An inspirational boat building project in south Tasmania is nearing completion after nearly seven years. Matt Morris and his partner Lefke Van Gogh have built a 40ft Pilot Cutter-inspired design by Paul Gartside, using the veneered strip plank method.
Two and a half years into the project, on August 28 2022, the couple started a YouTube channel called A Boat by the River, with some 97 episodes now detailing the work with some of the inevitable highs and lows of taking on a project like this. They started with very little experience and have learned and become proficient on the way. The latest video details buying and fetching a locally made Muir anchor and warping windlass (guaranteed bronze envy!), before showing some of the work in laying a planked deck (of local celery top pine) over the glassfibre deck.
With the lead keel now bolted on and the deck mostly laid the pair have set themselves a deadline and hope to have the boat, called Tarkine, ready for “launch” at the The Australian Wooden Boat Festival, in Hobart Tasmania from 5th to 8th February 2027. But they suggest that Tarkine won’t be rigged by that stage.
A Boat by the River partly follows the YouTube-and-Patreon philanthropic funding solution with interested viewers paying for videos as they are screened. There are quite a few such channels now on YouTube – none better known than Bristolian Brit Leo Goolden who bought the Albert Strange 1927 Fastnet winner Tally Ho for $1 in 2017 and spent the next seven years completing a keel up restoration – more of a total rebuild to be accurate. Leo is currently planning to bring Tally Ho back to the UK, to take part in next year’s Fastnet Race for the centenary of her famous win. The 1910 Stow’s (Shoreham) built yacht is currently in Linton Bay, Portobello, Panama where Leo is getting her out of the water for some work below the waterline.
Matt and Lefke, who met while they were working on the bark Europa (he as bosun, she – deckhand), are also planning to sail to Europe when Tarkine is finished.
With so many videos to choose from you can spend a lot of time on their page; the episode (64) when they launch their 9ft 2in tender, an Iain Oughtred Sea Hen, has particular charm and celebrates the late designer, who died in February 2024. But perhaps this episode from last October – showing a year of work over 30 minutes best brings the project to life. The river in question, btw, is the Huon. Dan Houston
