About The Boat Bosun
The Boat Bosun was established in 2022 to provide traditional repair and maintenance services to the owners of classic, traditional and modern workboats, motor and sailing yachts. Services include Shipwright, Mechanical, Varnishing & Painting and Project Management Services.
I have always had an interest in the sea and the boats and ships associated with it, which for somebody born and raised in East Anglia was not a regular sight, despite being surrounded by the water of the Fens. From an early age I decided that farming wasn’t for me, as soon as I could I joined the Royal Navy as a marine engineer and spent the following 23 years working on everything from yachts and ships boats to aircraft carriers and assault ships. I always carried an interest in traditional craft and was mightily impressed as a young sailor to find that access to HMS Victory was free to serving members of the Royal Navy.
My earliest hands-on repair of a wooden boat came early in my career in Port Stanley when based in the small boats maintenance section assisting with the planking repairs to a 36” workboat.
The small craft I have worked on include yachts, power boats and workboats, including landing craft and harbour launches. Highlights include the rebuild and replanking of Stella no 91, Timoa, the rebuild and repair of HMS Sultan’s Fairey Huntress.
I bought Timoa as a basket case, planking was in poor condition with gaps in the lands you could get your hand through, sprung hood ends and rot where rain water had accumulated over 2 years ashore. Mast joints had failed and the boom split in a number of places. Over the next 8 months I made the boat sea worthy, repairing and replacing planks, making and fitting a new fore hatch, repairing the spars, scarfing in new pieces where required and making mast joints good. Once sea worthy I sailed her home from Maldon to the Itchen.
I now own a Fairey Huntsman, Wight Huntsman, which unlike Timoa when I bought her, floats and goes. Following a number of years of little use, abuse and inconsiderate owners I have embarked on a programme of work to bring her up to the standard all classic boats deserve, upgrade items and enjoy using the boat.
On retiring from the RN I found my way into project management in the waste industry, offshore construction and oil and gas industries, driving a desk in the main but always happy to get the PPE on and get into the nitty gritty on site visits. Following COVID 19 and a change in my employers engineering projects delivery model, I took the opportunity to take a new direction and enrolled on the International Boatbuilding Training College’s 12-month traditional boatbuilding and repair course at Boat House 4 in Portsmouth Naval Dockyard in September 2021. The course provided hands on practical and theory instruction filling in gaps in my knowledge and improving skills I had picked up privately and during my naval service.
The Boat Bosun was established in 2022 to provide traditional repair and maintenance services to the owners of classic, traditional and modern workboats, motor and sailing yachts. Having trained at the Royal Navy’s Marine Engineering School and International Boatbuilding Training College, Portsmouth I have the craft and mechanical skills needed to provide a first-rate, top-quality service to my clients.
An additional service for more complex projects is a full project management facility using the skills developed managing high value, high complexity projects in the defence and oil and gas fields.