Tony Dixon on Boatbuilding
Lisa: Did you ever go to the Yard and see any of the work taking place?
Oh yes. Well, as a small lad, I mainly remember the wonderful smell of sawdust and wood in the Yard, cos they were all wooden boats and it was…and Uffa used to show us round and all that was being built.
And then in 1947 Uffa got me in there as an apprentice in the Drawing Office.
Lisa: Ok, so when you were at school, did you have an idea of what you wanted to do as a job?
Not really. When I left school I applied to Mew, Langton Brewery for a job and it was in the office with the boss. I think I was offered twelve shillings a week, something of that order. And when Uffa got to hear it he said, “No you’re not going there, you’re coming to work for me” and I was on seven and six a week. But I had no option.
Lisa: And were you happy about that? Were you happy to work for your Uncle?
Well, I didn’t really know any better and, yeah, it was quite good fun in the Drawing Office, drawing up the plans and things of Uffa’s boats.
When I started, he’d just designed the Flying Fifteen, I don’t know if you’ve heard, but it’s a very popular boat and still being built today round the world. And he … a few …a bit back he’d met Prince Philip at one of the Sailing Club do’s and they got talking and he persuaded Philip to come back and sail in the Flying Fifteen which he did, and I never met Prince Philip then, but we could see him out the window and that was wonderful really.
Anyway, the Duke liked the boat and so Uffa persuaded the council to get the people of Cowes to put together and buy a boat for Prince Philip which was called ‘Coweslip’ and they won a great many races in that.
Lisa: So was that one of the first boats that you helped with in the Drawing Office?
Yeah, well it had actually been finished, but Uffa called it the Flying Family he had a Flying Fifteen and then he had a smaller one called the Flying Ten and Flying Twenty Five, so I helped to draw quite a lot of those.
Lisa: And who taught you as an apprentice?
A very good friend who, his name was Dave …David Helmer who was the Chief Draughtsman when I started there. And he taught me a lot …at 16 I think, I could do these things.
Lisa: And in those days I guess it was pencil and paper?
Yeah or inks. We used to draw a lot on what they called linen which was a roll and an ink pen which was quite a craft actually to … ‘cos you had a special pen for drawing the lines and then you had like an ordinary pen for printing the stuff up. I’ve got quite a lot of those in the garage and they’ve lasted for years.
