Tracy : This interview is being conducted with Ian Lallow on 9th February 2019 at home in Northwood by Tracy Wellstead. If we could start by you telling me your full name please?
Ian : Ian Clare Lallow
Tracy : And when were you born?
Ian : 1943.
Tracy : And where were you born?
Ian : In Cowes. To be more precise, in Tuttons Hill Gurnard, Hillbrow Nursing Home.
Tracy : And can you tell me the names of your parents?
Ian : My mother was … you want her maiden name?
Tracy : Yes, maiden name would be good.
Ian : She was Sybil White and father of course was Clare Lallow.
Tracy : Can you tell me where and when your parents were born?
Ian : Yeah, they were both born in Cowes. I can’t tell you exactly where, but father was born in 1906 and mother was born in 1909. She lived to the age of 103, father died when he was 90.
Tracy : Good age in you family then (laugh). Right, I’d like to start the interview by asking you some questions about your boatbuilding, OK? So, were there apprenticeships when you first started your boatbuilding?
Ian : Yes, shortly before I left school and went into the business, I mean you had a seven-year apprenticeship, but when I went into the business, in theory it was a five-year apprenticeship and we took on apprentices at that time. Father was taking on apprentices although I did more than … I didn’t just do five years boatbuilding because I went into the business. I spent a bit of time with the Painters, bit of time with the Engineers, bit of time with the Riggers and what have you and then me full five years was up. I was involved with the Office side of it as well. I used to do the wages and things like that.
Tracy : Can you remember what sort of salary you were earning when you first started?
Ian : I can tell you when I first started, it was £2 12s 6d for a week. In those days it was a 42-hour week.
Tracy : What sort of salary were you by the time you finished?
Ian : I can’t answer that because I then became self-employed as a Partner in the business and OK rightly or wrongly you never made a profit (laughs). Shouldn’t say that should I?
Tracy : Were there any initiation ceremonies when you first started there?
Ian : Not initiation ceremonies. There was lots of … didn’t necessarily happen to me because I was the Boss’s son if you like, but I mean apprentices used to get sent down the road to Ratsey and Lapthorn to get the key to the fog locker and things like that you know, silly little things but that’s what used to happen in those days.
Tracy : We’ll talk about working practices. Did you work on shifts, were there teams and was there like a hierarchy within your …?
Ian : No, you got apprenticed to a Boatbuilder or a Mechanic as they were called and I mean I was apprenticed to a fellow called Stan Martin, who’d been at the Yard all his life and he taught me for my first year, and then after that you went with somebody else on the next job whatever the job might be, you know.
Tracy What would you have worn to work?
Ian : Oh, a set of overalls, a boiler suit which in those days they were brown. Don’t ask me why. These days they seem to be blue or whatever, but yeah you always had a boiler suit on. My father, who was the Boss, he always came to work with a collar and tie and a proper hat on, you know, but I never went down that road at all. I ‘ve always been dressed as I am now, sort of thing.
5 minutes
Tracy : So, you started off as an apprentice. So, how did you progress through the system after that?
Ian : Well, because I was the Boss’s son, and obviously father was eventually going to take me into the business and I became a Partner in the business, as I said I probably skipped a lot and didn’t do really enough boatbuilding on hand and stuff, because I was going in various Departments and eventually dealing with the customers, and eventually running the whole business myself after father retired.
Tracy : So, when did your father retire?
Ian : 1977 I think it was.
Tracy : So, what were your duties or responsibilities and what were the working conditions in each of those roles?
Ian : Well the duties, you turned up on time first thing in the morning and you did a good eight hours a day work. You had an hour off for lunch and although you were the Boss’s son, you weren’t treated any differently. You had to be there on time, and you didn’t leave until a quarter past five in the evening. Conditions, well, they were pretty basic in those days. I mean there was no central heating or hot air fans or anything like that and in the winter it can be pretty bloody cold. In the summer, you were working outside because we used to build boats during the winter and during the summer you were maintaining boats. Hauling them up, launching and running around afloat so in summer it was lovely. You were out there in the sun although having said that it can be pretty terrible in the summer sometimes, when it’s blowing and raining, but that’s something you had to put up with.
