Meeting Tariq 5.11.2014

The view from the apprentices'
workroom

My name is Tariq Abdel-Rahim but in the month that I have been at Harker's Yard I have acquired a number of different aliases of which Darius seems to have stuck. (Don't ask!) Joining the team was rather spontaneous for me and came about very luckily. I was starting my gap year and scrolling on the internet looking for a job when I noticed the apprenticeship space. Then, when I was building a box to bring with me to the interview, I found that woodwork appealed to me more than I'd ever had the chance to know.

For me this apprenticeship is everything I need and it just seemed to fall into place. There is the perfect mix of independent and team work and a brilliant sense of satisfaction. I think some people are put off by the sound of an apprenticeship because the pay is lower and it sounds like a perfect opportunity to be ripped of by an employer. But here at Pioneer they have been very professional in terms of my training, arranging what I will be doing in a such way that there is maximum benefit to me as well as to them.

Tariq, posing with his file

I do eight hours of lessons a week with John: two morning and two afternoon sessions, half theory and half practical. I find that these take away any feeling of monotony in the laying-up (cold-moulding) work which can be a little repetitive if there's nothing in between. The challenge of the cold-moulding is fitting each plank to the right size, not covering myself with glue and then finding my way around all the different tools and machinery and such like. The lessons are the other side which might feel irrelevant until a certain moment and then every thing you've learned intertwines to make the job a whole lot easier.

The team here have made me feel very welcome and I have already made good friends. This type of work allows you to choose whether you want to socialise or stick some earplugs in and ignore the world (as long as you get the work done). I agree with what Abbey said about 'healthy banter'. It's never unkind and people will soon lay off if they see that you're not in the mood. Personally I enjoy it. The workshop atmosphere makes it really easy to get to know one another and it never feels awkward to ask for help.

Battening applied to hold down the
second skin while the glue dries

They are very keen on their health and safety here, which is good. I have found that most things anyway are just part of a series of small mistakes that I hope I'll only make once – like running my finger across the sharp edge of a plane and then wondering why I'm bleeding. However leaving all little things like that aside I feel very safe using the machinery and tools as it's been explained so thoroughly what I should and shouldn't do.

Progress on the gig

All in all I'm happy to be here. I've learned a lot already – though I'm not saying I don't have a long way to go – and each day seems to offer a new challenge, so that there will be nothing to get bored about any time soon. I look forward to my first sail on Pioneer and all the fun stuff that the crew seem to get up to every now and then. There's been rumours of clay pigeon shooting over Christmas so that will be exciting. And then I just happened to look at the view out of the window from the apprentices' workshop and I thought – yes!

Tariq is 18. He took A levels in Economics, Sociology and Psychology and was all set to continue on the academic path and study Osteopathy at university after taking a gap year. He has no background in boats though he'd often wondered what it would be like to go sailing. It was the experience of building his tool box to bring to the interview that first made him realise how much he enjoys working with his hands. (JJ)

Tariq's tool box -
only a saw and a sledgehammer so far

Meeting Tyler - 15.10.2014 - Julia Jones

The first task for an apprentice at Harker's Yard is to make his or her own tool box. Tyler's was painted a cool, practical grey – a different colour from everyone else's so he could identify it easily – and he'd also added a drawer. This had been his own idea as he wanted somewhere to keep small things, like pencils and safety goggles, so they'd be easily retrievable. I asked him if he'd always been good at making things and he said no, not really, he'd never done any woodwork before he came to the Pioneer Sailing Trust I wondered what had prompted him to apply for an apprentice's place. He'd been away for a week with his school, sailing Pioneer herself, when he'd heard about the scheme. He'd then spent two weeks doing work experience at Harker's Yard and that had helped him decide that this was what he wanted.

Fellow-apprentice
Abbey's work

It had probably helped the other folk decide that they wanted him as well. Harker's Yard does not have the fiercely competitive attention-seeking ethos of Sir Alan Sugar's "The Apprentice". It's necessary for people to get along together and co-operate as they work on different jobs on the same three or four boats. I've also noticed from my own experience how many boat related problems need to be talked about by the shipwrights or engineers before the way forward is agreed – talked about, not argued about. It's not to do with power and egos, it's to do with finding the best way of tackling a problem. Old wooden boats are individual, there are few standard solutions.

Tyler's school career had been a bit disrupted. “You don't realise how much missing learning matters until you've missed it,” he said but he'd clearly worked really hard in the Sixth Form and done well – one A, a B and two Cs as his A-level equivalents at the end of year 13. He'd taken the BTEC route of constant coursework, continuous assessment, weekly deadlines rather than the stop-go panic of revision and exams. He spoke about this really well and I just wished that the some of the gung-ho educationalists who argue for a return to 100% assessment by exams could shut up and listen to someone like Tyler.

