Learning how to restore old boats

Inspired by a stunning homebuilt yacht, Ali Wood visits the Boat Building Academy to learn how any of us can become boatbuilders

Moored in Las Palmas, among dazzling white GRP yachts, Sweet Dreams is a boat I'll never forget. An elegant monohull crafted M in wood from many different trees, the hull is western yellow cedar with Khaya mahogany veneer and the coachroof and cockpit varnished teak. The interior is fitted out with Douglas fir, teak and oak. Every detail - from the rounded corners of the companionway hatch to the cream-painted tongue and groove panelling - has been planed, sanded and varnished to perfection.

The Bill Dixon one-design is a work of art, so it surprised me to learn that the owner, Roz Preston had built it by hand in Dorset, alongside late husband John. Was she a boatbuilder, I wondered? No, she was a former special advisor to Tony Blair! Sweet Dreams was in fact a retirement project - which later crossed the Atlantic.

So how does one go from advising a prime minister to building a boat? It all began, Roz told me, when she and John enrolled on a year-long course at the Boat Building Academy (BBA) in Lyme Regis. This gave them all the skills they needed to get started on their seven-year labour of love.

Keen to find out more, I got in touch with the BBA, and was invited to join fellow students for a day of their five-day wooden boat restoration course. The centre, nestled in Dorset's idyllic Lyme Bay, runs a range of short courses from City & Guilds qualifications to traditional boatbuilding, GRP repairs and sailmaking. Longer courses include furniture making and the 40-week boatbuilding course.

Sparkling Lyme Regis

A frost glistened on the beach and seagulls squabble as I pulled into the car park next to a decrepit clinker boat, which I later discovered belonged to student Ken Brand. Students have the option to work on their own boats during the course, but sadly the bottom had fallen out of this one in transit, and it was deemed beyond economic repair.