Tracy : Can you think of any particular boats that you worked on?
Ian : Particular boats? I always remember the first boat I worked on was a Dragon Class called ‘Tamino’ and then father started building … he was already building racing yachts but then we got into the designs of Sparkman and Stevens and we built a boat called ‘Roundabout’ for Sir Max Aitken, 1965, which I helped to build, and then raced on it with Sir Max for many years. And we built boats like ‘Firebrand’ for a fellow called Dennis Miller and then of course we built two ‘Morning Cloud’ for Sir Edward Heath, ‘71’ ’73, and I raced with him. They were short of a crew when it went to Australia in 1971. He had to go to a Prime Minster’s Conference in Singapore, so they were short of one so they decided that I was the ideal man to go so, you know, that’s fine, so I had the job of getting it unloaded in Sydney and getting the mast in and getting the boat ready and then I joined the crew and it went on from there and I raced with him for five, six, seven years, something like that in the ‘70’s.
Tracy : Were you successful in your races?
Ian : We were reasonably successful, yeah. I mean we won several ‘Round the Island’ and we won our Class in the Sydney Hobart race. You know, I was going to say ‘water off a duck’s back’ but (laughs) it’s one of those things. You do so many races and we were lucky enough to win quite a lot of them.
Tracy : So, going back to the boats that you built. How were they built? Were they made of wood?
Ian : How were they built? Well, there were different forms of construction. I mean the original would be a keel laid and then the frames round and planked. Put a deck on and whatever else had to go on it, but then as time went on, we got in to double diagged with fore and aft on the outside to make it look pretty and then eventually in 1982, we actually did a high-tech job. We were using Kevlar fibre glass, what have you. That was built for Sir Morris Lang and using all the materials that were made by … the name of the firm … in Cowes. I can’t remember what they were called now. It’s still up at Newport now, but I can’t think what their name was there. Not … it is, it’s called Gurit now isn’t it but it was called something else in those days, but I can’t think what it was. They supplied all the high-tech gear. We built the hull and that was a really high-tech job and then of course we used to finish off fibreglass hulls that were produced by other people. We’d bolt the keel on, bolt all the bits and pieces on and do all the necessary. Not just sailing boats but motorboats as well.
10 minutes 37 seconds
Tracy : So did you fit the interiors out like the cabins and …?
Ian : Yes, we used to employ Joiners who did all the joinery work and put place by the boatbuilders. It was all interesting work. It evolved over the years. As I said, were spanning … I started in 1961 and in 1982 we eventually got round to doing a high-tech job which in fact was the last, what I’d call a fairly large boat that we built. After that we built lots of Dragons and XOD’s and boats like that, which were conventional, although the Dragon became a multi-skinned yacht in 1988.
Tracy : So, how big was that biggest boat?
Ian : The biggest boat we ever built was just before my time, was a boat called ‘Drumbeat’ built in 1955. She was 55 foot overall to an American design. That was built for Sir Max Aitkin and the ‘Morning Cloud’s of course were … well the second one was 43 foot overall and the Admiral’s Cup boats and the one tonners, they varied from, I don’t know, from 35 foot up to 43 foot overall. Not ‘big’ big by any means but plenty big enough.
Tracy : So, when you launched a vessel, how would you go about it?
Ian : Launching a vessel? Well, it was always a last-minute thing to get the vessel ready and you’d work late into the night, so you didn’t disturb the Boatbuilders that were working on it. We’d move it out, put the mast in, put it on the Slipway and then build a platform up the front fore end with a gantry to hang the bottle on. A bottle of Champagne, father always used to give the lady that was going to do the job a little bit of a message about how to bang it and make sure to give it a good wallop. Don’t just let it go, give it a good punch, and we also used to of course just nick the bottle with a glass cutter which helps it. Father did it a bit too much on one occasion and the bottle went up before it actually got to the boat, so there was a mad rush round the town (laughs) to find another bottle of Champagne (laugh) and then of course she’d go down the Slipway and we always went sailing. With the exception of ‘Drumbeat’ because she was slightly differently built, slightly different part of the Yard, and they couldn’t actually put the mast in until she’d been launched, but other than that, we always went sailing the day the boat was launched.
