Traditional Wooden Boatbuilding
Ben Harris & Co. are a team of highly skilled craftspeople united by a passion for wooden boatbuilding. Together we design, build and restore traditional boats that will be a long-lasting source of joy, pride and adventure for those who sail them.
Custom Built Boats
We work closely with our clients at every stage of the project, from design to finishing, to ensure that our custom built boats are everything they dreamed of. To learn more about the custom build journey from the initial commission to maiden voyage click here.
See our most recent new builds below:
“Of life’s two chief prizes, beauty and truth, I found the first in a loving heart and the second in a laborer’s hand.” – Khalil Gibran
How we work:
Working together
In our commitment to continuing the traditions and skills of classic boat building we take on apprentices, provide training and collaborate with a wide range of highly skilled local craftspeople. Please contact us if you are interested in working together.
Carefully selected timber
A great deal is asked of a sailboat – to perform in all weather, day in day out – which is why we choose our timbers with the utmost care from the best sources, often selecting trees whilst they are still growing. We saw and season the wood ourselves to ensure that the quality of grain is suitable for each aspect of the build.
Inspired and innovating
A wooden sailing boat is perhaps the most glorious instrument the human hand can build. The job of a boatbuilder is to breathe new life into the supple wood and sturdy metal, rope and sail. Like skin, bone and sinews, these elements merge to form a creature that flies and swims, hums with its own music, provides shelter and warmth and opens up new horizons.
The form and function of each boat has evolved through centuries of gradual enhancement by sailors and shipwrights to serve their specific purpose and local environment. Following this tradition, we continue to design and build, integrating the best aspects of both classic and modern materials.
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Lovers of the sea, the filling sail, the living tree and the copper nail, come to us with your dream in hand, cast off your cares and leave the land.