Stirling and Son

08/06/2026

A sea trial with the team built Vertue Tom Thumb, ostensibly to test her brand new engine, which soon became a circumnavigation of the breakwater in blustery weather.

05/06/2026

An enjoyable delivery trip on Thelma from Glasgow to the south coast at an average speed of 8.5 knots and taking 68 hours non-stop. The boat, with interior design by Ed Dubois and India Mahdavi, is easy to be on and she looks as good as she did ten years ago when we relaunched her after a keel up restoration.

03/06/2026

The gap is almost closed!

Happily there is enough planking timber this time and to spare for the bulwarks and interior fit out – we often find we are scratching around for the last planks no matter how much contingency we think we have ordered.

Well done the shipwrights for working on through the monotony of a repetitive job and for maintaining high standards.

31/05/2026

It was an honour to be invited to present the prizes at The Brixham Heritage Regatta over the May Bank Holiday weekend. A well attended regatta in light airs, on Sunday evening a full table of shining silverware was shared out amongst the boats with the King George V cup (gifted by the King in 1914 as a perpetual challenge trophy for Brixham trawler racing) going to Pilgrim.

29/05/2026

Up the planks rise towards the tuck, always an awkward area due to leaving the rabbet at the stern post and the stronger bevels on the plank edges to get around the curve.

22/05/2026

We are coming down the topsides plank by plank. It is like fitting planks to a double ender because they are mitred into the transom aft.

The hot forged nails are cold rivetted and we are careful not to bruise the Oak framing around the rivetted nail.

It is difficult to find more to say beyond the photos… just keep on planking!

18/05/2026

Now the framing is all complete the planking can start coming down from the top. The lengths are up to 40’ with the glued and rivetted scarphs spaced to Lloyds Rules for planking butts.

As the topsides are varnished, timber selection is important. Excess is cut off the side of each plank, labelled and stored to be used as a seam spline further down the line and the plugs in the fastening holes are cut from the planking end offcut.

16/05/2026

14/05/2026

A planking marathon on Agneta who is being re-planked from the keel to the sheer line.

Quite apart from repairs and the decay one might expect with age, Agneta had been re-faired a number of times over her 80 years of life to the extent that the topsides were half their original thickness and as a result unsurprisingly deemed structurally inadequate.

The garboards might be really short but the planks get longer and longer as we work upwards and with no tolerance for even slight light gaps on this grade of work, they have to fit perfectly.

11/05/2026

The tight grained Oregon Pine stringers are scarphed and rivetted into the boat