Reflections
A few generations ago New Zealand was renowned for the quality and skill of its traditional timber boatbuilding. Today, not only have other countries eclipsed us in this field, but we’re failing to pass on those skills to the next generation.
A heritage facing extinction
The boatbuilders featured in this column have fallen into two generations; those who completed their apprenticeships during or shortly after WWII – and the generation that followed them. Both groups learnt their craft from those who’d made a successful career building traditional, timber vessels.
Once qualified, these boatbuilders initially built traditional timber boats, then from the late 1950s, changed to glued, laminated timber and plywood. Methods changed again after 1967, when many of this group began building boats in GRP from production moulds.
Experiencing such a spectrum of boatbuilding methodologies in one career gave these boatbuilders an unprecedented depth of knowledge.
Paralleling the changes in boatbuilding, as laminated multi-skin timber and moulded GRP boats grew in popularity, so the demand for traditional timber boats softened. Many fell into disrepair, others were butchered with ill-thought ‘improvements’ and many were lost forever.
By the mid-1970s, with GRP production boats being built by the hundred, there was little interest in preserving, let alone restoring traditional timber boats.
This began to change in the late 1970s when Peter Smith, Ronald Carter and Paul Titchener began writing about traditional timber boats. Later, Harold Kidd and Robin Elliott’s accurate, in-depth writings fanned interest further still.
The formation of the CYA in 1995 marked the renaissance of New Zealand traditional timber boats and, over the past 20 years, an increasing number have been saved and restored, many to their original configuration.
Today, thanks to the wonderful lasting qualities of kauri and the skills used to build them, our fleet of traditional timber boats has arguably the most original structure of any fleet of such boats worldwide.
So while many of our boats are – for the moment at least – reasonably safe, the same cannot be said for the group of boatbuilders mentioned earlier. Some have sailed away on their final voyage, many have retired and the few left working are now winding down.
Besides the depth of their knowledge, these boatbuilders are our last remaining direct link to those who built our fleet of traditional timber boats. If for no other reason, they deserve to be cherished and have their history recorded.
But this country needs something more from this group before they too sail away on their final voyage – the passing of their skills and knowledge of traditional timber boatbuilding, New Zealand style, onto the younger generation.
Of course our boatbuilders trained many apprentices over their careers in traditional timber construction, but many of those trainees have subsequently left the industry. For the past three decades, training in traditional timber boatbuilding has been spasmodic, to say the least.
This issue is hardly new and was recognised back in 2006 when Robert Brooke, Ron Jamison, Harold Kidd and Bruce Tantrum founded the then Auckland Traditional Boatbuilding School. Since renamed the New Zealand Traditional Boatbuilding School (NZTBS), for a decade it operated successfully from some ex-new Zealand Airforce buildings at Hobsonville Point.
Robert Brooke, who became involved in teaching after an accident forced him to abandon boatbuilding as a career in his youth, ran the school. “It was one of the highlights of my life [running the school] and I loved every minute. We were running classes night and day, and it was a wonderful experience,” he recalls.
Sadly, in 2016 the NZTBS suffered a perfect storm when the ex-airforce buildings made way for housing. Additionally, around the same time Alloy Yachts, who’d provided the biggest source of apprentice students, ceased trading. Without a base and with falling student numbers, the NZTBS was forced into hibernation.
It’s since reopened in a shed in Te Atatu Peninsula but according to current Chairman Steve Cranch, the only courses the NZTBS is offering are short courses geared to existing owners of timber boats, such as caulking, dinghy building and veneering.
No question we’re in danger of losing our traditional boatbuilding skills, the skills that built the boats that made this country.
While such knowledge benefits our traditional boats, it doesn’t address the issue of preserving and passing on the knowledge held by our group of boatbuilders to a younger generation in a structured and organised manner. Passing on these skills first-hand is critically important because traditional timber boatbuilding is as much about art and form as it is about practical, handson competencies.
We should not forget that the timber boats we’re talking about were built largely by eye from half models. Repairing, restoring and maintaining these boats cannot be done with knowledge gained from books or computers – it requires hands-on training by people with those skills. Traditional boatbuilder Peter Brookes restored
Rawhiti. It’s widely regarded as one of the country’s finest restorations of a traditional timber yacht – and Brookes is as much an artist as a boatbuilder. Watching
him craft and fit timbers to a yacht, as this writer has done many times, is poetry in motion.
“Any boatbuilder can cut a bit of wood and make it fit, but when it comes to New Zealand’s classic fleet there’s a lot more to it – the shape, the form and the scantlings,” he says.
Brookes believes that the fact many of New Zealand’s classic boats still retain much of their original timber makes them unique. Had our boats had been built in this manner in the UK – two or three skins of mahogany, mechanically fastened – they would have rotted long ago.
In an ideal world, Brookes would have two to four staff and an apprentice or two, but he’s found the cost and difficulty of employing staff far outweighs the benefits and he works alone. That’s a massive potential loss of skills right there.
Meantime, we’re left with the few remaining yards where traditional timber boats are being restored or repaired. One example is Ian Cook’s Yachting Developments, which employs 20 apprentices in a total workforce of 90.
Of those 20, half are boatbuilding apprentices. Thanks to Cook’s passion for classic boats, many of his apprentices have gained experience through restoring some of New Zealand’s finest classics – including Ranger, Innismara and Teal.
Cook believes in hands-on training: “You can’t teach them to eyeball a fair line, it has to be developed. But equally importantly, they have learn to build or repair timber boats in a financially timely manner to make it economical for the client.”
Like everyone in the industry Cook finds it difficult to attract and keep staff – “it’s a nightmare,” he says.
Greg Lees of Lees Boatbuilders, a considerably smaller operation based in Sandspit near Warkworth, currently has two boatbuilding apprentices. Lees is very conscious of passing on traditional skills, and while he makes every effort in this regard, it’s limited by the work coming through his yard.
“No question we’re in danger of losing our traditional boatbuilding skills, the skills that built the boats that made this country. Sadly, we’re reaching a point where boatbuilding yards have become like Repco, just selling parts.” Like Cook, he struggles to find staff: “Finding guys that want to work [as boatbuilders] is really, really difficult.”
Only a few miles away at Warkworth, Conrad Robertson of Robertson Boats has been actively looking for boatbuilding apprentices for some time but hasn’t been able to attract anyone suitable.
The company tackles a wide diversity of work, from steel commercial boats through to traditional timber and everything in-between – an invaluable opportunity for a keen apprentice.
“I’m surprised by the lack of interest, but then everyone’s struggling [to get younger people]. I feel the schooling system’s not encouraging more hands-on involvement in the trades,” says Robertson.
This issue isn’t confined to timber boatbuilders. GRP boatbuilders have the same problem. Lionel Sands of Haines Hunter recently told this writer the biggest problem he faces is getting good staff.
And from a wider perspective, it isn’t just boatbuilding facing tough staff issues; all trades are currently struggling to recruit young people into their industries. For a country that was built on its hands-on, practical know-how, how is it that within a generation it’s struggling to find people to build, restore or fix things?
And getting back to the point of this article, where does that leave our wonderful fleet of traditionally-built boats? And what will be the long-term loss to this country if our traditional timber boatbuilders fail to pass on their wisdom and knowledge?
For the answers to those questions and the solutions, see Part II next month.
BNZ