Meeting Charlie 25.2.2015 by Julia Jones

Charlie on Pioneer (under her winter cover)

“She's so big. It's amazing. I haven't been on board since I was in primary school. I'd forgotten how big she is...” Charlie first met Pioneer when he was at Brightlingsea Junior School. He was probably in year 5 or 6 when he and his class gathered at the Colne Yacht Club  to split up into groups and take turns going on board the half dozen or so vessels that had been collected for them. He can't now remember the other boats that were there that day – it was Pioneer who made the lasting 

impression.

Looking aft

Quite often when you revisit something as an adult, which you first encountered as a child, you're surprised how small it is – but Charlie was completely right: Pioneer in winter, standing proud out of the water, with her decks completely clear under her head-high cover, is impressive in an entirely new way. You see her lines and her shapeliness, feel the strength of her construction – that gorgeous long keel...

I asked Charlie whether he was looking forward to sailing Pioneer this summer and wasn't at all surprised by the enthusiasm of his response. I also admired the fact that he'd already volunteered to work as an extra hand on board the smack when the Brightlingsea youth club offers some local youngsters a chance of a few days away. When Charlie was younger it was the youth club that first took him fishing. Now he sees a chance to help others in return.

Personally, I've never been all that keen on fishing (scared of the hooks, I think) but it was a real pleasure listening to Charlie talk about the sport, especially when he was describing the peacefulness of reservoir carp fishing when you've got to relax and stay quiet for the sake of all the other people who are fishing there. And the great moment if you catch something big, weigh it, photograph it, then put it back into the water, holding it carefully in your arms while it regains breath. Then you watch as it swims away. Charlie also fishes off Bateman's with a float and ragworms; he goes out after bass with his step-dad in a fibreglass boat with an outboard motor and he made me laugh with his account of fishing for mackerel with his dad in Scotland and the seal who lurks ready to grab the fishermen's catches as they're hauling in their lines.

Charlie is the newest apprentice at Harkers Yard. After Brightlingsea Junior he moved on to secondary school and hated it. It wasn't his sort of learning. He hated sitting behind a desk all day listening to people talk. School improved a bit when he took resistant materials as one of his options but still he was glad to leave at 16 and wasn't all that surprised that none of his GCSEs achieved more than a C.

Charlie with Aiden, looking at the
mock steaming device Aiden has made
for the Eastern Angles production Oysters

Now it's perfectly obvious, when talking to Charlie, that he's a thoughtful chap with a lot to offer and quite capable of learning when it's approached in the way that suits him. After he left school he worked for a flooring company and a scrap yard and a carpet fitting firm. Last summer he gave education another try, signing up for a plumbing course at the local FE college. But it was just like school again and Charlie found he was having real trouble motivating himself to get out of bed to catch the bus and go into Colchester to sit behind a desk all day …

Fortunately he met Abbey, who'll soon be completing her apprenticeship at Harkers Yard, and she persuaded him to get in touch with operations manager Felicity. Charlie had a chat, came down for an interview, passed the aptitude tests, did a couple of days work experience before Christmas and started full-time on Jan 12th. So far he's made his tool box and a paddle, helped with scraping out one of the gigs and got involved in the regular yard pranks and banter (see Abbey's blogpost). On Monday of this week (Feb 23rd) he competed his six week's probation and PST tutor John told him he'd been accepted for the next two years.

Jake and Charlie, showing
part of the scenery made by
Jake for Eastern Angles Oysters

This does, of course, mean he'll be taking lessons again – Monday and Wednesday mornings with John (alongside fellow apprentices Tyler and Tariq) and then weekly to Colchester Institute for foundation skills – but he doesn't seem too worried about the prospect. He had me enthralled telling me what PST tutor John had told him about the number of oak trees that had been felled to build HMS Victory. He's moved away from home and into lodgings and is getting to grips with the regular routine of getting to work promptly at 8am without anyone else needing to nag him.

Within the next week or two Charlie will begin to learn how to lay up the next gig and it'll be Tyler will helping him while Tariq joins the oar-makers. There are deadlines to be met in the yard and there are the fundamental patterns of activity – laying up a gig, lifting it off its plug, fitting it out and sending it on – just as there are the seasonal patterns of laying up, fitting out and crew-carrying for Pioneer herself. But within that overall working structure, Charlie finds that every day is different. 

