Rocking the Boat

coast PEOPLE
rocking
ocking
the boat
Against popular
wisdom, DAVE
COCKWELL
saw the potential
in traditional
boatbuilding. Now,
he runs the thriving
Cockwells Boatyard
in Falmouth and
has taken on a
new generation
of apprentices
t
WORDS Kate Langrish
PHOTOGRAPHS Ben Anders
here’s something about a wooden boat,’ says Dave Cockwell, owner of
Cockwells Modern & Classic Boatbuilding, in Ponsharden near Falmouth.
‘There can be other boats in the marina – bigger, taller, more expensive – but it’s
the wooden boat that turns people’s heads.’ Standing in his cavernous boat shed
in Cornwall, it’s easy to see why. The huge sculptural forms – like the skeleton of a
blue whale’s belly – tower overhead, seeming more like an art installation than an
industry. For Dave and his 15-strong team, the sawing, sanding and shaping of
these rib-like curves is a self-confessed ‘labour of love’.
time and tide
Dave’s affinity with boats began at an early age – he restored his first when he
was just 12, and by the age of 16 he had already established a reputation in his
home town of Bristol. ‘Someone asked me to fix this old wreck,’ he says. ‘The
older shipwrights in the dockyard laughed, as they never thought I’d be able to do
it. But I did, and when that one was finished another one was waiting, and it went
from there.’ In 2002, Dave and his family moved to Falmouth, a hub of boatbuilding.
He may have been looking for a quieter life on the coast, but business began to
pick up – not just from the increase in discerning private buyers willing to pay
£400,000 for a beautiful replica of a Bristol Channel pilot cutter, but also from
local companies. ‘I had been restoring and maintaining a fleet of wooden boats
for the St Mawes Ferry Company, and when they needed a new boat, they asked
me to build it,’ Dave explains. ‘They opted for a traditional wooden boat because,
00 COAST
THIS PICTURE Dave
Cockwell stands in front
of his work in progress
– the St Mawes ferry –
which will be completed
this spring ABOVE LEFT
The apprentices
(clockwise from top
left): Joe Coles, David
Brunyee, Billy Lambert
and Craig Chad
coast PEOPLE
‘We turn logs into finished boats’
BILLY LAMBERT, 23, from Constantine in Cornwall, has just finished
his four-year apprenticeship and is now working full time at Cockwells.
‘Before I started my apprenticeship I was working as a deckhand on
super-yachts. I got bored of just polishing and varnishing “gin-palaces” all
day – I wanted to work with wood. Now I’ve finished my apprenticeship, I’m
working as team leader on one of our new-builds – the Cockwells Classic
Launch. It’s a different technique to the traditional boats, as it’s a simpler
structure that’s planked and then covered with epoxy resin. It’s interesting
work, but my heart is with the traditional boats. When I worked on the replica
of the Bristol Channel pilot cutter, we were literally taking in the timber as
logs at one end of the shed, and seeing it through to a finished boat on the
other side. It’s great that, with just five or six people’s pairs of hands,
we have managed to form this thing of beauty.’
as well as having a natural beauty, they also have a versatility in design that
fibreglass boats don’t have. The water isn’t very deep at St Mawes, so the ferry
only has a depth of three foot six inches – we can build to meet the needs
of the client exactly, whereas fibreglass just comes off the shelf.’
The techniques for building the new St Mawes ferry have changed little since
the first wooden boats made the trip across the Fal Estuary centuries ago. ‘We use
traditional boatbuilding methods. There’s no glue – all the wood is fixed together
with bronze fastenings and copper rods,’ Dave says. ‘It’s the same way that it’s
been done for hundreds of years. The only thing we do differently is use electric
planes and saws – and that doesn’t make it any better, just quicker.’
the future’s bright
Dave is passionate about passing on the secrets of these age-old techniques. Back
in Bristol, the old shipwrights helped him as much as they could, but the decline in
the wooden boatbuilding industry meant no apprenticeships were available. It was
this struggle that led Dave to set up a formal apprenticeship scheme at Cockwells.
‘Very few people have been trained in traditional boatbuilding since plastic boats
were introduced in the 1970s, and now we have a skills shortage – a local yacht
builder has to bring in Dutch carpenters,’ Dave explains. ‘The apprenticeships make
it easier for these skills to be passed on and encourage new blood into a trade that
00 COAST
ABOVE The boat
yard stands on
the waterfront at
Ponsharden in
Falmouth – a town
famed for its long
history of boatbuilding
TOP LEFT The view
from Cockwells of
Falmouth Marina and
the Penryn River
‘It’s amazing to create
something that you
know will outlive you’
CRAIG CHAD, 31, from Sydney, Australia, is
a second-year apprentice.
‘I’m from Sydney but moved here five years ago. Actually,
I sailed here – six months aboard a replica of Cook’s
Endeavour. In Australia, I was working in computers. I
happened to go on a tall ship as part of a management
training course, and it made me realise I didn’t want to
sit behind a screen any more, so I signed up to be on the
crew of the Endeavour. When I got to England, I studied
for a foundation in joinery at Lyme Regis International
School of Boatbuilding. Then I spent time working for the
Merseyside Maritime Museum in Liverpool, restoring old
boats, before starting my apprenticeship. I’m learning
every aspect, from drawing out plans and putting the
hull together to understanding how a boat operates
in water. It’s very different from the immediacy of
computers – it takes up to 18 months to build one of our
boats. But it’s an amazing feeling to create something
unique and know that it will probably outlive you.’
