TAKE TWO AND… ACTION

owns Road Boatyard sitting, as it does, on a suburban road in the pretty town of Maldon, seems anomalous these days of irate neighbours and glass-fronted new-builds. Given its location, it’s a surprisingly big site, sloping gently down to the River Blackwater. There has been boatbuilding here since about 1885, and in the 1970s, a number of locals, including the cartoonist, to working on film sets around the world (, , and to name a few). It seems, though, that the boats Jim likes best are a bit like him: big, rugged, no-nonsense workboats, as a tour of the yard shows. There is an immense amount of work on here, even for a yard with a staff of 20, some of whom are working internationally, and much of it is to steel- and iron-hulled boats, as well as wooden ones. The thing that Jim seems happiest about is not the glitz of Hollywood, but the apprenticeship scheme he’s been running since the 2012 re-rig. “I realised that there was a huge shortage of young people who can do this work but are unable to afford the cost of going to a boatbuilding school. It’s not about disadvantaged kids, but about those who are desperate to get into this and can’t.” The apprenticeship scheme has been running strong ever since, and there were three at work during our visit. The apprentices are currently learning Marine Engineering and Boatbuilding, but in the future, Jim hopes to develop a Heritage Engineering Apprenticeship too, such is the lack of skill in this area today.