Tracy : So why would you have done that? To make sure she was alright in the water.
Ian : And of course the customer wanted to, being he’s got the boat in the water, he’s going to use it, so you had to make sure that everything was working.
Tracy : So, you talked a bit about your other jobs when you were going through your apprenticeship. Would you like to explain a bit more about them, sort of in your other roles?
Ian : The other jobs you mean? Well, as I said, I just worked with our Painters and with our Engineers and with the Riggers. I was always interested in rigging. I enjoyed the splicing and all that sort of thing you know. It just gave me a bit of background and experience into you know, what you’re going to have to do in years to come.
Tracy : So, were there any Health and Safety Regulations or Health and Safety clothes and that sort of thing?
Ian : Umm, it’s the same with any Health and Safety, even today, it’s common sense, and in those days common sense prevailed, and all the lads were sensible, and you know, you didn’t do anything stupid. OK, yes, we all had accidents and we’ve all had boats fall over, but it’s just one of the hazards of the trade I’m afraid. We had one fall over. We’d hauled the boat up. It wasn’t one that we’d built, it was one we used to look after, on a Monday lunchtime. We were just going home at a quarter to five what ever it was we used to knock off. I’m talking now about 19 … late ‘70’s, and one of my chaps came running up and he said, “Ian” he said, “’Marionette’ just fallen over.” I said, “You’re joking?” “No.” So I go down and of course the boat, it’s a 40 some odd foot boat, was on its side. It was built of aluminium so all that happened in fact was that it put a big dent in the side of it. I got some chaps back and we worked through the night, got it back upright, and then we’d phoned the owner and told him what the problem was, and he said, “Well, you’d better get the builders on to come and have a look at it before you do anything”, so fair enough, I said, “But bear in mind sir you’re going to want to race this at the weekend.” “Oh yeah, yeah” he said, “of course we do.” Well, it took two days for the builders to send a Representative, and when he turned up he was the Accountant. Knew bugger all about bloody boats. So, we got in there with some acro jacks and some big hammers and pushed the dent up, put some filler in, touched it up, launched it on the Friday and the owner said, “Well you can make up this, you’d better come and drive it for me.” There was a big Regatta on the Saturday, it was just before Cowes Week, so I drove it in the end, and we had a good race and he won the race, and all was forgiven (laughs).
16 minutes 46 seconds
Tracy : So, if you were ill, was there sick pay or were you ever majorly ill when you were at work?
Ian : No, you didn’t get sick pay in the early days. I mean Statutory Sick Pay came in, I don’t know exactly when it was, in the ‘80’s? Maybe ‘70’s even, but no if you weren’t in, you didn’t get paid.
Tracy : And what about holidays? How many holidays did you get a year?
Ian : You got … you’ve asked me a question I don’t know the exact answer to but it was three weeks maximum, and that I think included Statutory holidays, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, Easter, and then of course they were increased over the years and I think now they get three or four weeks but what we used to do, because we were always busy during the summer, we used to work the Bank Holidays during the summer, August Bank Holiday, and possibly the Whitsun Bank Holiday, and then we’d add them on at Christmas, so that at Christmas we’d have a nice week off when there was no panic for anything, whereas during the summer we always had to get jobs out for the next day sort of thing.
Tracy : So, did you ever go away when you were on holiday or did you stay on the Island?