Fellow-apprentice Tariq
stapling the gig

I asked whether he'd considered university. No, he was clear that that wouldn't have been for him. He was fed up with sitting around in a classroom listening and writing stuff; he wanted to get on and make things and be able to see his progress. To be accepted as an apprentice at Harker's Yard he'd had to take a written assessment (mainly maths and 3D awareness as well as a personal statement) and he'd also had to follow the instructions to make a simple half-lap joint. On his two week's work experience he'd made a paddle. I just have to say here how impressed I am that someone who'd never previously done any woodwork could so calmly get on and tackle these jobs. But that's probably because I know I'd have failed the test myself.

So he's in and he's one of the team and that's where he'll be for the next two years, as well as attending Colchester Institute on Fridays to keep up with the more theoretical skills. After making the toolbox he spent the first couple of weeks doing bits and pieces, scraping out excess glue, learning how to mastic in between the planks of the former Trinity House work boat that is one of the yard's current restoration projects. He applied primer and gave other people a hand where needed. 

Now Tyler is properly at work on the latest gig. These tough elegant rowing boats were designed to be a real project for the apprentices offering them a range of skills to learn. In a previous post Abbey described the careful task of covering the plug (the mould) with a thick layer of tape to protect it from the gluing that will come later. Tyler and others are stapling on the first diagonal layer of thin mahogany veneer. The technique itself is simple but what's really important is to be working with care and precision. Tyler describes himself as a perfectionist so I would guess he'll find this a satisfying task. I'm looking forward to following his progress – and I hope that new toolbox will soon be filling up nicely.

A half-lap joint

Boxes of tools

www.pioneersailingtrust.org.uk

Boxes of tools

By John Lane, Tutor, Pioneer Sailing Trust

When Julia Jones emailed to tell me her friend, Seona Ford, was “ruthlessly” clearing out her garage and needed a home for some old tools, it prompted me to “put pen to paper”. 

We are offered tools from time to time, and get quite excited, expecting a chest-full of rare and desirable woodworking tools, each lovingly preserved with the patina of care by some old, wise master-craftsman – sadly, most often deceased.  Rosewood mortice gauges with brass fittings, a selection of bollow and rebate planes, long paring chisels, Diston handsaws – perhaps even a nice No.73 shoulder plane?  

Charlie's No 73 plane, found on ebay

It usually starts with a phone call – “Well, yes, the apprentices, especially the newer ones, always need tools.  What do you have?” I ask. 

And it usually goes something like this:  “They’re in an old wooden box; some planes, saws and chisels and things – surely too good to throw away?  They belonged to my father”, they say.  “He was a boat-builder before the war, down in the yard… you know, where they’ve built all those ugly flats.  Are you sure you want them?  I can bring them round to you this afternoon, if you like?  I just don’t want to see them thrown away……………….”

 

“Mum’s” the word as we await the arrival of the mysterious box with eager anticipation.  There must be no hint of its impending arrival or the apprentices will gather like vultures squabbling over a freshly-killed zebra on the Serengeti.  

The box arrives.  Although the apprentices pretend not to notice when someone comes round to the yard, they never miss a trick.  One of the lads sees us lifting something from the boot of the car and comes over to help.  His eyes light up when he sees the box.  Then others begin to join him, smelling blood. 

A box of assorted tools donated to PST

The box is indeed quite old and heavily built, with some initials carved in the top.  Sensing a kill, more bodies begin to gather round as the box is set it down on the concrete.  Resisting the temptation to rub my hands together, I slowly open the lid.  Inside there is a rusty Record No.4 plane with a broken handle, a wooden jack plane – split, with no blade and spattered in yellow paint – a selection of cheap plastic-handled screwdrivers (ca 1980), a tenon saw of dubious quality (blunt, with no set) and in a wooden tray, a range of old drill bits and other paraphernalia, all quite useless.  There are several chisels with short, worn blades and split wooden handles, some with no ferrules.  Rummaging about in the bottom, there are old files, blunt by varying degrees and mostly with no handle, and a coping saw with a flaking chrome frame and no blade.  A seized hand drill might be salvageable, but of the two spokeshaves, one has no blade and the other has a broken casting.   Then, at the very bottom, we suddenly see a box marked “Stanley Combination Plane”, but our brief moment of hope is dashed by more disappointment: the box contains nothing but an assortment of rusty steel screws.

A selection of good quality donated tools

The apprentices begin to drift off, almost unnoticeably.  Nobody says anything. As for me, I find it difficult to appear both delighted and grateful as I thank and assure the donor we will find a good home for the tools.  Unsure if they believe my attempt at sincerity, I begin to lie.  “Our newest apprentice can certainly use some of these”, I hear myself saying.  “Mostly, they just need a good clean”.  

Our new apprentice Tariq

As the car drives away, the box is taken into the workshop and shoved under a bench.  It will sit there for a “decent interval” - probably a couple of years - and then someone will decide the box itself is useful - and the tools probably thrown in the skip. 

But in reality, more often than not, there is always something of use in a box-full of donated tools – as evidenced in the photographs.  And sometimes, just sometimes, there is the odd gem to be found.  So, if you do have any tools needing a good home, please do not be put off by this rather tongue-in-cheek post.  We are ALWAYS grateful for donations of tools, whatever their condition!