The alliance, combined with a new cluster of organisations, will join [...]]]> Cornwall Marine Network is delighted to announce that it has secured further funding to help preserve maritime heritage skills. The ‘Interreg IVA Two Seas’ funding programme will support the bringing together of two previously funded projects: Traditional Maritime Skills and Heroes 2 Seas.

The alliance, combined with a new cluster of organisations, will join forces to enhance traditional boat building training programmes and to promote the sector further, specifically to: job seekers, marine businesses and the education community.

‘This funding provides a unique opportunity to further support this valued sector, building on our past achievements and broadening its beneficiaries. We’re looking forward to presenting and publishing our results at the project end conference in Belgium during the final quarter of 2014.’ said Tim Bowerbank, Marketing Manager of Cornwall Marine Network.

The final conference will be the perfect opportunity to connect employers looking for workers, educators who want to expand their courses and job seekers looking to start their careers in this sector. The conference will also be an opportunity to showcase the new traditional boat building accreditation scheme which will be developed as part of the training programme. The conference will hope to attract delegates from across the Two Seas Region, including: the UK, France, Holland and Belgium.

Just under €224,000 was awarded to the new project, now named Maritime Heritage Skills: Preserve, Develop, Share. The following organisations form the core team:

Association Tourville
Cornwall Marine Network
New Medway Steam Packet Company
Province of Zeeland
Stichting Cultureel Erfgoed Zeeland
Vlaamse Dienst voor Arbeidsbemiddeling en Beroepsopleiding

Associated partners:
Historische Werf Rotterdams Welvaren ( De Delft)
Vzw De Steenschuit
Mid Kent College

Friday October 5th, 10am-5pm

Provincial Heritage Centre, Lotharingenstraat

9700 Ename (Oudenaarde), Belgium

Enthusiasts of beautiful historic vessels are invited to attend the Traditional Maritime Skills conference in Belgium next month dedicated to preserving the customs and skills of a historic boat building industry.

The Traditional Maritime Skills (TMS) conference in [...]]]>

Friday October 5th, 10am-5pm

Provincial Heritage Centre, Lotharingenstraat

9700 Ename (Oudenaarde), Belgium

Enthusiasts of beautiful historic vessels are invited to attend the Traditional Maritime Skills conference in Belgium next month dedicated to preserving the customs and skills of a historic boat building industry.

The Traditional Maritime Skills (TMS) conference in Ename, near Gent, on October 5th concludes a three year EU project led by partners in Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK. Its aim is to record wooden boat building skills that are in danger of becoming extinct due to an aging workforce.

The wealth of educational material, videos, images, CAD drawings, interviews and course frameworks produced through the project will be presented at the conference, held at the Provincial Heritage Centre on the banks of the River Scheldt.

A free and comprehensive virtual learning environment has been created that provides detailed online teaching packages covering a host of traditional skills such as riveting, splicing, rigging, laminating and sewing sails. Individual time-lapse videos captured specific skills as partners followed the step-by-step progress of boat building projects on either side of the 2 Seas area (the English Channel and North Sea).

The four organisations working together on the project are project-leader Maritime and Logistics College de Ruyter (Netherlands), Province of Zeeland (Netherlands), and Province of East-Flanders (Belgium) and Cornwall Marine Network (UK).

The regions bordering the ‘2 Seas’ area have a wealth of nautical heritage. The traditional maritime skills are highly valued historically and economically by those living along the coastline in the UK, Netherlands and Belgium. However, it is feared that the traditional ship and boat building skills could become extinct and boatyards are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit highly skilled workers.

Delegates attending next month’s conference will hear from project partners and guest speakers about how TMS’s outputs and virtual learning tools will engage and support future generations of traditional boat builders. They will be taken on both a tour of the new state-of-the-art virtual learning environment and of the traditional vessels moored alongside the quay.

The conference runs from 10am to 1pm on October 5th and is free to anyone with an interest in traditional boat building or who aspires to study, deliver training or work in the sector.

A variety of nautical stalls and activities will be running alongside the conference on the Friday and into the weekend in celebration of the traditional maritime industry. Exhibiting will be maritime conservation associations, Belgian maritime painters, model boat makers, plus a ships’ restorer will demonstrate how to make a rope, burn a plank and turn wood on a lathe in the traditional way. The free activities will run throughout the day,10am-5pm, from Friday 5th to Sunday 7th.

To book your place at the conference, email erfgoed@oost-vlaanderen.be and you will be sent an invitation with final programme details.

[See event details...]

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The round-bottomed Vabel yacht is being rebuilt to her former glory plank by plank in order to conserve an important part of Dutch maritime history.