Ian : I mean I was lucky enough to travel a bit of the World because of the job. As I’ve just said, I went to Australia twice, I went to three Olympic Games as Boatman, once to the Singapore Team and that’s a long story but just believe it. That was in 1960 when I was still at school actually, but then I went for the British Team to Tokyo in ’64 and again in ’68, just to look after their boats. Again, unload them off the ship, put them together, and then I used to go and clean them up every day and any jobs that needed to be done, it was down to me to do them, you know. Rigging jobs, whatever, patch up if they got damaged or anything. So, other than that, I never went away on a holiday as such until very much later. Probably back end of the ‘80’s when I did start taking a proper holiday and we loved going on cruises so the first one we did was on ‘Canberra’ across the Caribbean and back, which was interesting, and we’ve been cruising ever since. Not every year but every now and again.
Tracy : So, you were saying you had a lunchtime, so I presume did you just take your nammet with you or did you …?
Ian : No, I used to go home. I only lived two minutes up the road, and I used to go home, and father would come home as well, have some lunch and get back to work. Later on when I sort of became more involved with running the business, it was sort of 20 minutes in the Duke of York, which is the Pub opposite the Yard, for a quick pint before you go home to lunch, and then back to lunch and you’d quite often take a customer or trades people over there and have a drink with them. Father was always well-known for taking trades people over there and they’d go over there and do their business, you know, buy his rope or whatever it was.
20 minutes 32 seconds
Tracy : And how about your staff when you’re related to the boss? Did they eat on the site or did they …?
Ian : No, most of them used to … some of them ate on the site because they didn’t necessarily live local but on the other hand lots used to go home. They all lived sort of within a mile or so of the Yard, but some lived in Newport. They used to bring their own, as you say, their own nammet, sit down and eat it and drink it or whatever the case may be and then back to work at a quarter past one. Sometimes we would have to work through the lunch hour because the tides were such that you had to use the high tide so you’d say, “Alright lads, let’s work through the tide, have your lunch after we’ve finished tide work” you know, and they’d all knuckle down and that’s what you did.
Tracy : So, was there any characters that you particularly remember?
Ian : Characters? Well, where do you stop (laughs). You know the likes of Uffa Fox and George Barton who was the Harbour Master, and Harry Spencer was the Rigger. Cowes was full of characters. Sadly, they’re not there today but they were up until … I mean I finished in 1996 and there was still one or two then. Not very many, but up until then I mean it was full of characters. I mean wherever you went, whether you go to Ackley’s to buy something or there was always somebody there you could have a laugh with and people from J S Whites, people that worked for J S Whites and you’d have to go down there for whatever reason. People that worked at Ratsey’s, lots of characters. One chap springs to mind who’s still alive and kicking there today is a fellow called John Blow, who used to work at Ratsey’s and eventually when Ratsey’s fell upon hard times, a three day week, he came to me and said, “How about a job here?” and I said, “Yeah, I’ll give you a job” and he was with me for the rest of my life, and he still does jobs for me today. Those sorts of characters were, you know, yeah, plenty of them.
Tracy : Do you think people are different today?
Ian : Yes, I mean the characters … even in the sailing world, forget the boatbuilding side of it, in the days of 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, and even into the ‘80’s, there were characters who sailed. People like Arthur Slater who only had one leg, Chris Dunning who suffered from polio as a kid and is sort of almost wheelchair bound, Sir Max Aitken, you know, who flew Spitfires in the War and things like that, it was full of bloody characters. I mean boats … Derek Buoy was another customer of ours, made his fortune in digging gravel up by Heathrow Airport somewhere, Dennis Miller was another one, an engineer, nutty as a fruit cake, you know? He’d got one of these little … I’ll always remember, little fibreglass speedboat, which is a jet drive, one of the very early jet drives, and he just drove it straight up the Slipway one day. When we came to look at his boat, I thought, ‘Christ, what’s he up to? He was just that sort of character. He then went to live in Bermuda, and it wasn’t that long ago he died. I used to race with him, and I used to race with lots of customers. People that were in the Stock Market and … we were very, very client based which was nice.
Tracy : So, did you prefer the racing to the actual business side of it,or which did you prefer?
