Rowing boat builders hope to inspire older women

Two women who helped build their own skiff style rowing boat are hoping the project will inspire older women.

Sian Davis, 65, and Isobel Rickland, 71, spent two years building the 22ft (6.7m) Scottish style Saint Isles Skiff in their home village of Appledore in Devon, at a cost of about £3,500.

The two Appledore Pilot Gig Club members said they had been inspired by the community boat building projects found in Scottish villages.

"We wanted to show the world that older women can do this sort of stuff," Mrs Davis said.

At the launch of the vessel in February, Mrs Davis described it as a "pretty heart-stopping moment".

She said: "After all that time and effort, you really hope it's going to work well and she floated beautifully and absolutely flies.

"It's a fabulous little boat."

Mrs Davis said they could not have built the skiff without the help of someone with woodworking skills

"For us, that was a lovely chap called Pete Gillett who was a cabinet maker," she said.

"Although as he said many times, 'I've never built a cabinet that was meant to float'.

"So Isabel, myself and a lovely chap called Ned Morgan managed to make this thing happen."

Mrs Davis said their project had already inspired more boat building in the area.

"When we started this off we thought, 'wouldn't it be lovely to start building little boats in Appledore again', because obviously Appledore has got a huge history of boat-building," she said.

"Lo and behold, we have started to get some interest and there is another one being built at Barnstaple Gig Club.

"We're really hoping that other folk give it a go too."

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