Boat building in the Purifier Building

Wooden boats of different types have been constructed in the Shipwright’s Hall in the Purifier Building since its renovation was complete in 2013. Master shipwright Simon Grillet led the construction of Mayhi, a replica of the barge Westmoreland, used to train apprentices in this complex type of work. The lack of an opening bridge meant that building of tall masted boats in the Creek basin was not viable and we started a programme of building smaller vessels.

For three years, 2017 – 2019, we ran our BoatCamp programme in which, under the instruction of Alan Thorne, two teams of four young students from the Abbey School each spent their summer activity week building a sixteen-foot rowing skiff (a “Julie”, designed by Gavin Atkin).  In addition, two students undertook work experience at Alan Staley’s Shipyard and the entire cohort of young students was treated to a day out on the Swale on Thames Sailing Barge Repertor.

Since 2020, people aged 12 to 80+ have built beautiful wooden rowing boats in our workshop at the head of Faversham Creek. Cinque Ports Rowing – a community project dedicated to building and rowing boats – has constructed four St Ayles’ skiffs, all of which are rowed regularly on the creek and other waterways, including the River Thames and the Netherlands. The St Ayles Skiff is a 22 foot (7m) long rowing boat, based on a traditional sea-going boat called a Fair Isle Skiff. Iain Oughtred, a famous boat designer, adapted this boat to use modern construction techniques so that it could be built by amateurs with basic woodworking skills. Find out more about community boat-building at https://cinqueportsrowing.org/about-us/