The problem is this: here is a fine-looking, well-built, working boat sitting on a beach.
“
It’s not in its original condition. The hot sun shines on it every day, the seams have opened, a piece of the forefoot has come away. Whether this is repairable or not is irrelevant, this boat is no longer required for its original purpose and it will finish its life as a theatrical prop on a beautiful beach in Croatia.
So, do we care? After all, there are plenty of other boats in the world. What’s special about this one?
Well, somebody had the idea to build it. Perhaps he designed it – or perhaps he took the lines off another boat- (I say ‘he’ because it’s less likely in this country to be ‘she’ – but not impossible). Somebody sawed the timbers and found the rest of the materials required, then they built it. Maybe he sold it or maybe he used it himself to fish from, and certainly he would have put in the time to maintain it.
You see, this boat has gathered a history around it. It is the story of a life lived on the water. We may never know the details of that story, but it deserves some respect and, at the very least, it can be preserved in a picture.
I hope to post pictures of similar boats (most of them in a better state than this one) regularly.
Beyond Steeple Point 
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Hello
I have been watching your blog ever since i saw the photo on the header…The boat and the place looked familiar 🙂
We most certainly have seen it going up the river with the powerboats from Mountbatten water centre during the University of Plymouth Recreation Service sessions 😉
I enjoyed reading this post. The preservation of some of these boats is an issue that is not met positively in Greece as well (which is where i am coming from originally)
Only for the last year or so there has been a society formed for the preservation of these boats but things are moving very slowly.
The boat you are showing is “lucky”. It has not been swept away because of a political decision to scrap it, like this one:
http://www.greektube.org/content/view/21126/2/
More pictures and another video over here:
http://aegeanwoodenwalls.blogspot.com/2008/05/blog-post_29.html
The government (prompted by some EU financial analysis) is trying to decrease “Professional Fishing” by giving money to fishermen to give away their older wooden boats. So, what do you do with a wooden boat once you have “bought” it in this way? Well, you scrap it in the most hideous way.
Some people have found ways to convert the bigger old fishing boats to recreation vessels for small tours and things like these but the majority of these boats end up chip wood.
The way i see it, these boats are products of a tradition that goes way back. Looking at them is like looking at a compact form of knowledge and experience…The boat is like a library but it has the fate of the Library of Alexandria. I suppose i do not need to explain this any further, this place (UK but also Plymouth in particular) has a long enough naval tradition for us to have a mutual understanding on the “…Love of a boat” issue 🙂
(More “sailing in the breeze” videos please 🙂 )
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Pingback: For love of a boat « Bill’s Boat Blog
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