CRAFTSMANSHIP
When two IBTC graduates set up their own yard, they
never knew it would work as well as this
STORY AND PHOTOS RICHARD JOHNSTONE-BRYDENBROAD MINDED
H
enry Harston and Harry Grapes have been
on an incredible rollercoaster ride for the
past two years since graduating from
Suffolk’s International Boatbuilding
Training College (IBTC). Good luck and hard work
have enabled this intrepid duo to set up their own
boatyard beside the River Waveney at St Olaves, where
they have tackled a diverse set of projects from the
renovation of a Cambridge punt to the reconstruction
of a Broads yacht and the building of an enlarged
wheelhouse for an 88ft 6in (27m) Dutch steel barge.
Although Henry seemed destined to be a boatbuilder
from an early age, Harry was initially attracted by the
bright lights of London and television production.
However, the novelty of working on well-known TV
programmes eventually gave way to a desire to start a
family within the relative tranquillity of Norfolk, which
led to Harry joining the IBTC where his school friend
Henry was coming to the end of the 47-week long
course. In addition to his IBTC training, Henry had
previously gained valuable experience alongside the
renowned Norfolk boatbuilder Maynard Watson and
working aboard yachts in the Mediterranean, Pacifi c and
Caribbean. The long-term friends decided to join forces
in 2014 to set up the company Broadland Boat Builders
thereby benefi ting from Henry’s greater practical
know-how and Harry’s previous business experience.
The pair initially thought that they would have to
settle for a landlocked barn but fate intervened when a
boatyard in St Olaves appeared on the rental market.
With two big sheds, a basin, river frontage and hard
standing it provided a much broader set of opportunities
on which to establish their business. The site had once
been home to part of Alpha Craft’s hire fl eet and was
later used for storage, so Henry and Harry had to spend
two months bringing the facilities back up to scratch.To ensure they had a project from day one, they
bought a 1930s 26ft (7.9m) Thames motor canoe to
restore while they hunted for other work. Fortunately,
from a business point of view, other projects took
priority and she still hangs at the end of the shed
awaiting further attention. The fi rst of these assignments
involved the replacement of 600 fastenings within the
14ft (4.3m) half-decker Vanity which had suffered from
a severe case of electrolysis while submerged near
Blakeney. As this fi ddly work drew to a close, the pair
secured a commission to build an enlarged wheelhouse
and two staircases for the Dutch barge Jannette, being
converted into a houseboat for the Thames. Fortunately,
the yard is located downstream of the fi xed road bridge
at St Olaves thereby enabling large coastal craft to reach
it from the North Sea, via the Port of Great Yarmouth,
without having to negotiate any of the area’s fi xed bridges.
Within a month of completing their involvement in
Jannette’s conversion, Henry and Harry secured their
biggest project to date by starting work on the
restoration of Nutmeg. Known for many years on the
Broadland regatta circuit as Wisp, she was built by the
Wroxham boatyard of Jack Powles & Co for its hire
fl eet in the early 1950s as the 23ft (7m) Broads yachtYARD VISIT
BROADLAND
BOAT
BUILDERSAbove: Henry
(left) and Harry
Below: The yard