Ian : Well, I mean, in the back of my mind I was always going to go into the business, but my father didn’t want me. I know why he didn’t want me ‘cos he didn’t want me to do the hours that were involved but although I got four GCSEs at school, which wasn’t quite enough for what I had thought about doing. He eventually climbed down and said, “OK son, come and join us” sort of thing. He was persuaded by his brother in law as well to let me go into the business and I always enjoyed the business, yes, but I also enjoyed the sailing side of it because it was on your doorstep, you know. I had several boats built for myself and it’s lovely to know that you can look after your own boat and it’s there when you want it and anything that needs to be done it gets done immediately sort of thing. And racing with customers of course, you know, was part of the job. You know sometimes the customer said,” You’ll have to come out and sail with me or do this” which I was only too pleased to do.
25 minutes 53 seconds
Tracy : Did your father sail?
Ian : Yes he did. He used to race with my mother back in the 1930’s in an International 14 foot and then just after the War, father built a Dragon called ‘Blue Skies’ which was quite successful, which mother used to race with in that and then mother bought a XOD in the ‘50’s which is when I started sailing with them in the ‘50’s. I started sailing on a scow which mother owned. One of the Riggers at the Yard used to do sailing lessons, I’m talking about the ‘50’s now, and I remember one school summer holiday just come back with the boat from giving somebody a lesson, and I said, “George, don’t pull the boat out, I’m going for a sail.” He said, “Does your dad know?” I said, “No.” Bear in mind that I’m only what 12, 13 years old, something like that, I said, “No, it will be alright, George, don’t worry” and I just went for a sail in it and that’s how it all started, it went on from there (laughs).
Tracy : So, you talked about the Dragon boats. How would you describe a Dragon boat?
Ian : The Dragon is … funny you should mention that. I’ll show you exactly what it is. A magazine came through the door this morning. [shows Tracy a picture] It’s that sort of boat.
Tracy : Oh alright, OK.
Ian : It’s a 30-foot racing machine quite frankly, designed by a Norwegian about 1936. Came to this country first of all in Scotland and then sort of went to other places like Burnham, Cowes, Wales and father started building them in 1948-9, and then we built quite a lot after that and then it died a bit of a death and then it picked up again when I built one in 1988, which was what they call a ‘cold moulded version’ of it which was diagged rather that planked which seemed to be the way to go at the time and they changed the rules to allow it. I mean there are very tight rules and they’re all very much of one design but sadly, in this day and age, they’ve just got too professional and they’re now … I was reading, they had the World Championships beginning of January out in Australia and all the reports came back and the crew of whatever sponsored, you know, they actually call the boat by the Company Name. It may be a car manufacturer or something like that you know, and they’re all paid to bloody do it which to my mind is sad. When I was doing it, we were all amateurs. Nobody got paid at all. I mean I didn’t get paid to go sailing. This day and age it’s all changed. Not for the better in my view, but there.
Tracy : So, what does diagged actually mean?
Ian : Diagged? Well, you put loads of wood across at right angles to each other. Instead of being fore and aft on the side of a boat, you go that way and that way and then another one and another one. Thin layers of plywood, or it doesn’t necessarily have to be plywood, we used to use plywood ‘cos it was strong and cheap.
Tracy : So, is that why it’s built that way, for strength?
Ian : Yeah. Strength and lightness. You know, it came out slightly lighter than solid timber.
29 minutes 59 seconds
Tracy : So, did you like social or sports clubs down there or a darts team?
Ian : We had a football team at one stage. We had a rowing team at one stage, and we used to have a darts match every Easter at the Cowes Corinthian Yacht Club. Yeah, we all got involved. I mean I love sport; I was very much involved with sport and I used to play a lot of hockey and a lot of badminton. When I was at school, I played a lot of rugby as well, but I changed to hockey when I left school. I did have one season playing football for Cowes Football but didn’t really enjoy that. Again, it was too professional for me.
Tracy : So, did the teams have names?
Ian : ‘Lallow’s Rockets’ was what we used to call ourselves (laughs).
