Keyhaven Fife - Armorel

 I've passed by this open Fife many times and wrote about it briefly last year. From a distance it might be easy to mistake as a Drascombe derivative, but closer up it's clearly not, so it was great to meet and chat with the owner and builder who was drying the boat out alongside the wall at Keyhaven.

 

It's a fascinating story, visiting Johnshaven in Aberdeen-shire for many years an old neglected fishing boat the locals had named "Richies" was purchased . Apart from some deck rot and split planks the boat which was typical of the area was in pretty good shape. 

 

While pondering what to do, the lines were taken off using a laser scanner and a CAD model developed which allowed modifications, and tweaks to be made including provision for a diesel engine and from which a new boat was built.

I should point out that the builder is highly experienced making wind turbine blades and epoxy infused composites rather than larch on oak frame construction, so the new boat took shape using CNC  to cut stem, keel, frames and plywood planks at local company Designcraft.

A modern shiny red diesel now powers along with the push of a button, which must make for an extremely nice day boat.

Images from the building process, starting with the original Richies, the CAD and lines drawing kindly provided by the owner.