Friday 18 May 2012

Keep History Afloat April 30th - May 11th


Cremyll, 17th May 2012

In April 2012 I was offered the chance to gain the experience to go and visit and work at the Pioneer boatyard in Essex. Iwasn't sure what I was going to experience, but thought that any chance to see how boats are built in other boatyards would help further my career.

On the 30th April I travelled up to Colchester where I was warmly greeted and taken to a wonderful accommodation in the picturese of St.Osyth. Here I was informed on what was planned for the rest of week.

The following day I got to experience pioneer boatyard where I was shown around and told of what I was going to work on for the week. I had the pleasure on working on the gig boats which was really fun and good experience for me as I was seeing how cold moulded boats are built from scratch. This was all new to me as I am used to maintaining boats than build from new. In the afternoon we had the pleasure of rowing a gig that there apprentices had all ready built.Apart from having great fun and the weather it made me realise how much happiness and joy people are getting from sailing on boats I had repaired.

The rest of the week I continue to learn different aspect of work on the gigs from gluing gunnels and runners on to laminating new strips to moulding into shape. While doing any of these jobs everyone was kind and helpful and always passing on any knowledge they knew for me to take home with me.

The weekend we had to ourself but still they made sure we were ok and wasn't bored and had nothing to do.

On the second week we got to experience different things away from the working side. The first of the things was to go and survey boat wrecks. Here  we got to see the original pioneer keel and it makes you realise that taking old parts of classic boats and restoring them to there original selfs not just gives the people that built them satisfaction  but everyone in my eyes thats a bigger and better achievement than any new build. The other chance I got to take was to sail on the Pioneer for two days/one night. This was excellent fun, with weather being good and wind being fine, we got to experience what a fine vessel pioneer is and what a good job they did on building her. Sailing ment a lot to me as I good to see why you repair things and see what parts of boat do why in motion.

If I was to sum my experience to anyone who had the chance to do something like this, I owuld say take it with arms wide open. The amount of knowledge and experience I got in those two weeks will be there for a lifetime and if I get the chance to experience to do another one I would.

Andrew Robertson
Andrew steering Pioneer
I would like to thank you for giving me the optioning, to come and see the facilities and to give me an insight in a new working environment ,also the optinity to work in a different boat yard and to see the different methods. I furletie enjoyed working in the work shops and seeing different methods that people have developed in boat building. I had the opportunity to try different jobs, which I haven't tried before i.e. steaming planks, cutting and fitting risers,lamenting . I also had the chance to sail pioneer which I feruley the enjoyed, it gave me the chance to leant terms of the boats and see how the boats run day to day, I feel any young person who wants to take boat building up as a career would dfently benefit from traveling to different yards and having the chance to learn different techniques and methods in the boat building indurtiey.Its real helped me and its something that I would happily do a again.

Kind regards
Liam Ellis

Pioneer - Trainees experiencing the North Sea