That's certainly true at the moment. Ivan Cutting, founder and artistic director of the Eastern Angles Theatre company has written a new play, Oysters, based on oral history interviews and the 'Land and Sea' work of the Pioneer Sailing Trust, particularly the current restoration of the smack Priscilla. Oysters is currently in rehearsal ready for its opening on March 11th and then its three month spring tour of East Anglia. At the moment Jake is busy making scenery to Rosie Alabaster's design. Aiden has produced a mock-up of a steamer and Pioneer's skipper, Jim, has fashioned a replica tiller.

Oysters will come to Harker's Yard on May 7th.

Rosie Alabaster's design

Jake's construction

Aiden's blog, written by Julia Jones

Aiden- one of his first trips on board Pioneer as crew

A bitter wind was whipping down the creek bringing scatters of rain and the threat of worse weather to come. Pioneer was standing high above the mud under her winter covers and I took several several cold exhilarating breaths of the sharp winter air before retreating into Harkers Yard to curl my hands round a warm cup of tea and talk to Aiden Lateward about his two years as an apprentice here.

Aiden studied cabinet making at college after he left school. That convinced him that he loved working with his hands and specifically working with wood but the jobs available in the furniture industry were mainly machine based. He spent two years restoring donated furniture for the charity Emmaeus until someone gave him a 'kick up the arse' (his words) and convinced hm to carry on developing his skills. Boats are wood, boats have curves (unlike most modern furniture) – learning to build boats offered a possible way forward.

After a false start with the Mayflower Project in Harwich (then only at the workshop-building stage) Aiden found his way to Brightlingsea and to Harker's Yard. He fell for the place and the work and the atmosphere immediately “I need to be here,” he thought. Aiden was interviewed and accepted, then found himself spending his first fortnight on board Pioneer scraping her decks. This was two years ago in Feburary 2013. It should have been enough to put anybody off. There was snow and a bitter wind, whipping down the creek ….

Aiden modelling traditional clothing worn by smacks-men 

Aiden filled his big boots with socks – four pairs, he recalls + two pairs trousers, T-shirt, jumpers, two coats, hat, scarf, gloves – and carried on scraping,. He met John Yarr, then first mate and Jim, the skipper. He asked them whether there was any chance he could try a sail sometime. As soon as the smack was ready to go back in commission they got Aiden setting up her rigging with them. He'd never sailed before but was often out on Pioneer during that first summer, and also sailed on board the smaller Brightlingsea Smack, Iris Mary CK105. It was an extraordinary moment when his mother suddenly discovered that his fifth great uncle, Joseph Alexander had been master and owner of Pioneer sometime in the late c19th. Aiden wondered whether he had been 'meant' to come to Harker's Yard.

Apprentice trip to St Katherine's dock

In August 2013 Aiden was one of a group of apprentices who brought Pioneer back from Gosport in time for Ipswich Maritime Festival. He volunteered to stay on board over the festival (with the help of a free beer voucher). When she left to take a group of visitors to the Walton Backwaters Aiden went with her as volunteer relief bosun. He's since been working towards his watch leader's qualification and dreams of sailing on board a tall ship one day.

Keeping a look out on the way into London

Meanwhile, back in the workshop, Aiden was laying up the mold for the next gig. He describes this as a job which tests your mettle as it's so repetitive and technically undemanding yet the quality is vital. It was summer and the glue was stickier than ever. Aiden got glue on his arms and legs, on his new Pioneer t-shirt, in his hair, up his nose. Then the gig had to be taken off the mold and placed in the cradle ready for fitting out – and Aiden's task was to scrape out all the glue residue, the classic newcomer's job in the workshop. The heat gun burned his fingers regularly but all the time he was enjoying learning the different curves of the gig, how they worked together, how the idea of the gig had been developed and designed. Aiden likes wood, likes feeling its tolerances, practising his skills until they become an instinctive part of him.

