A Falmouth Working Boat in Holland

We are a family with 2 young children,aged 5 and 2 1/2 years.
We mainly sail on an inland river, the "Maas", which is about half a mile wide.
The river floats alongside a wildlife park, De Biesbosch, which has restricted acces for pleasure craft.
There are some nice sheltered places where you can anchor and some beaches where the children can play.
We have been searching quite a while for a classic and traditional boat, which would be suitable for us and for this area.
Being in love with the typical English Gaff Cutter, we also were a little affraid to buy an old wooden boat.
Already owning an old house which needs attention, having a busy job and 2 young children don't give you the insurance that you can spend the neccesary time, needed to maintain an old wooden boat, let alone restore one.

Eventualy we discovered the Heard 28, a GRP version of the Falmouth Working Boat, built by Gaffers & Luggers
Gaffers & Luggers build GRP versions of the very traditional Falmouth Working Boats.
There is also a very active association of G&L boat owners and fans. GALA. which stands for "Gaffers And Luggers Association".
I got in touch with Roger Stephens, secretary of GALA, who was a very great help in searching for our boat, as well as surveying the boat together with me, before actual buying her.
People from GALA are still helping me, answering questions and giving hints and tips.
Not only through their quarterly newsletter, but also by E-mail, and sometimes an unexpected letter.
Only a week ago I received a letter from mr. George W Barras, Newsletter editor of GALA.
Besides some answers on my questions concerning ruddershape, he also added a copy of a water colour of our boat JANNER. (see above)
We like this picture very much and gave it a special place in our house.
 

 Last summer we bought our boat, a 28' Falmouth Working Boat and sailed her to Holland.

Janner the day we bought her. Since she was in need of some TLC we started work soon after our arrival in Holland.

 With the spars being solid wood and most of the ironware galvanised, the boat has an honest traditional feel.

2 weeks after buying Janner, I went back to Mylor Bridge, together with my brother Harm and a friend Frits, to sail Janner to Holland.
As you can see, we experienced some very bad weather on our voyage. During my first sleep, my brother Harm and Frits celebrated Harm's birthday. During this first night they drank almost all of our beer supply.
At that moment we didn't know that we had almost 3 (windless) days of motoring ahead of us, with one can of beer per day per man

.

The boat's name is Janner and she is a former racing boat, built by Gaffers & Luggers of Mylor Bridge in 1986.

After her short racing career she was transformed into a cabinboat, also an engine was fitted.
The Falmouth Working Boats dredge for oysters in the Fal estuary since many many years, up until today.
Oysters still have to be dredged with craft not being powered by mechanical means.
This rule kept the sailing work boat of the Fal alive.
The Falmouth Working Boats are known for their speed, (when racing with a crew of up to 8 or 9 man), but also for their seakeeping abilities when dredging in all kinds of weather during the winter season.
These characteristics define just the cruising boat we were looking for, lots of sails and ropes to play with in light weather, a heavy boat which is manageable for a small crew when neccesary.
Also the sight of a Falmouth Working Boat under full sail is something to remember, surely in an area where 99% of the boats are bermudan rigged sloops.

When the cost of building and maintaining the wooden workboats were becoming to high, Terry Heard started to build GRP Working Boats.
First for dredging oysters, but soon people discovered the possibilities of the FWB as a cruising yacht.
Except for the GRP Hull, the boats are still built and fitted out in a very traditional way.
Picture

The first winter I made:

New main hatch.
Dorade Vents on cabintop

Handrails on cabintop

New Rudder

Revarnishing of spars.
 The solid columbian pine spars were all in very good condition, brand new I was told. The extra varnish by EPIFANES, is just a cosmetical touch-up.

Painting the galvanished fittings.
The galvanised steel fittings (grey) have been painted black.
Replacing the entire deck and recovering the cabintop.
Scraping and revarnishing the rubrail and bulwark railcap.
Repainting the hull.
Brass waterpump and sink in the galley

The brass pump is purchased from TOPLICHT, a Chandler who specializes in traditional gear.

  Wooden blocks.

I started making wooden blocks, the first one just for the fun of it.
If the first test example goes fine, more are to follow.
A good guide of how to make wooden blocks yourself can be found in The Sailor's Sketchbook by Bruce Bingham.
The picture above shows the first stage, with the double block for the mainsheet roughly finished and the first single block glued together, ready for rounding off and final sanding. Also shown are deadeyes in different stages of construction.If this works out well, I plan to replace the galvanised rigging screws with deadeyes and lanyards.

During the winter I discovered that some water was entering the boat, as it appeared it came from after the beamshelf. The GRP, covering the plywood deck was leaking at the joint with the GRP hull at the scuppers. At this spot there is a weaker joint. The GRP is glued up to the bulwarks, which forms a good overlap and thus a strong watertight joint. At the scuppers, the GRP deck covering has to be bonded to the 1/2 " thick hull, this joint was leaking at several scuppers.

After 10 weeks of hard work, replacing the entire deck,as well as fitting the new parts I made last winter, Janner is back in the water.
Some pictures of the replacing of the deck