Building boats at fine woodworking centre

STUDENTS AT THE CENTRE FOR FINE WOODWORKING, FROM LEFT: Peter Winskill, Rae Varcoe, tutor: Nigel Whitton and Peter Tait.

By NIGEL COSTLEY
                                                                                                                                                                                    

Hobbyist woodworker Peter Tait from Nelson has taken on the two week boatbuilding course at the Centre for Fine Woodworking because, after years of sailing, he wants to build a boat of his own.

"But I'd better say that it's going to be a very small boat in case my wife reads this," he says.

Describing herself as a woodworker of modest experience, Rae Varcoe from Auckland, says that boatbuilding is like dressmaking but worse.

"There's no she'll-be-right with this.  It's like fitting a garment to a particular body - every piece has to be carefully eased into place," she says.

She's looking for the course to improve her furniture making skills.  She came to woodworking 20 years ago when she bought a half-finished house and wanted to finish it herself.

"I had a very helpful neighbour and I learnt on the job," she says.

She had no idea boatbuilding was so complex.  "It suits an obsessive personality," she says.

She feels she's learnt a lot from her fellow students during the course.

Peter Winskill has been a professional woodworker all his working life and has come over from Tasmania to learn boatbuilding techniques, like bending wood in a steamer, that he can transfer to furniture making.

"I'm self employed which makes it difficult to get away for training but two weeks is manageable for me" he says.

He hasn't seen any comparable courses in Australia and will be coming back to the centre next January for another short course.  He and his wife are incorporating a holiday into the current trip.

Nigel Whitton, a former student from the centre, is the tutor for this course.  He has taken a break from working on a superyacht in Australia for billionaire Sir Richard Branson.

He says that the value of these courses lies in the need for plenty of handwork.  "It requires a lot of planning, fitting and rechecking," he says.

Although working in Australia, Nigel still thinks of Nelson as home and is coming back to the centre next year to take another short course, basic cabinetry.

"The teaching is new for me but I really enjoy it," he says.

The dingy has elm for the planking and American Ash for it's structure.  As for the painting, "the students can fugure that out for themselves," Nigel says.

The dingy will be auctioned at the Boathouse as a promotion for the centre.

Information on the centre can be found on their website: www.centre-for-fine-woodworking.co.nz