Boat Building Academy at MADE LONDON

This year at MADELONDON, at the entrance to the show at One Marylebone, we're featuring a number of stunning wooden boats built by students of the Boat Building Academy - a boat building school housed in sheds overlooking the beach at Lyme Regis. Boats which will be exhibited are still being built and finished - we'll post details of the actual vessels nearer the time.

The Boat Building Academy, at the heart of the Jurassic Coast in Lyme Regis, teaches the widest range of hands-on boat building courses in the world. Working in traditional and modern wood and composites, students leave the Academy with the skills to work in boat construction, restoration and repair.

On the Academy's 38 week flagship course students learn boat building by building boats.  The boats are not commercial projects, but are selected for their educational value across a range of construction types.  The depth and
breadth of skill students gain would be impossible to come by in a single commercial yard.  They also have the satisfaction that comes from producing beautiful boats.  At the end of each course the boats are launched into Lyme Regis harbour, also launching the students' new careers as boat builders.

Boats built by students have been displayed at the Maritime Museums in Greenwich and Cornwall.

The Academy also runs shorter courses, not only in marine skills but also in woodworking and furniture-making.  All courses are intensive and hands-on and, where possible, involve students producing a useable object demonstrating their skills.

Students come from every background and from all over Europe.  Academy graduates go on to work all over the world, but the training also appeals to those who want to extend their hand skills or take a sabbatical from their 'real' lives. The Academy aspires not only to give its students skills, but also to inspire them with a love of working with wood and their hands.