“We are all about enjoying your time on sea and land with the most traditional and beautiful material, ‘wood’. Wood is our passion, we have worked with it all our lives but never get tired of the ever changing characteristics it exhibits. If it is tended with care it will be your lifetime friend and will always remind you of the great care and craftsmanship that has been used during its conversion into the item that you now cherish. We are wooden boat builders Cornwall due to our traditional skills we are not limited to working on boats we also produce beautiful items such as furniture and wooden architect for buildings, often each piece is unique built to each customer’s requirements.”
So says the text on the fascinating website of one of Britain’s most interesting niche companies, The Cornish Wooden Boat Company. Based at the West End Works, Redruth, Cornwall, the company prides itself on its commitment to bespoke projects: new, small traditional sailing boats, the Dabchick, Jolly Boat, Kingfisher and Sandpiper, and more recently a Selway Fisher design, the Heron 15. According to the company: “This was the first time this boat had been made to full scale and our work was held by the designer for others to follow on this new design.”
It is heartening to see the traditional West Country boat-building industry promoting itself with such self-confidence, and encouraging to find a manufacturer which uses non-synthetic, age-old materials. Such methods of construction require an almost ancestral knowledge – a mastering not just of a technique or a “job”, but of a whole life and tradition. That is why it is all the more vital to maintain irreplaceable industries of this nature.
British Made for Quality offers its best wishes to this unique Cornish enterprise. For further details and news about the company and its work, please visit:
http://www.cornishwoodenboat.co.uk