Tracy : So, were all the teams called the same?
Ian : It’s sad because what happened with the rowing, we had our own galley which we used for practice after work. We’d go off and row down to Gurnard and back or whatever. Then we took part in a couple of races, probably at Newport Rowing Club or somewhere like that, and because we won a couple of times, they then said we were professional which we weren’t at all. Just because you’re a Boatbuilder it doesn’t make you a professional bloody rower, so it got a bit nasty and we just said, “Well sod it” and packed it in. Having said that, I’m still President of the Newport Rowing Club (laughs) but that’s nothing to do with the business at all.
Tracy : Did you have Trade Unions?
Ian : Yes, I was never a member of a Trade Union. You didn’t have to be but most of our chaps, with the exception of my knowledge, there was only about three or four that weren’t, but they seldom went to Trade Union meetings, let’s put it that way. But we did have at one stage there was a strike, I can’t think exactly when it was, I’ve got a feeling it must have been in the ‘60’s, and 90 percent of the lads stayed away. There was a couple came back into work and father sent them home until the strike was over. That got around that. But, as I say, we never had any problem with the Unions, let’s put it that way, but they were there (laughs).
Tracy : So, was there any women working on the premises?
Ian : We had women in the Office, yes. Initially, in my early days, there was two ladies in the Office. No, that’s wrong. One lady in the Office and a man in the Office and between them they used to do the wages on a Thursday ready for the Friday. And then the fellow was taken ill round about 1964 I guess; father didn’t really know what to do. I said, “I’ll do it.” Luckily, maths was one of my best subjects at school, I passed GCSE in it, and I went in there and it used to take this fellow and the lady that worked for us, it used to take them all day Thursday and half of Friday. Well, I got it down to three hours on a Thursday and that was it, so the fellow never came back (laughs).
Tracy : So, what was the attitude of the men on the site to the lady?
Ian : Oh they loved her. Yeah, a bit later on we actually had at one stage we had three ladies working in the Office, business got a bit bigger and … no, they used to take the mickey out of her. See her walk down through the Yard with their short skirts on or whatever (laughs). You can imagine the comments that went round.
Tracy : Did you ever have any ladies who were boatbuilders or actually signed up?
Ian : No, I don’t think we ever employed … no, only office workers.
Tracy : Is there anything else you’d like to tell me about working in Cowes, or the business?
Ian : Anything else I’d like to tell you? Well, it was a nice business to be in, you know. You were by the sea, during the summer it was lovely, and you were out there in the fresh air and but sadly it’s a dying trade. Go back to the ‘50’s, the Firm was building three, four, probably five boats each winter. Reasonably sized boats but in my lifetime, the maximum we ever did was two and that slowly tailed off and there were some winters when you probably wouldn’t do one at all, but you’d make that up by working on other boats that you were looking after. It didn’t necessarily have to be on a boat, but it was nice to build a boat so that you could see it come out of the sheds, see it launched and think well, we’ve made that and it’s a pleasure to see it. And if it was a successful boat, that’s even better.
36 minutes 12 seconds
Tracy : So, when you were looking after the boats, what would you have to do to them?
