Boat Building’s Last Stand: A Visit to the Academy

Pete Goss finds the perfect antidote to the winter blues: the warmth, soul, and home-cooked lasagna of a vibrant local sailing club

Grinding through January and February underlines how much I hate the winter. Indeed, we have just booked a cheap and cheery week in the Canaries to soak up a bit of rejuvenating sun. We’re going to Gran Canaria so it will be nice to walk the marina with thoughts of the ARC Transatlantic in mind.

There are highlights, though, and one of them is squeezing a few sailing club talks into my winter diary. I like to do them as they are a tangible way of putting something back into the sport and of course I get to meet some wonderful people. I don’t promote them, as with the Lyme Regis Sailing Club, they just seem to pop up randomly.

Finding himself in a station and in need of distraction, Hugh Duncan happened to spot Close to the Wind on the shelf and dived in. This prompted a funny and generous email through my website which I just couldn’t resist. Thanks to my erratic diary we picked two provisional dates going firm a couple of weeks out. Having never been to Lyme Regis, and with Hugh offering a night in his studio flat, Tracey came with me.

The club is right up my street. Built by the members, it has the welcoming feel of a village hall but it’s the members that give it soul. Some 90 people squeezed in for what felt like a vibrant family affair with lots of ribbing and a healthy spread of ages, which to me is always a good litmus test of a club.

The evening was completely voluntary with Loraine, Jewel and Di slaving away to turn out 50 very tasty pre-ordered lasagna with salad. Brian cheerily acted as head barman with Linda and Jo putting their shoulder to the wheel.

Jason made sure all the technology worked. The local church loaned extra chairs and so, without fuss, we slipped into a well-oiled machine.

Apart from a bit of petrol money I don’t charge sailing clubs and so a bucket was handed round to raise £270 for the local RNLI Station; something made to feel all the more appropriate by the tearing gale that raged beyond the club’s warm embrace. It was a lovely evening.

The following morning we caught up with Hugh, still shivering from his morning sea swim for a coffee and breakfast in the local cafe. Being high tide we were entertained by waves hitting the harbour wall to burst 30ft into the air and be whipped across Lyme Regis. The solstice might be behind us but the winter storms were having none of it.

Lyme Regis is an interesting but sheltered port that dries out on the tide. We’ve added it to our list, for it’s just the kind of place for which Oddity was designed.

With its charm and expansive beaches there’s no doubt that it’s a popular tourist attraction but there is also what looks to be a healthy fishing fleet.

Behind the harbour stands the Lyme Regis Boat Building Academy. A number of students came to the talk and, thanks to Hugh’s enthusiasm, Tracey and I were honoured to have a guided tour by both the founder and life president Tim Gedge and director Will Reed.

Housed in the old RAF Air Sea Rescue buildings it specialises in hands-on boat building training in both modern and traditional methods.

Recently given charity status, the academy is able to offer a number bursaries to those wishing to join our maritime industry. There are exciting plans to expand the buildings to offer more teaching space and to add to the present in-house student accommodation. As the last remaining dedicated boat building school in the UK it’s lovely to see the positive effect of this new status.

A popular addition to the training is a furniture course and it was lovely to chat to one of the students and admire the quality of work that is being produced. By the time we had finished, the back of my mind was quietly working out how I might be able to sign up… Live on Oddity in the harbour and so on!

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