.2 tonnes)
COST
Around £170,000 for a similar boat
CLASSIC BOAT APRIL 2012
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