About Gail McGarva
Gail McGarva is a traditional wooden boat builder, specialising in the building of replicas or 'daughterboats' of vessels in danger of extinction. In November 2024 Gail won the fifth annual President’s Award for Endangered Crafts at the 2024 Heritage Crafts Awards.
In 2014, Gail was awarded a British Empire Medal for her services to clinker boatbuilding and heritage crafts; in 2015 she was awarded the Lord Balfour Prize for exceptional achievement in craft.
A traditional tribute to the St Ayles Skiff
Gail has been granted a licence by the Scottish Fisheries Museum to build a traditional clinker constructed boat paying tribute to the lines of the St Ayles Skiff and the legacy of the designer the late Iain Oughtred.
Gail’s new project 'A traditional tribute to the St Ayles Skiff' seeks to shine a light on the endangered skills of traditional wooden boat building. A commitment to the passing on and safeguarding of the endangered skills of traditional wooden boat building sits at the heart of the project. This is especially heightened as the skills are now listed as ‘Endangered’ on the Heritage Crafts ‘Red List of Endangered Crafts’.
The President’s Award will fund the traditional materials for the building of the new boat. Through the process of the build Gail will be instructing young trainees from the organisation ‘Building Futures Galloway’ developing their skills in traditional clinker construction. Gail has been working in a freelance capacity as an instructor with Building Futures Galloway since autumn 2023.
On completion of the build, Gail will become the custodian of the traditional skiff and will take the boat to events as a beacon of hope for traditional wooden boat building and passing on of the skills to the next generation.
The Story Boat Project
The Story Boat Project gives a new lease of life to the retired fishing boat Vera of 1923, in collaboration with wheelwrights Mike Rowland & Son, by upturning her and transforming her into a miniature maritime world.
In 2010, Gail built a daughter-boat to Vera with funding from the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust in order to preserve the Lerret, a boat type in danger of extinction, and preserve the art of boatbuilding 'by eye'. With mentor Roy Gollop, the lines were taken from the motherboat and the daughterboat, named Littlesea, was 'built by eye' without the use of designer drawings and construction plans.
In 2017 Gail was awarded an Arts Council Individual Grant for the Arts in support of the Story Boat Project. The Story Boat is a miniature maritime museum that Gail created from the upturned Vera, giving her a new lease of life on land as the keeper of memories, and encapsulates Gail’s passion for the preservation of traditional craft. The on-going work of the Story Boat Project is an integration of Gail’s work as a boat builder, workshop facilitator and teller of stories.
Vera the Story Boat now travels to primary schools and community venues offering maritime heritage workshops, celebrating the story of the motherboat and her fishing community. Gail has been invited to bring the Story Boat to the Pittenweem Arts Festival in August 2025.
Disappearing Lines
This evocative installation captures the disappearing lines of traditional wooden boats, their communities and their shores. A selection of black and white images of boats from the NHS-UK Photo Competition are featured as part of the installation, where visitors are immersed in a disappearing world of images, voices and memory objects of the sea.
Gail is the invited artist at Pittenweem Arts Festival in August 2025. The Disappearing Lines installation and the Story Boat will be open to visitors throughout the festival at Pittenweem harbourside.
All boats have a story to tell
Gail has written & produced a new collection of audio portraits celebrates the stories of traditional working boats: the craft of the people who build them, their communities and their shores. Sadly many of the working boats along the coastline of Britain are under threat and the stories and memories they hold are being lost as the generations pass. These portraits are a celebration of these working boats and their special place in our maritime heritage. Listen via Gail's Soundcloud: The story of Georgie McDonald - The Story of Rebel - The Story of Littlesea
LATEST NEWS
November 2024 Gail McGarva has won the fifth annual President’s Award for Endangered Crafts at the 2024 Heritage Crafts Awards. Full story
August 2024 Gail McGarva has been shortlisted for the President’s Award for Endangered Crafts at the 2024 Heritage Crafts Awards. Winners will be announced in November. Full story
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