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40-Week Boat Building Course

BOAT BUILDING, SYSTEM ENGINEERING & MAINTENANCE

For many this leads to a professional career, for others a chance to follow a dream for the sheer joy of building boats surrounded by like-minded enthusiasts and our expert tutors.

Since 1997 we have trained over 2500 people. Many of these have gone on to work in the boat building industry across the UK and the world.

The course incorporates the City & Guilds Level 3 Diploma in Boat Building, System Engineering & Maintenance (Advanced) (2473-03). However, it goes far beyond the requirements of this qualification, providing comprehensive practical instruction in traditional and contemporary boat building construction methods and related skills.

The course is structured into two parts.

In the first half of the course, you will develop dedicated boat building skills and knowledge through the highly structured training programme.  In the second half, your skills are further honed as you build boats from start to finish using both traditional and modern construction: gaining the skills that only hands-on experience will bring.

The highly practical environment enables students to take full advantage of our facilities and expertise of the tutors. The course is full-time, five days per week from 0830 to 1730.  Each course has at least one dedicated tutor, with an aim of a minimum 40 hours of workshop time. All students are encouraged to work on several boats to give them a wide range of experience.

Course Content

As BBA founder Tim Gedge says:

“We set the bar high but it is the students who set the bar even higher, with a determination to achieve the highest possible level of professional skill during their 40 weeks”

The course focuses on traditional and modern boat building in wood. Overall, there is a balance of theory (10%) and practical (90%).

Part 1

A thorough grounding in all the elements of boat building including joinery, lofting, planking, sail making, restoration, systems and engines. Students are now ready to continue their learning, working together to build a variety of boats of different construction methods.

Part 2

This is where the magic really happens! Students work together to build boats from start to finish, using both traditional and modern construction: gaining the skills that only hands on experience will bring.

The ‘long’ course commences with a six-week joinery foundation course.

On the first day you are allocated a workbench and handtools. You get a thorough grounding in the use of various hand planes, saws, chisels and marking equipment. We teach you how to sharpen, maintain and care for your tools to industry standards – an essential habit that all professional boat builders employ.

You will be working with your hands, getting in-depth knowledge and skills of the different types of joints within the key categories – halvings, scarf joints, dovetails, mortice & tenons. You then use these newfound skills to build your own apprentice toolbox.

In week six you acquire other practical skills such as steam-bending, copper riveting and laminating.

After three weeks we decide which boats will be commissioned. 

Once people have their joinery skills in place the syllabus covers the following skill areas:

  • Lofting & Mould Making
  • Traditional boatbuilding
  • Modern wooden boatbuilding
  • Fibre reinforced plastics
  • Fit out
  • Yacht joinery
  • Oar and Spar making
  • Engine beds and stern tubes
  • Painting and finishing
  • Rigging, chandlery, and cordage
  • Sail making and repair
  • Ropework
  • Marine Systems – 5 days at ‘Rob Perry Marine’ – a local marine engineering company, where you service a diesel engine and outboard, as well as learning about propulsion, water and electrical systems. An RYA ‘Diesel Engine’ certificate and Rob Perry Marine certificate are awarded at the successful conclusion of the week.

Groups move from the upstairs workshop and become the ‘downstairs’ group in the main workshop after five months. It is at this stage that you will use all you have learned to start building the group boats.

On the last day of the course, the boats are launched in Lyme Regis harbour in front of friends, family, the BBA team, wide-ranging supporters and the local community.

The launch provides a very real deadline and gives students a taste of the commercial world where deadlines are key.

Course dates

There are two start dates per year and we allocate places to students on a first-come-first-served basis on receipt of a completed application form. Both courses have a 2-week break during the course.

17 February 2025 to 5 December 2025

  Spaces available

September 2025 to June 2025

  Spaces available

Course fee

Course starting February 2025 £18,450
Course starting September 2025 £18,450

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Included in the fee are materials for all the foundation training elements, including those used when making your clinker section, toolbox, bollow plane, joints, an 8ft oar, and your City & Guilds assessment pieces, all of these are yours to take home. The only extras you might pay are for any non-training related personal pieces, an additional oar, and (last but not least) a boat should you decide to commission one. We receive good discounts from many of our suppliers and are therefore able to offer a range of materials to students at discounted prices.

Bursary assisted places

Bursary assisted places are available for this course, please click here for further information

How to book

Potential students are asked to visit the Academy and send a simple CV. This process allows you to get a feel for the life and work at the Academy and enables you to make an informed decision.

If you are unable to visit, we will conduct a telephone/zoom interview at a mutually agreed time.

Enquire Online

    About this course

    How to Apply?

    This course is suitable for beginners and advanced. There is no upper age limit, and the course is open to young professionals (regardless of age) and school leavers. You don’t need any carpentry skills to apply (the starting point is the same for everyone). We do not consider formal qualifications or tests of any kind to be helpful in assessing a candidate’s ability to successfully complete the course. We look for positive attitude, drive and a clear passion and willingness to pursue the highest standard, as well as a basic knowledge of English and Mathematics (equivalent to Functional Skills Level 1).

    All prospective students are asked to send a short resume and attend the Academy. You will be taken on a workshop tour to see what work is being produced and what boats are being built. You will aso be introduced to staff and students. You will then be interviewed to discuss why you are taking the course, what you hope to gain from it and how you hope to use your newly acquired skills after the course.

    Some students have the opportunity to commission their own boats as part of the course. The boats built by the group, will be decided in arrangement with students, tutors, the training manager and the director. The builds must cover a range of construction methods due to the education value and practical experience of working with as many different boat building techniques as possible.

    The 40-week Boat Building course provides students with the skills to find employment in the marine industry, although some students take the course for a sabbatical or retirement and do not have any plans to work in the industry.

    You don’t have to want to work in the marine industry to study this course, but we teach according to industry standards.

    See what our students have built

    To browse the range of boats built here at the Academy see our Boats Archive. Follow the build of boats that are currently in the workshops on the Current Boats page.

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    Meet the team

    Find out more about who joins our courses by taking a look at our Boat Building Students page. The paths students take after the course are as diverse as the students themselves – take a look at our Graduate Case Studies page for details on what a representative sample of our graduates are doing now.

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