Who has actually owned a Wooden boat.

Have you owned a wood boat.

  • Total voters
    119
  • Poll closed .
Dauntless Gaff cutter 20ft (plus 6ft of bowsprit) Spent way,WAY more time working on it (and making things for it, building sheds to make things in for it, making trailers for it etc, etc..) than actually sailing it. BUT - when you are on the water - magnificent! (yes even the humble Dauntless)
Now lusting after one of Ian Richardson's Orkney Yoles. (but apparently, you CAN have too many boats)
 
Voted yes on behalf of SWMBO who bought the Graduate. I completely failed to persuade her to buy something sensible, and have not regretted it yet.
 
No.

I have never owned a wooden boat.

My Dad. A succession of clinker dinghies for fishing.
My Uncle. A Silver from Rosneath

Crewed on many. Much more confident working on a wooden boat. Love sailing them.

Bought a GRP
 
First boat a 28 foot clinker built ex ship's lifeboat, bought 1961 with my wages from my first working trip to sea. Converted it from dipping lug to Gunter rig, half decked it with ply..:redface-new: and at 17 sailed it from Sussex to Harwich....well nearly .....ran out of wind, tide and skill and stuck it on the mud/sand up off the Walton backwaters somewhere for a tide.. Floated off and made Half Penny Pier. Cold, wet and tired but convinced I was a sea dog..:D :D
 
voted yes, my first boat was a deben 4 tonner, used to sail the whole Thames estuary in her brilliant & pretty boat, never minded the maintenance, but then i got married and with no time for maintenance bought a grp yacht! still miss my 4 tonner though! :encouragement:
 
Uricanejack said:
No.

I have never owned a wooden boat.

My Dad. A succession of clinker dinghies for fishing.
My Uncle. A Silver from Rosneath. Our boat is in Silvers Yard at the moment! I didn't realise that it was such a historic yard when I first went there.

Crewed on many. Much more confident working on a wooden boat. Love sailing them.

Bought a GRP
Click to expand...

I voted yes because we used to own a SCOD. It was one of the few that Camper & Nicholson actually built themselves and it had originally been built for the John Lewis partnership. It was a labour of love and took me nearly two years to make her sea-worthy. (new decks, new coachroof and lots of bits of mahogany grafted into the coach roof sides. I ended up replacing various boards round the garboard area. All the fittings came off and were re-galvanised, the mast was split and re-glued. New Yanmar 1GM10 engine, new rigging new sails. We won some silverware at Cowes in her…

If dinghies count, then we'll start with a Gremlin we had as a family, and then a Bembridge Scow (clinker built with a heavy steel centre board).

When I was an impecunious curate, SWMBO and I once had a Scorpion (this was a disaster as it frightened SWMBO to death and I nearly put her off sailing for life!) It was solved by getting a Drascombe, but it was a plastic one so doesn't count for this post.

If I can count extended family, my brother has owned a wooden 505, and various wooden sailing canoes.
 
Last edited:
Pity the thread didn't exclude dinghies as that's not really what the original question wasl about . Comparing ownership of a Firefly or GP14 to a wooden cruising yacht is somewhat irrelevant.
 
Lakesailor said:
Dinghies. Heron and a clinker sailing dinghy.
I was very tempted with a Folkboat, but it was too dear for the condition. Also lusted after a Jewel class yacht but couldn't justify the money, although it was very nice.
Click to expand...

Heron was our first dinghy, then an Enterprise. Then our beautiful old gaff cutter (built 1897, and now being re-built by Rob Mason near Haverfordwest). She was a little high-maintenance compared to GRP etc, but worth every penny.

As for aspirations to own another? YES, a William Fife III, PLEASE :)
 
Eyore said:
Pity the thread didn't exclude dinghies as that's not really what the original question wasl about . Comparing ownership of a Firefly or GP14 to a wooden cruising yacht is somewhat irrelevant.
Click to expand...
Well that is your opinion. Rather high-handed in my opinion. We don't exclude anything on YBW. Forums don't work that way.
 
 
Lakesailor said:
Well that is your opinion. Rather high-handed in my opinion. We don't exclude anything on YBW. Forums don't work that way.
Click to expand...

Ok when I posed the question, in my mind I was referring to something that you could cruise, sleep on. The reason being I keep reading people giving opinions on wood craft that is in no way my experience of owning a wood vessel.

It seems that many on here have had experience of owning and working with wood boats and smaller craft, and to a fair extent I would say they enjoyed owning them. The maintenance program in my opinion on wood is, if kept up, only as much as a GRP boat and that's after owning mine for some 11 years. We know that if left they will deteriorate very quickly which GRP won't.

On another thread here somebody is asking about wood boats and there are many criticising the material, it seems that perception is reality with most. Me..... Well I think my wood boat is great, strong comfortable and I have no problems with the material she is built with..... That said, I have a healthy winter maintenance regime, and that's all it takes to look after a wood boat. If you want to sit by the fire over winter and wait for the sun, stay with GRP.

There is nothing wrong with wood as a material for a boat, actually it has many benefits but it must be looked after.

I suggest that if anybody wants good information on owning one they should be looking through this thread and talking to wood boat owners not people that have a perception of what they are like to own. Sure there are some that have bought lame ducks and not really got to grips with owning wood, just look at the old boats in boat yards, but good wood boats are a joy to own. I'm always asked about my boat wherever I go, surprisingly by many sailors.

Great to see so many replied to this thread.

Tom.
 
Last edited:
my 1903 wooden river launch

View attachment 37350

My 1903 wooden launch was originally built on the east coast and had a mast and sailing rig in about 1944 a Morris Veddete engine
was added. she was in a fairly bad state when I got her and I had to learn quite a few new skills but she is now fully useable and gives us great pleasure.
 
Last edited:
Lakesailor said:
Well that is your opinion. Rather high-handed in my opinion. We don't exclude anything on YBW. Forums don't work that way.
Click to expand...

Oh apologies, haden't realised you speak for the membership, perhaps you would like to moderate my posts in future ?:rolleyes: and in Littleships original question and his post immediately above this my assumptions regarding his intentions appear to be correct.
 
Last edited:
Mirror sailing dingy.
Plywood speedboats/ Dolfin x 2.
Clinker sailing boat.
Nearly bought a Fairy but ended up buying a plastic one instead.

I do love the way a timber boat rides the sea but not the work involved to keep it good.
 
Lakesailor said:
Well that is your opinion. Rather high-handed in my opinion. We don't exclude anything on YBW. Forums don't work that way.
Click to expand...

I can understand his view.

I often wish I owned 'just' a wooden dinghy. One I could work on in the warmth of the garage in the winter, one I could park at the bottom of the garden and jut forget about for a few months (or years), one that costs nothing to moor, no need for lift out and yard storage, no engine, electrics or plumbing to sort and if any of the wood substrate fails at least it won't sink before I dragged it ashore.

Can't do that with a bigger boat though, and I suspect that is the point he is making.
 
Lovely Rampart. I've cleaned the colour cast out for you.
tillergirl said:
I learnt to sail on a Gremlin on the River Trent. It was the tender to my father's 1931 Rampart; here on the saloon roof on its chocks:

DSC00171clean.jpg
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top