Adrian Morgan (March 2010)

Good journalism is often controversial - and this certainly seems to have wound you lot up.

I still have my first boat - it's a 9'6" Landamore Lapstrake lugsail dinghy. (Glued clinker ply) My father had it built for me in 1962 - today I think I could safely describe it as bordering on the immaculate. Certainly it's needed some repair work over the years ... bit of transom let in (the solid wood died, not the ply) ... a new hog helped no end after the hidden steel screws holding in the plate casing died. One thing is for sure - the little boat is entirely in period. Frankly, I wish they'd have been able to use epoxy - everytime the glue in a seam dies and I have to dry it and gunk in epoxy under pressure to stop her leaking. Glued clinker ply can look just fine but you must stain the ply. There's been a small amount of rot here and there which has been dealt with - but it's not a problem as relatively the boat spends so little time in the water. She's always hauled out and covered up when not actually in use.

I can't see any inherent problems with glued clinker ply contruction. large numbers of East Anglian children honed their skills in Bittern dinghies - and what of National 12s of the period? I quite like the thought of a 'Rushton' canoe yawl built out of glued ply. It'll have to be glued ply; firstly weight is important in a boat likely to be carried - but much more significant, if it were traditional construction and used relatively infrequently, it'd leak .... and wet my jacksy. OF
 
I joined this thread because of the first posting, but I came late, after poor old Adrian had got fed up with being jumped on, so I thought I'd check to see how unjustifiably sensitive I'd been to "get weary" of "Adrian's repeated anti -ply & -epoxy statements" and may be I am, but as I do promote ply & epoxy boats, then I'm sure that's understandable.

I looked back through old CB's, and although in Feb 2010 he does get a quick knock in, it's only in passing, and only quoting himself about "the evils of pl*w**d and ep**y" from the Sept 2009 issue "Epoxy and plywood it might have been, but even the Devil's work, if executed to the best of one's ability, can be a thing of pride." Not 100% negative, you may think.

Prior to that it was all the way back to February 2008, 2 years, before I found any anti-ply sentiments, viz "Plywood ia a mere travesty of wood, ersatz, fake, grain running everywhere, ecologically dead dodgy, but glassfibre is honest; owes nothing to nothing. It's a product of the oil age, unashamedly."

So in two years there have only been the 3 items I could possibly take exception to at all, so I suppose that my weariness was because of the quote from Adrian that started the thread "What does this column have in store? Just to warn you, in 2010 it will be stepping up its campaign against epoxy/ply clinker", and of course I shouldn't have worried because about that because it was a) obviously tongue in cheek, and b) specifically about clinker ply, which doesn't affect me, does it?

Adrian can be even-handed, too - in November 2008, he warns about the potential longevity problems with (proper) clinker - "There will be tell-tale clues as to why it's lying there [on a roundabout full of flowers]: a weakness in the garboard; broken timbers at the turn of the bilge, some sistered. Evidence of a grounding; planks sprung from stem; split ends.....And why so many nails in the hood ends? I'll wonder. Some must have been added halfway through its life as the planks began to spring from the rabbet"

So, I guess it's just me, eh?
 
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calm down

LONG_KEELER said:
I would also expect that the Advertising Manager and Group Publisher have had serious words with the editor Dan Houston.
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Yup. Along the lines of: "well done to old Adrian. Look at the amount of hits his column has generated on an other wise fairly slow forum!"

He writes a good column. He builds a good boat. He is entitled to have an opinion, and paid to express it, which he does with good humour. Others, who may hold different views, could learn from his style. Any journalist has the ultimate aim of generating debate, and yer man has succeeded.

He is an advocate and practitioner of small scale boat building, has shown his considerable commitment to it, and deserves our respect for that.

I hope to have a good view of the new Ullapool clinker ply boat Ulla, as she is rowed along behind the North Berwick Boats in the inaugural St Ayles Skiff racing season. I will report back thereafter.
 
Romeo said:
Yup. Along the lines of: "well done to old Adrian. Look at the amount of hits his column has generated on an other wise fairly slow forum!"

He writes a good column. He builds a good boat. He is entitled to have an opinion, and paid to express it, which he does with good humour. Others, who may hold different views, could learn from his style. Any journalist has the ultimate aim of generating debate, and yer man has succeeded.

He is an advocate and practitioner of small scale boat building, has shown his considerable commitment to it, and deserves our respect for that.

I hope to have a good view of the new Ullapool clinker ply boat Ulla, as she is rowed along behind the North Berwick Boats in the inaugural St Ayles Skiff racing season. I will report back thereafter.
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You're making me feel bad now !

I sincerely do hope that I have got it wrong and that Adrian has in fact enhanced the magazine and thereby it's sales.

There are enough people in this life telling us what to do ,think, and believe already. I believe that Adrian through genuine ignorance has achieved doing this to many . It's hard to take when your old dad made you a ply dinghy that you still lovingly own, or made yourself, with little knowledge or know how. The first rule of publishing is respect your audience .

Anyway, he has made a mistake. So what !

We are here to live life and learn. An ongoing seminar that we don't have to pay for.

It is an horrific time for magazine publishing. So much advertising is drifting away to the web. Copy sales are vital.

Let's all get behind Classic Boat and give it our full support and accept ( note to self ) that mistakes can and will happen.
 
I don't think he's made a mistake at all. He has a magazine column, in which he is allowed to voice his own opinion. If you don't like it then right a letter giving your own opinion. Do you really think this is going to damage boat building? All he's doing is asking people to give traditional methods a go when building a clinker boat, and if only one person decides to do so, instead of using epoxy/ply then I think boatbuilding wins.
 
I think one or two on here need to take up a hobby!

........... and while we're on the subject - have you ever tried getting to sleep on a clinker built boat? ... Needs a certain level of refreshmment. (more gin less tonic)
 
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