Built by Hector Handyside in 1962 at the J&J Harrison boatyard, Amble, Northumberland. She was owned and operated by the Stephenson family until she was de-commissioned and laid up in 2011. The coble (pronounced 'kerble' in Northumbrian!) was the traditional wooden inshore fishing boat of the North East coast of England from Spurn Head in the south to Berwick-upon-Tweed on the Scottish Border. Cobles have been built in the same way for hundreds of years to very local specifications from chalk marks on the floor, never off plans. Cobles were 5 to 9 planks clinker-built, about 27-30ft loa, the larch planking first being set, into which an oak frame was 'joggled'. Twin oak keels aft and a good beam, deep forefoot, steeply raked transom and pronounced tumblehome give the very distinctive lines which go right back to the Viking longboat. Because there are few natural harbours on this coast, the coble was built to be beach-launched netting for white fish and for potting. Originally sailers with a dipping lugsail and jib or rowed, in the 1930's they began to be converted to motors. The shape of the hull makes the coble exceptionally seaworthy in the north-easterly gales and short-seas which can blow up in minutes on this treacherous coast. In an act of unequalled official vandalism, EU Fishing Policy aimed at reducing the quota meant that every fisherman was given £20,000 compensation in exchange for giving up his traditional wooden fishing coble which would probably have been in his family for three generations, to be broken up. Hector Handyside continued to work into his 80's in the 2010's restoring historic cobles. Hector passed away in 2017 and with the death of the other traditional boat builder at Amble, Victor Henderson in 2019, the knowledge and skills of these much loved and fondly remembered Master Boat Builders are now gone. Taken on Polaroid SX-70 Land Camera Supercolor Autofocus on Polaroid (TIP) B+W film

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polaroid, sx-70, boat, uk, northumberland, boulmer

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