We had our third zoom social last night, and it was great to chat again to old and new faces about boatbuilding and life. 
We always start the socials with everyone introducing themselves - so if you haven't joined us before, don't be daunted....these really are for everyone to join as and when they can. 
The link is always the same - next date is 8pm on Thursday 8th June.  Email or message if you want to join us. 
Thanks to Faye from Raybel Charters, who shared with us a little bit about the project - and their efforts to focus on helping women in the community.  https://raybelcharters.com/

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We are very excited to be launching the WIBB mentoring programme on International Women’s Day, March 8th 2023.

The programme will run for 10 months for 10 mentor and mentee pairings, and aims to support women in their early careers in boatbuilding and related trades. Mentoring is hugely successful in other industries, and we’ve also worked with The Magenta Project on this – whose sailing mentoring scheme has been running successfully for 5 years.

The Worshipful Company of Shipwrights have very kindly supported us to make this programme a reality – thank you Shipwrights!

​To apply to be a mentor or mentee go to the Mentoring Page. 

BBC South news report from the Boatbuilding Academy in Lyme Regis, during the WIBB visit to launch their women's bursary.

Another great day and my head is buzzing again. Every hour I change my mind...we're all mad wanting to restore old wooden boats....there again, why would you want to do anything else? So today we talked about what to look for in an old boat - really useful information before you take the plunge. 
Mike talked us through the restoration of Barnacle, a 10ft clinker tender, built in   1962 by Lou Walker. And Vindilis, a 27ft sloop built in 1930's and restored with modern materials. A brief chat about surveys and how to 'take the lines' when a boat has gone too far. Ken introduced us to 'Brown Bear' a clinker rowboat over 100 years old and - until recently - a regular in Brixham's pirate re-enactment weekends. 'Brown Bear' deteriorated surprisingly fast when left full of rain water and sadly it was decided that she was a lines and lofting project.
​Patrick's double-ended clinker day boat had a few interesting design features; water ballast bags and a retractable rudder blade, but no floor and minimal sole boards. We had a good chat about improvements that could be made to structure and comfort, and how to turn it into a wild camping boat. 
More time on practical work today too. Finished the feather scarf and lipped scarf...and learnt how to fix them together with a rove and nail. Then we had some free-style repair time on practice hulls in the workshop...making holes then fixing them!
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Had two full-on days so far on the week-long Traditional Restoration course in Lyme Regis. Plan was to blog everyday about what I've been doing, but I'm afraid red wine and sleep won over last night!
DAY ONE
Driving down towards the Cobb in Lyme Regis takes me back to sailing here as a teenager and more recent fossil-hunting family holidays and is always a happy place to come back to. Such a lovely spot.  
Met at 9 for welcome from Academy Director Will, who briefed us on house-keeping then introduced us to Mike, our genius instructor for the week. Straight to the classroom where we were given blue folders with notes for the week's course and more. The morning was a classroom session, starting with the obligatory round of introductions. Including me, we are 3 women and 6 men, with many different reasons for doing the course. Some have been before, and some are using the week as a taster to see if they want to do a longer course. Really lovely group and very relaxed.
The morning was a speed course in hull construction methods. From clinker to carvel, cold moulding to strip planking, Mike took us through the rough principles of each method. We covered stresses and forces, Llyods rules and regulations for hull construction and some terminology.  The sole is the floor and the floors are wooden uprights inside the hull that look nothing like the floor. The camber on a deck is a portion of a true circle which makes it stronger to resist the force of a big wave. So many things to learn.
We moved onto tools after break, and how to sharpen planes and chisels. Grinding with water to 25 degrees, then adding your honed edge. Using the oil stone and then the leather pad to remove burrs. Never knew that '80 grit' paper meant that 80 'grits' would fit through a given size hole versus 1200 smaller 'grits' fitting through the same hole...hence less gritty paper. Who knew that?!
Mike talked about planks and all the things that can happen to them....cupping, winding, bowing, and how to square your timber when all these things have happened. 
Lunch - little walk in the sun to the Good Food Cafe, BBA discount on pasties and sitting in the veranda looking out to sea - perfect. 
PM - Time to use some tools! We all have a bench, and a tool box for the week. Short version....
Squared the timber, and started to make a feather scarf joint. (Long version another time)

