CRAFTSMANSHIP
A cow barn in the South Downs National Park
is the bucolic setting for Ryan Kearley’s
specialist small craft repair and restoration yard
STORY STEFFAN MEYRIC-HUGHESPARK LIFE
T
he large, draughty cattleshed
near the village of Barcombe
in the Sussex Downs where
Ryan Kearley has worked for
fi ve years must be among the most scenic of
all places to build boats, particularly on the
cat-ice clear January day CB visited. The
shed, off a narrow lane, is near the Bevern
Stream and overlooks the Ouse fl ood plain,
living up to its name after the wettest
December on record. The Sussex streams look
brutally cold at this time of year. Locals say they are
polluted and dangerous with their steep, fast gradients- but it does not stop Ryan exploring them by canoe in
summer and swimming in them, even as late as
November. Around us lie at least a dozen dinghies,
rowing boats, canoes and Thames skiffs – think Three
Men in a Boat. The only other tenant is a barn owl,
who works the night shift coverting mice into pellets for
Ryan to collect in the mornings.
Ryan’s father was a carpenter, so woodworking is in
his blood. His degree might have been in fi ne art, but it
was to “making things” that Ryan immediately returned,
fi rst at the theatre, then under no less a fi gure than Mark
Edwards of Richmond Bridge Boat Houses: think
Gloriana, although that’s more for the tabloids. Mark’s
other work has included a wooden clinker submarine for
the BBC’s Building the Impossible series, to reprise the
fi rst ever submarine built in 1620. Ryan saw that episode
and asked Mark for a job – “amazingly, he said yes”.
Ryan’s new boats – you may have seen his beautifully
crafted ‘calling card’ skiff at Southampton Boat Show –
bear some hallmarks from this early training, both in
material (sweet chestnut for the planking) and framing, a
distinctive, alternating pattern of part timbers that allow
a boat to fl ex, eliminating what Mark calls “strong
points”. After tutelage from Mark there was a long stint
at Hillyards in Littlehampton, doing repair and
restoration work to seagoing yachts, something that
Ryan is still happy to do although these days his heart
belongs more to the smaller craft – particularly antique
riparian vessels like the open canoes and Thames Skiffs.
This year, Ryan’s work on restoring and repairing
historic Thames skiffs has increased quite dramatically,
since receiving an award from the Thames Traditional
Boat Society for his ongoing restoration work to the
early 1900s-built Thomasina, built by ET Ashley of
Pangbourne. So far, this has involved a new stem
and sternpost and some reframing and
refastening. She’s back in the shed, 26ft (8m) of
elegant mahogany clinker, along with four
others. The current job, which sees Ryan
hunched over his old Singer sewing machine,
is making her a camping cover in poly-cotton
canvas. “It’s heavy, breathable, and lasts,”
Ryan explains. “The fully manmade ones
do not have enough weight and so tend to
wear out after a year.”
There were four canoes in for repairs when we
visited and the difference in their construction, given that
open canoes vary so little in form, is remarkable. Baby
Otter dates from around 1870/1880 and was built using
the Stephenson patent for cedar vertical planking held by
the builder, the Ontario Canoe Company. This was
during an intensely competitive period of canoe building
in which builders tried various build methods to replicate
the beautiful, native birch bark canoes for the European
market. Ryan has been restoring Baby Otter slowly, as
the owner’s funds dictate. Work so far has included a
section of new keel, a new stem and new cane seat. Next
up is new gunwales in either sycamore or ash.
A fi re put the original builder out of business, but the
Peterborough Canoe Company continued to build in the
same method and Running Waters, in for a new bow
seat, is a nice later example of this method of building.
A few paces away is a third canoe, fore-and-aft planked
with each plank rebated to give a tongue-and-groove
effect. She is a 14ft (4.3m) long ‘Lake Queen’ built by
Peterborough Canoe Company around the mid-1940s
after they absorbed the Lakefi eld Canoe Works, which
built to this method. After some deliberation, as well as
consultation with Rollin Thurlow in the US, the
authority on these matters, Ryan has put on a new keel;
there is some debate in these circles about whether
canoes should have keels or not. A Rob Roy skiff-built
canoe/kayak hybrid named after Rob Roy MacGregor of
the famous 1,000-mile voyage through the European
waterways in 1865, is also in for some work. This one
was built in mahogany by the famous Turks yard on the
Thames and probably dates from the late 1800s.
If there’s one common thread to Ryan’s work, it’s the
meticulous, light touch required on craft of such delicate
scantlings. If you have an antique small craft needing
attention, put Ryan on a very short list.YARD VISIT
RYAN
KEARLEY“
The only
other
tenant is a
barn owl
who works
the night
shift
converting
mice into
pellets
”