Traditional boat builder Julian de Jonge, of Ship Restoration Zaete, [...]]]> The laborious process of restoring Holland’s longest Dutch wooden boeier yacht is being monitored to help preserve century-old skills.

The round-bottomed Vabel yacht is being rebuilt to her former glory plank by plank in order to conserve an important part of Dutch maritime history.

Traditional boat builder Julian de Jonge, of Ship Restoration Zaete, estimates it will take up to six years to restore Vabel. She is believed to have been built in approximately1895 in Amsterdam and used by customs to combat smugglers.

She is now owned by the Museum Harbour Zierikzee and is being restored in a boatyard in Zierikzee using traditional methods by Julian and his team of volunteers.

Julian said: “Due to its poor condition the entire ship needs to be completely rebuilt. She has to be taken apart piece by piece, working from the bottom to the top. She carries a lot of history and is the longest vessel of her type in Holland. Each plank needs to be shaped using fire and water, so it’s a lengthy process.”

The designs and skills used for the restoration are being documented as part of the EU’s Traditional Maritime Skills project. The records will form part of its new virtual learning environment that will be freely accessible and help pass the specialist traditional skills on to the next generation.

Cornish wooden boatbuilder Marcus Lewis has unveiled his beautiful 14ft Mayflower dinghy, built under the gaze of the TMS project’s cameras and which marking the revival of a classic gunter rigged design.

Marcus, from Fowey in South Cornwall, spent last summer painstakingly replicating the original Mayflower designs. It has a steel centreplate and [...]]]>

Cornish wooden boatbuilder Marcus Lewis has unveiled his beautiful 14ft Mayflower dinghy, built under the gaze of the TMS project’s cameras and which marking the revival of a classic gunter rigged design.

Marcus, from Fowey in South Cornwall, spent last summer painstakingly replicating the original Mayflower designs. It has a steel centreplate and is skilfully crafted in mahogany and cedar, with Canadian spruce planing and steamed oak ribs.

The Mayflower fleet, of which there were only about 100 produced, were originally built by Skentelbery’s in Plymouth.

Marcus said: “Unfortunately all the patterns and templates were destroyed in a fire in the nineties. I had been looking for a boat of this size to build for a while. They are an ideal size for teaching the grandchildren to sail and they conjure up that Swallows and Amazons sense of romance and adventure. They are good steady boats, with a moderate sail size, and they are easy to keep on a trailer. It is also a very well-respected design which has proven to be popular over the years.”

The building of the boat used traditional skills that were recorded by the TMS projects. Every stage of the build was captured on video and on a time-lapse camera and the footage will form part of the virtual learning tool for future generations of wooden boat builders.

Marcus added: “I am not a big enough entity to take on an apprentice, so this project is a way of passing on skills and techniques through a different channel.”

For more details call Marcus on 07973 420568 or visit www.woodenboatbuilder.co.uk

The beautiful vessel is maintained as a sailing ship museum in Oostende and on-going conservation work to preserve the 78.5 meter barkentine is carried out by a dedicated [...]]]> Skills used to maintain the historic tall ship Mercator in Belgium have been documented as part of an important educational resource for future traditional boat builders.

The beautiful vessel is maintained as a sailing ship museum in Oostende and on-going conservation work to preserve the 78.5 meter barkentine is carried out by a dedicated team of volunteers. However, the average age of the team is above 70 and it has been feared their wealth of knowledge in traditional skill such as rigging, splicing and riveting might not get handed down to future boat builders.

So this expertise has been painstakingly recorded – along with those at numerous boatyards in Holland, Belgian and the UK – for the EU’s Traditional Maritime Skills project. The TMS project aims to provide extensive teaching frameworks for the next generation via its free virtual learning environment.

Mercator’s boatswain Philippe Van Thournout, who helped work on her maintenance programme for more than 20 years, said: “It is very important that we keep these skills alive as it is part of our heritage and economy. There is not much interest among young people nowadays in these traditional techniques. All our volunteers working on Mercator are aged over 70.

“Sharing the skills via the internet through this project will keep them alive, attract greater interest among the young and help guarantee that vessels such as Mercator are preserved.”

Mercator played an important role in Europe’s nautical history. She was built in Leith in Scotland in 1932 for the Belgium Maritime Association. She was to be used as a sail training ship for the Belgium Navy as well as for other purposes and was rigged out as a barkentine. In a good wind she could easily make 13 knots with her sail lay-out.

Her first trip was on September 5th 1932 and by 1940 she had covered more than 161,686 miles.

