Building 'Lady Garnet' - a new Trading Wherry

13/06/2026

Suddenly, she's starting to look a bit more like a boat!

04/06/2026

The strongback has been assembled, and the station moulds are going up! Quite a major milestone.

23/05/2026

Warm day for working! I don't usually do selfie videos (hence why I said right side when I meant left). These modern newfangled notions. Wasn't like this when I was a boy.

22/05/2026

Thank you to Alex Savage for this great photo of me handling the gaff line while making sail on the wherry Albion.

16/05/2026

If you haven't seen it yet, we've been making sawdust fly here at the Lady Garnet HQ.

32 likes, 3 comments. "Making the sawdust fly for my 54-foot sailing wherry! - Ep. 31 - Building Lady Garnet"

15/05/2026

Last weekend, Allie and I went to the Broads to crew on the trading wherry Albion (1898) as she begins her sailing season. This was my first time on Albion since I was officially promoted to mate! There was plenty of wind during both sailing trips, which was ideal, and I spent quite a lot of time at the tiller.

14/05/2026

Do you ever wonder what I get up to when I'm not building Lady Garnet? Well, here's a sample of what I do at the boatyard for my proper job... Mixed in with other photos of yard manager Charlie looking deceptively posh and a puppy holding up Julian (actually, on closer inspection, it's the other way round), you can see me fitting comfortably under the stern deck of a slipper launch ( #5), crewing for Charlie on towing jobs ( #6 and #7), recaulking a different slipper launch ( #11) and inspecting our master boatbuilder Julian's replanking work ( #15).

06/05/2026

Wroxham Broad in the 1890s, with two trading wherries moored. I have no information on the other boats, sorry to say!

04/05/2026

Busy time at the wherry yard, making the sawdust fly as Ollie mills planking stock and frames, and I rough cut the stem and stern knees.

32 likes, 3 comments. "Making the sawdust fly for my 54-foot sailing wherry! - Ep. 31 - Building Lady Garnet"

29/04/2026

The well-travelled wherry Gipsy, who was towed across the North Sea and explored the rivers and canals of Europe, seen here in the Netherlands. Her owner HM Doughty wrote three books about his family's travels in Gipsy: "Our Wherry in Wendish Lands," "Friesland Meres - Through the Netherlands in a Norfolk Wherry," and "Summer in Broadland."