Ian : Well, just the general maintenance you know? Painting, scrubbing, we always kept a stock of spare masts for boats like the Dragons and the Darings and the ‘X’s’ so if anybody broke a mast lets say on a Saturday, we could get them racing again on the Sunday. They’d come into the Yard, leave the boat with us, we’d whip the broken mast out, transfer all the rigging and get it up … especially Cowes Week. I mean we used to do lots of what I used to call ‘miraculous jobs’ Cowes Week. One that I remember well was a Daring which is a fibreglass boat, there’s a Class of them in Cowes, it got holed, you know, right through. Only the topside, it wasn’t going to sink or anything, but we pulled it up and the fellow was sort of in tears. I said, “It will be ready for you tomorrow sir” so we literally patched it up and launched it off again and he went sailing the following day. But then you had that job to do during the winter to do a proper job on it, which those sorts of jobs were nice, you know. On another particular occasion I remember a customer, he came into me about 3 o’clock in the afternoon, and “Oh Ian” he said, “my boats sunk.” He’d sunk it, this was an ‘X’ boat so I jokingly said, “Well that’s alright sir, you can get a new one on the Insurance Company” and he was a bit upset. I said, “Anyway, where is it?” So, he told me where it was and it was over off the mouth of Beaulieu River. So, I said, “Well, I’ll go across …” He said, “We’ve managed to get it in as far as we could get it and we’ve put an anchor down” he said, “so it won’t move.” I went out at 4 o’clock in the morning on my own, took the launch with me, and it was just showing above the water, literally just, dead low water. I started up the pump that we used to have in the launch, pumped it out and it raised up. Towed it back to Cowes, pulled it up the following morning on the Slipway, phoned the owner up. I said, “It will be ready for you tomorrow sir.” “You’re joking” he said. I said, “No, pop down and have a look at it” I said, “there’s only a little scratch on a rudder, we’ll patch that up and you’ll be back afloat for racing tomorrow.” He just couldn’t believe it but that’s the sort of thing we used to do.
Tracy : So, how many people were employed in the Company?
Ian : The maximum was round about … probably in the ‘60’s, late ‘50’s, 60’s, we had up to 40 and when I left, we never actually made anybody redundant. They retired because of old age or they left to go elsewhere. When I left we were down to 16 I think it was, and now I believe they’re down to about eight.
Tracy : Is that because of technology’s making jobs simpler or …?
Ian : Well, it’s technology. It’s just a different world. I mean they haven’t built a boat since I left and I left in 1996, but having said that, they still run the business and still looking after boats but they haven’t actually built a boat since I left.
Tracy : So, how long would it take roughly to build a boat?
Ian : Well, depending on the size of it obviously, but I mean an ‘X’ boat for instance you wouldn’t do in less that three months and a boat like ‘Morning Cloud’ you’d probably take six months.
40 minutes 6 seconds
Tracy : So, what would be the longest part of the process of just getting the main …?
Ian : Umm, difficult to say what the longest part is. I mean first of all you’ve got to lay it off, get the drawings out and mark it all off. On something you take templates but then you’ve got to make a keel. Then you put the frames in and I guess the planking probably take longer than anything, but again, go back to cold moulded, the double diag that makes it a bit quicker. And then of course to put all the interior in, once you’ve got the hull, you going to put the bulkheads in, the engine in and tanks and all the rest of it. It all takes time.
Tracy : And how long would it take to rig?
Ian : To rig? Oh, well we could do that overnight. You’d have it all ready, you know we’d have the mast laid down and all the rigging on it and you’d just hope that it all went together, it was the right length when put it in the boat, you know. There were times when it may have had to put the extra shackle in or something, but that’s what we used to do overnight, before the launch. It was usually on a Thursday or a Friday night you would … we would never launch a new boat on a Friday, that’s unlucky.
Tracy : Why is it unlucky?
Ian : Just tradition. I mean we did do two launches to my knowledge, two, possibly three, a minute after midnight knowing that the owner wanted to use the boat the following day and the tides were such that … no, father would never launch a new boat on a Friday.
Tracy : So, what was your Company’s name?
Ian : It was called Clare Lallow which is my great grandfather’s name and he had three sons, Sidney, Harold and Arthur. They all went into the business. Sidney was the only one that had a kid, which was my father. He was an only child and then father had me and I had a sister who is in the business, not for very long. She got married and moved up to Bristol and now I’ve got my son. He won’t be going into that business (laughs).
Tracy : So, when the Company actually start?
Ian : 1867 and the story goes they built a … he built, it was just a one-man band in those days, a 10-foot boat in 10 days for 10 quid. That’s the story. I find 10 quid probably a bit high but 10 foot in 10 days is probably about right. No more questions?
Interview ends
43 minutes 28 seconds
Transcribed May 2019
Chris Litton