In 1936 she was given the honour of returning the body of the Flemish missionary, Father Damiaan, from Molokai Island in Hawaii to Belgium. She then came under the British Admiralty in 1943 as a submarine depot ship. After WW2 she returned to Belgium, towed by the “Empire Mary”, to sail again on Belgium’s River Scheldt.

She became a sail training ship again in 1951 taking part in many Tall Ships Races and was finally taken out of service in 1960. It was then decided to maintain her as a sailing ship museum and keep her in her original condition to show people what life was like on these vessels.

In 1964 she was brought to the yacht haven in Oostende and has remained there ever since. The yacht haven was renamed the “Mercator” after her as she dominates the Ostend skyline.

Detailed recordings were made of the traditional skills used to build the three-masted 108ft traditional lugger, called Grayhound. These videos, plus images and interviews, form part of the TMS project’s free online learning tool that will help preserve [...]]]> A young couple from Cornwall have just launched the largest wooden lugger built for 200 years.

Detailed recordings were made of the traditional skills used to build the three-masted 108ft traditional lugger, called Grayhound. These videos, plus images and interviews, form part of the TMS project’s free online learning tool that will help preserve the industry’s heritage for future generations.

Hundreds of supporters and well-wishers came to watch at the Grayhound lugger launch into the sea in Milbrook, South Cornwall, on a sunny August weekend. They witnessed the culmination of blood, sweat and tears, financial risk and a long struggle by a team of dedicated men and women to painstakingly re-create a piece of maritime history.

It was a momentous day for owners Marcus Rowling and Freya Hart. The team inched Grayhound down the slipway from mid afternoon amid building tension. There was genuine uncertainty whether she would make it to the water and the big debate was would the tide be high enough to float her off. The local ferry sailed around to help haul, and the prayers of everyone in the crowd willed Grayhound off the slipway…..and then she floated into the sea and she was off to a great cheer and singing.

Three lofty masts raked at an angle, a bowsprit and bumpkin (spar at the stern) could now be seen in full glory as Grayhound gave a ‘parade of sail’.

Grayhound will be hosting paying guests for day sails and longer voyages from May 2013. For further details email skippers@classic-sailing.co.uk, call 01872 580022 or visit www.classic-sailing.co.uk

The free and comprehensive virtual learning environment has been created to deliver detailed course frameworks covering a host of traditional skills such as riveting, splicing, rigging, laminating and sewing sails. Individual time-lapse [...]]]> A valuable online tool, packaged with a wealth of traditional boatbuilding educational resources, will be launched at next month’s conference in Belgium.

The free and comprehensive virtual learning environment has been created to deliver detailed course frameworks covering a host of traditional skills such as riveting, splicing, rigging, laminating and sewing sails. Individual time-lapse videos captured specific skills as project partners followed the step-by-step progress of boat building activities on either side of the 2 Seas area (the English Channel and North Sea).

It will be officially unveiled and go live from October 5^th and be available free to the public in two languages (Dutch and English) via the project’s website www.traditionalmaritimeskills.eu

The teaching resource will include a clear and concise A-Z listing of a host of skills to ensure the heritage and traditions of the sector are preserved for future generations.

Traditional Maritime Skills project leader Niek Peters attended the popular Maritime Days in Vlissingen over the weekend of August 24th and 25th.

He shared a stand with the Dutch maritime conservation group ‘Stichting Behoud Hoogaars’ to promote the traditional skills that are used by boatbuilders. The event generated interest in the TMS project’s [...]]]>

Traditional Maritime Skills project leader Niek Peters attended the popular Maritime Days in Vlissingen over the weekend of August 24^th and 25^th.

He shared a stand with the Dutch maritime conservation group ‘Stichting Behoud Hoogaars’ to promote the traditional skills that are used by boatbuilders. The event generated interest in the TMS project’s activities and its long-term objectives to preserve the industry’s heritage.

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Ruimshoots article, June 2012

The 13th edition of Ostend at Anchor was a hit! An estimated 250,000 people in Ostend the 13th edition of the maritime festival “Ostend at Anchor” attended. Spread over four days – from 25 to 28 May – visitors could take a 150 classic sailing ships that were docked in admiring the [...]]]>

The 13th edition of Ostend at Anchor was a hit! An estimated 250,000 people in Ostend the 13th edition of the maritime festival “Ostend at Anchor” attended. Spread over four days – from 25 to 28 May – visitors could take a 150 classic sailing ships that were docked in admiring the harbor. This year’s theme was “in Ostend at Anchor Steam”, with special attention to steamships and machinery.

Also on this great maritime event we had a promotional stand of the Interreg project “Traditional Maritime Skills”.