JOE COLES, 16, from Flushing in Cornwall,
is just a week into his apprenticeship.
‘I’ve had little boats since I was seven and I’ve always
tinkered around with them. At school I was much better
at working with wood than I was with the academic stuff,
so I decided to do a boatbuilding apprenticeship. When
you start, you begin with the easier jobs. I’m learning how
to join, and at the moment I’m doing the “plugging” on the
St Mawes Ferry, which means hammering little round
pieces of wood into all the holes. At school we drew these
things on the computer, but you learn so much more when
you’re actually doing them with your hands. It’s great
working on the ferry, as it’s going to be sailing right past
my house every day. I’m going to feel very proud to think
that I worked on it, even if it’s just a little bit.’
‘The ferry is going to be sailing
past my house every day’
coast
F E A T U PEOPLE
RE HERE
BOATBUILDING
IN THE UK
✹ Traditional wooden boatbuilding
was in its heyday during the 1920s
and 30s, when virtually every
coastal town had its own boatyard.
‘Most yards employed around a
hundred men, so there were
thousands working in the industry
throughout Britain,’ says Alan
Staley, chairman of the Wooden
Boatbuilders Trade Association
(wbta.co.uk). The introduction of
plastic and fibreglass boats in the
early 1970s meant these skilled
craftsmen were no longer needed,
and now the WBTA estimates there
are only around a hundred small
yards dotted around the coast. ‘But
in the past few years, there has
been a definite resurgence,’ Alan
says. ‘My yard in Faversham has
more work than ever before. People
are realising that a wooden boat will
last a lifetime – they want to enjoy
the beauty themselves and then
pass it on to their grandchildren.’
And there’s also renewed interest in
the craft: ‘Courses in boatbuilding
are full up and there’s demand for
more – the youngsters are keen on
the industry again and that can only
be good news for the future of
wooden boats.’
THE ST MAWES
FERRY
✹ A ferry has been transporting
passengers between the old fishing
harbour of St Mawes to the port of
Falmouth since 1869, but this spring
will see the launch of a new boat,
designed and built by Cockwells.
The new passenger ferry has taken
18 months to build, costing in the
region of £350,000, and will take
in the sights of St Mawes and
Pendennis Castles, and even a few
dolphins if you’re lucky, during its
20-minute journey across the Fal.
The ferries run every day apart from
Christmas Day, departing hourly
during the winter and three times
an hour in the summer. Adult tickets
cost £4.50 single and £7 return.
For information and bookings,
call 01872 861910 or visit
kingharryscornwall.co.uk.
00 COAST
‘We can get the most out of
every single piece of timber’
DAVID BRUNYEE, 22 , from Mylor in Cornwall, is
a second-year apprentice.
‘My parents own an original pilot cutter, like the one Dave is
building a replica of, so I’ve got a particular bond with old
wooden boats. After finishing school, I did a course at the
International Boatbuilding College in Lowestoft, and then
started my apprenticeship here. I enjoy the fact that there
are so many different aspects to boatbuilding. Last summer,
I spent a lot of time in the wood yard and learned about timber
selection. Cockwells is unusual, as most boatbuilders buy in
the wood. You get a much better quality if you saw it yourself.
We can get the most out of every single piece of timber, and
shape it exactly to our requirements. It can be tough work and
there are some monotonous tasks – like smoothing the outside
of the hull with a power planer for the whole day – but it’s the
ultimate satisfaction to see that boat roll out of the boat shed
and know that you’ve played a part in creating it.’
ABOVE Each member
of the Cockwells team
is a skilled craftsman
and adds his own style
to each project – here,
David is working on a
piece of wood using
a smoothing plane.
Solid pieces of teak,
mahogany, chestnut
and walnut are used
to ensure top quality
was in danger of dying out.’ Cockwells currently has five apprentices and demand
for places is high but, with each apprenticeship taking four years, Dave can only
take on more as new projects come in.
Sustainability is a key word for Cockwells – not just for the workforce but for
the environment, too. ‘We use timber from plantation stocks – the larch, for
example, is from a forest in Inverness that was planted specifically for building
fishing boats. There’s so little demand for it that most was being used for railway
sleepers,’ Dave says. ‘It feels good that we’re using wood that people don’t want
and turning it into a beautiful thing.’
Cockwells has also introduced a tree-planting scheme, with five times the number
of larch and oak they use being planted in woodland around Cornwall and the South
West. ‘The oaks will take another hundred years before they reach the right size,’
Dave says. ‘But it’s nice to think they might be used by future generations of
boatbuilders in Cornwall.’ Cockwells, it seems, is going to be turning heads in
marinas for generations to come. coast
Cockwells Modern & Classic Boatbuilding, South West Shipyard, Ponsharden,
Falmouth, Cornwall (01326 377366, cockwells.co.uk).