A boatyard has taken on its first female boat-builder after more than 100 years in business.

Engineers have been building boats at the Hillyards Boatyard site since at least the 1830s and they have all been men.

Now a 17-year-old girl has entered their macho world and is determined to learn the skills required to repair or build a traditional wooden boat or modern fibreglass vessel.

Amy Van Der Wee, from Middleton, near Bognor, will spend five years as an apprentice, picking up skills from engineers who have spent their entire working lives at the yard in Littlehampton.

Sexy calendars have been removed and her new colleagues have started cooking freshly-caught mussels and cream for lunch as she settles in.

She said: "I've always lived by the sea and been around boats so it seemed natural to start working with them.

"It's my first proper job and it's been great, everybody here is really easy to get on with and they're all very supportive. I was a little bit concerned before I met them but it's been fine.

"They don't treat me differently to anyone else and a lot of my friends are male so I'm used to it. I'm not a tomboy though."

Marine engineer Paul Wolfe said Amy was an excellent student who was quickly picking up new skills and had not been fazed by working in the traditionally all-male workshops.

He said: "We have removed the calendars but nobody's really bothered about it. She fits in really well and is treated as one of the lads. She gives as good as she gets."

Amy said she would be happy to stay at Hillyards after her apprenticeship.

She said: "I like it here and wouldn't want to work at one of the really big firms where there are 200 other employees.

"I like being able to work outside and being busy all the time. An office job would not suit me at all."

Amy spends four days a week at the boatyard and one day on a course at the Meridian Trust in Portsmouth. At the end of her apprenticeship she will have an NVQ qualification.

Ron Newnhan, 70, started working at the yard in 1952 and is the longest-serving boat-builder.

He said he was pleased to have Amy on board and wanted to pass on his skills and experience to her and the yard's nine other engineers so future generations would still be able to work with wooden boats in an age when most are made of fibreglass.

He said: "It's good to have Amy here, she's keen to learn and she seems to have a knack for it. These days boat-builders have to go to college to learn but most of what they are taught is how to build fibreglass boats. I call them caravan-builders.

"I love boat-building, it has always been in my life. I know the history of a lot of the boats and have worked on them over the years so it's good to see them coming back and finding out where they have been."

The late David Hillyard established the boatyard in 1904 and set up one of the first production lines for affordable sailing boats in the world.

More than 700 Hillyard yachts and boats were built. Hundreds are still in use and regarded as classics by sailing enthusiasts.

Hillyard owner Rupert Young has been restoring his schooner for ten years and spent four years living permanently in a shed at the yard. He stored his cello and piano under the hull and worked on the project full time.

He said during the restoration people would walk past the shed every day offering conflicting advice about the best way to restore the boat and he learned a great deal about boat-building from the project.

Dozens more early Hillyard models are still regularly taken back to Littlehampton to be repaired or restored.

During the Second World War, more than 100 people worked at the yard building minesweepers but in peacetime there were rarely more than 40 employees.

The late Mr Hillyard was a committed Christian and put a Bible in each boat when it left the yard.

Workers started each day with prayers and Mr Hillyard promised buyers their boats would go wherever their courage would let them go. Business has dropped off since the early Seventies and these days there are only ten boat-builders at the yard.

Managing directors Simon Cullingford and John Lambson plan to expand over the next few years by creating new Hillyard boats such as the 86ft Sahara cruiser prototype, designed by Laurent Giles naval architects.

They also plan to capitalise on the yard's position in what has become a niche market, restoring and repairing boats with wooden hulls.

Mr Lambson said the yard had suffered from a low profile and being too far from Southampton and the Solent, where much of the yachting community is based.

The firm has started offering free collection and delivery to lure customers from Hampshire and promotions are being carried out to forge closer links with Hillyard boat-owners.

Wednesday, November 9, 2005