Artisans: Boat Restoration

Artisans: Alan Staley Boat Restoration.

Alan left school in 1960 and started a boat building apprenticeship and has been in the business ever since, both building new boats and now more often restoring old ones. Some of the boats I saw on my visit were over a hundred years old but would soon be sailing again after being restored. The company is quite small and everybody was very friendly and happy to explain what they were doing. It was nice to hear good banter from them all and there were lots of little messages written in various places around the premises, some of which you can see in the gallery. Something else that pleased me was that most of the employees were young and enthusiastic, it's good to see that craftsmanship like this won't be lost any time soon.

A big thanks to Alan for inviting me along, and also to Ben, Sean, Ross, Tim, Dave and Alison for being so helpful.

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