BELINDA CREE

A self-employed bosun/boatbuilder, Belinda (Cree) is currently working in Southampton on a major refit of La Fenice for the Liming Co.

“At the moment, I’m de-rusting, dealing with the rough spots in the bulwarks,” she says. “It involves needle gunning and grinding out any patches of filler or rust. There’s about 60 metres (200ft) of steel bulwarks to do.”

She found the job through Crew Seekers in October 2021 and, when the contract comes to an end, plans to get back to sea before embarking on another boatbuilding project.

After studying filmmaking and screenwriting at university, she was a freelance event manager and videographer while also working in theatre, but the prospect of working at sea led her to take on a traditional seafarer traineeship three years ago with National Historic Ships. On this course, she trained in boat maintenance at Lowestoft International Boatbuilding Training College and then moved on to the Pioneer Sailing Trust.

“There were some awesome boatbuilding projects going on in the yard there. The beauty of what they were creating and the skill involved was fantastic. I felt driven to learn as much as I could.”