Traditional Boatbuilding
Traditional boatbuilding in wood has become a rare and expensive skill, but although Pascos have not been building traditional boats since the 1980s, we still retain a strong shipwrighting tradition, and can undertake bespoke designs for launches, sailing dinghies, and small tenders on request. Contact us for more information, and have a look below at some of Pasco's achievements in boatbuilding over the years.
A view up through the frames of a launch being laid up at Pascos.
The same launch from a different angle. The masts above the boat are protruding through from the Coal House, where many of the old masts used to be slung over winter to keep their varnish fresh.
And here from above - where wedges keeping the moulds in place in between the frames can he seen coming down from the apex of the launchouse roof.
Alan Buchanan designed this Blackwater One Design, a 14' day sailer built in the 1970s by Keith Ferris, but commissioned originally by Charles Moore in the 1950s for his boat hire fleet. Allegedly Norman Benney took one look at the plans, rolled them up in the tube in which Buchanan had sent them, and built the moulds without a second glance. Four were built in St Just; others exist on the Blackwater in Essex. One remains at PBY today.
This launch was built in Easter 1966.
The Top Shop was where a lot of smaller dinghies were built. Here the old keel bed where the Blackwater was laid up can be seen, alongside another Buchanan dinghy, this time a clinker pram.
The inside of the same clinker pram.