Classic_Boat_2016-01

TELL TALES

A film showing the restoration of the

1926 trading ketch Ilen at Hegarty’s

Boatyard (CB passim), has won a

$10,000 (£6,600) award from World

Wood Day 2015, through its Wood &

Humanity film competition. The film,

just seven minutes long, is an ode to

the joys of working with wood, and

documents the words and skills of

Ireland’s few remaining traditional

shipwrights. Directed by Mia Mullarkey

of Ishka Films, the story is delightfully

serene and thoughtful. If you like rich

Irish accents and ship restoration, see it

now by typing ‘Ilen’ into vimeo.com.

With the death of Barry Tester in

September, the East Coast lost one of its

finest shipwrights, writes Julian

Mannering. He was also a fine sailor, a

fisherman, and a countryman, and indeed

it was during his days shooting and

exploring the Kentish countryside that he

tracked down much of the oak that went

into the boats he built. For nearly 40 years

Barry was the heartbeat at Hollowshore,

the unspoilt and magical boatyard on

Faversham Creek in Kent, where he built,

restored and, more often than not, just

kept the ancient wooden boats of

customers afloat and sailing. For many

who brought their craft there, often short

on knowledge and experience, he was

quite simply the sage and savant who

could answer any question and resolve

every problem. Today, Hollowshore has

perhaps a higher percentage of wooden

boats than any other yard on the East

Coast. The reason? Barry’s presence.

In the beautiful, slightly dilapidated

shed, once the home of Cremer’s the

barge builders, he worked his magic with

every job he took on. The yard, along with

the adjacent and fittingly named pub The

Shipwright’s Arms, had been bought by

his father Lawrence Tester in the 1950s.

Behind them was the experience of

generations of seamen on the Thames

waterway. Barry took over the day-to-day

running of it in the late ’70s while Lawry

sailed his Thames barge Portlight and

brought not a little business to the yard

after scrapes with yachts. There Barry

built exquisite barge boats and dinghies

and started a series of rebuilds culminating

in the 45ft (13.7m) smack Alberta.

Barry’s sailing and restoration work

began with the Dadson-built Gremlin, a

15ft (4.6m) clinker half-decker. She was

but a stepping stone. He then bought the

Boston smack Lily May that he took into

the shed and to which he gave a new

lease of life. After a couple of years he

moved on to the clinker-built Gravesend

bawley Marigold. Barry immediately

added sawn frames; seaworthiness and

strength were as important to him as

beauty. Then came the Essex smacks Ethel

Alice, Primrose and Harriet Blanche, the

Leigh cockler Emma and, finally, the

powerful Alberta in which Barry, and by

then his son Dan, showed East Coast

sailors how to handle such craft.

Few have given so much to the revival

of traditional craft of the Thames

shoreline. With his passing a great well of

knowledge and skill has been lost. But

the yard is now in the hands of Dan, who

learned so much at his father’s side, and

in the great shed by the creek the smack

Ye t now awaits her turn to be restored.

WEST CORK, IRELAND

Ilen film wins $10,

international award

OBITUARY

Barry Tester of Hollowshore (1945–2015)

A big-budget historical thriller is set to hit

British cinema screens this month when In

the Heart of the Sea is released in Britain and

around the world. It’s the most advertised

movie release in America with a weekly

television ad budget of more than $5m

(£3.3m). Based on the eponymous non-

fiction book published in 2000 by Nathaniel

Philbrick, recent winner of an America and

the Sea award (last month’s Tell Tales), it tells

the story of the whaling ship Essex that in

1820 was sunk when rammed by an enraged

bull sperm whale, leaving the crew

shipwrecked at sea for 90 days. If that

sounds familiar it is, of course, because of

Herman Melville’s famous 1851 novel based

on those events, Moby Dick.

Next month we go behind the scenes with

exclusive access to the film’s marine team,

who rigged the boats and stood in for the

lead actors in sailing scenes.

FILM

Moby Dick return

is a cinematic epic

Barry Tester and

the smack Alberta

racing in the Swale