DAY TWO
Woke up to an amazing sunrise...beautiful views out to sea from roof-top rooms. 
Ally from Practical Boat Owner joined us for the day, to write a feature on the BBA and find out more about their diversity strategy...and to get practical in the workshop. 
Mike started with wood, which was fascinating. Different bits of the trunk, how to saw it, how to dry it, types of wood, issues with wood. Google 'ships worm' and go to images and join me in getting hypnotised by the 5ft black ships worm video.  Then bending, adhesives, ply construction, epoxy and into the workshop for a lip scarf demo. 
Lunch....pasty in the sun obvs. 
After lunch was fastenings, corrosion and cracking on with the lip scarf. 
So much learnt already. Mike is making it all look easy, and is very patient!

Those following us on @womeninboatbuilding on Instagram will know the answer but if you're a new friend, read on...

I grew up sailing wooden boats my dad built in the garage in Ipswich, and spent a fair amount of my childhood handing him tools, holding bits of wood, listening to Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy on the radio, so a few years ago now...  but these childhood memories stick. I always owned and maintained my own dinghies, then had a stint as a deckie, and perfected my varnishing skills in the Caribbean. I then entered the wonderful world of PR and film marketing, and ended up in film partnership marketing, where I met my husband.  Heavily pregnant, I handed over my biggest project - a Pirates of the Caribbean yacht entry in the (then) Volvo Ocean Race - to the Skipper, Paul Cayard, in a pub in Southampton. Then spent 13 lucky years at home bringing up my family.

New Year's resolution in 2019 was to venture back in to the world of work and I felt totally unqualified to do anything, so I wrote to Spirit Yachts and offered to sweep their floor. They offered me a job finishing and I loved it. When I started at Spirit, there was one other woman in the yard building boats. The mess room had a bikini calendar and the banter was great...such a different environment to the school gate, and just what I needed. In 2021, aswell as working in the boatyard, I was refurbishing my dad's keelboat, so all my time was spent working on boats and I just wanted to see who else was out there, juggling families and boats...I was the only mum at school pick-up clearly doing a hands-on job. So I turned to social media, started  @womeninboatbuilding and gradually found some incredible women. The page was about me, and then I started featuring other women I'd connected with....and it grew. I found out more about other boatyards, conditions, experiences, colleges, shared problems, then started being asked for support and advice.

Along with 3 other women, I spoke on a Women in Boatbuilding panel at the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights lecture day in Southampton in 2021 and Simon the organiser asked us..."how do we attract and keep women in the industry" - I could think of so many things the industry could do and should be doing....and kept expecting it to do.

The Instagram postings continued - and every single woman I have had the privilege of speaking to has been fascinating...so many incredible personal stories. And the same issues come up time and time again. In Autumn 2022, Catherine Larner wrote 2 brilliant pieces about Women in Boatbuilding in The Guardian and Classic Boat Magazine which were the catalyst for deciding the time has come to up our game.

So I needed a team of like-minded women in the industry who I knew felt equally passionately about supporting women. Heike was with me at Spirit and already helping to advise and mentor boatbuilders who contacted me, so she was in. Amy is one of the few women who have taught boatbuilding in the UK, and the person who said a CIC was the way forward - and a great mentor for me. And Gail is a boatbuilding legend and brilliant person to have on the team.

We are now set up as a Community Interest Charity so we can continue and build on the initial development of our community. This will allow us to apply for funding and provide support for  the amazing women within the industry and those who are to follow.

It's an exciting time ahead - and we can't wait to get building!