New Head At The BBA

The new principal at the Boat Building Academy on furniture, boats and the beauty of clinker.

- Steffan Meyric Hughes

Lyme Regis, self-styled ‘pearl of Dorset’, might be best known for its gentility, Georgian houses and, of course, as the site of Louisa Musgrove’s death in Jane Austen’s Persuasion, but with Storm Brendan in full force, it looked savage. On the A35, a lorry lay on its side, blown over in the high winds, and two road signs were twisted off their legs. Above Lyme Regis, the sea was marching. Outside the Boat Building Academy on the seafront, two passersby were bent double, walking slowly into the teeth of it. Inside the shelter of the main building, the shop floor was alive with industry, as boatbuilding students clustered around their build projects. Upstairs, Will Reed, who took the job of principal in June 2019, after a long tenure held by Yvonne Green, was sat in his office.