Currently Aiden's making his second set of oars and is confident that they are better than his first set (something to do with the size of the handles). He's enjoyed being part of an apprentices team rowing Matchless and spoke with real feeling about the pleasure of making something, using it and also seeing it being used by the local communities. The gig-rowing and racing bring so many people together. Aiden's here at Harker's Yard until December. By then he'll have his watch leader's qualification and his NVQ level 3 in marine engineering and yacht building.  He already has level 3 in cabinet-making. So what will he do then – look for a job locally, with Spirit Yachts in Ipswich, perhaps? Work in a boatyard abroad? Join the Merchant Navy? Sail a tall ship? He knows he likes working with wood, working on the water, working with people. There are plenty of possibilities.

Aiden driving Pioneer's tender

Two years on - Aiden Lateward 28.1.2015

Pioneer in winter - with an on-board workshop

A bitter wind was whipping down the creek bringing scatters of rain and the threat of worse weather to come. Pioneer was standing high above the mud under her winter covers and I took several several exhilarating breaths of the sharp winter air before retreating into Harkers Yard to curl my hands round a warm cup of tea and talk to Aiden Lateward about his two years as an apprentice here.

Aiden studied cabinet making at college after he left school. That convinced him that he loved working with his hands and specifically working with wood but the jobs available in the furniture industry were mainly machine based. He spent two years restoring donated furniture for the charity Emmaeus until someone gave him a 'kick up the arse' (his words) and convinced hm to carry on developing his skills. Boats are wood, boats have curves (unlike most modern furniture) – learning to build boats offered a possible way forward.

Bleak view at Brightlingsea

After a false start with the Mayflower Project in Harwich (then only at the workshop-building stage) Aiden found his way to Brightlingsea and Harker's Yard. He fell for the place and the work and the atmosphere immediately “I need to be here,” he thought. Aiden was interviewed and accepted, then found himself spending his first fortnight on board Pioneer scraping her decks. This was two years ago in February 2013. It should have been enough to put anybody off. There was snow and a bitter wind, whipping down the creek ….

Aiden filled his big boots with socks – four pairs, he recalls + two pairs trousers, T-shirt, jumpers, two coats, hat, scarf, gloves – and carried on scraping,. He met John Yarr, then first mate and Jim, the skipper. He asked them whether there was any chance he could try a sail sometime. As soon as the smack was ready to go back in commission they got Aiden setting up her rigging with them. He'd never sailed before but was often out on Pioneer during that first summer, and also sailed on board the smaller Brightlingsea Smack, Iris Mary, CK105. It was an extraordinary moment when his mother suddenly discovered that his fifth great uncle, Joseph Alexander, had been master and owner of Pioneer sometime in the late c19th. 

 Aiden is using one of Liam's oars
as his model (3rd from left)

In August 2013 Aiden was one of a group of apprentices who brought Pioneer back from Gosport (where a group of young carers had been taking part in the Round the Island race) to Ipswich Maritime Festival. He volunteered to stay on board over the festival (with the help of a free beer voucher). When the smack left to take a family group to the Walton Backwaters Aiden went with her as volunteer relief bosun. He's since been working towards his watch leader's qualification and dreams of sailing on board a tall ship one day.

Aiden at work

Meanwhile, back in the workshop, Aiden was laying up the plug for the next gig. He describes this as a job which tests your mettle; it's so repetitive and technically undemanding yet the quality is vital. It was summer and the glue was stickier than ever. He got glue on his arms and legs, on his new Pioneer t-shirt, in his hair, up his nose. Then the gig had to be taken off the plug and placed in the cradle ready for fitting out – and Aiden's task was to scrape out all the glue residue, the classic newcomer's job in the workshop. The heat gun burned his fingers but all the time he was enjoying learning the different curves of the gig, how they worked together, how the idea of the gig had been developed and designed. Aiden likes wood, likes feeling its tolerances, practising his skills until they become an instinctive part of him.

A hollowing plane

Currently Aiden's making his second set of oars and is confident that they are better than his first set (something to do with the size of the handles). He's enjoyed being part of an apprentices' team, rowing the Harker's Yard gig, Matchless and he spoke with real feeling about the pleasure of making something, using it and also seeing it being used by the local communities. The gig-rowing and racing bring so many people together. Aiden's here until December. By then he'll have his watch leader's qualification and his NVQ level 3 in marine engineering and yacht building. He already has level 3 in cabinet-making. So what will he do then – look for a job locally? Work in a boatyard abroad? Join the Merchant Navy? Sail a tall ship? He knows now that he he likes working with wood, working on the water, working with people. That should give him plenty of options.