Pushing The Boat Out

The Scottish high school pupils charting a different course to success -learning a traditional craft and developing life skills along the way

- JUDY VICKERS

JAMES PHIMISTER'S boat Venn is a bit of a superstar - the 16ft wooden rowing boat has featured in an advert for Talisker whisky with Sam Branson, son of Richard, manning the oars.

Venn has also appeared in the BBC's Scotland From The Sky series, as well as in Outlander stars Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish's Men In Kilts TV show and a German cashmere photoshoot.

"Word just gets about," says James, a 45-year-old school technician. But Venn's biggest moment was being rowed across Loch Scavaig by cycling YouTube sensation Danny MacAskill at the beginning of his 2014 film The Ridge.

The connection came through Donald, Danny's cousin, who knows Skye-born James.

"He said they were doing a short film by Loch Coruisk and could they borrow the boat? I had no idea at all what the short film entailed or how successful it would be." 

The Ridge, which sees Danny cycling along the knife-edges of the Cuillin, has now had more than 78 million views.

This boat deserves to be a VIP as she was created for a very special reason.

James says, "I had her commissioned in memory of my dad, George, who always wanted me to build my own boat. I never quite managed to, but hopefully having Venn built is the next best thing.

"She is called Venn which is Norwegian for 'friend'. My dad was my best friend, he passed away in 2012 and our ancestry goes back to those Norwegian stonemasons who sailed over to build Elgin Cathedral."

And the boatbuilders, who lovingly created Venn to James's specifications, were also very special - they were pupils at Plockton High School, where he has worked since 2007.

In what is surely the country's best woodworking class, the west coast school has been building a boat a year since 2007, barring the pandemic years.