Welcome to Swallow Boats Designers, Manufacturers and Exporters of Beautiful Traditional Style Boats
Swallowboats design and build beautiful traditional style dinghies and dayboats with an emphasis on performance, safety and aesthetics. We have a growing range of beautiful craft built to the highest quality and fully certified by the EU recreational craft directive. Our more popular boats are available in glass fibre but our prefered construction method is epoxy ply. This method results in extremely light but strong boats which gives them sparkling performance and considerably eases handling ashore. Some of our boats are also available as kits for home completion which makes them easy to export worldwide. Our boats have been built in the USA, Asia and Europe.
22ft SeaRaider
20ft BayRaider
News
A Regatta and Rally for SwallowBoaters.
Summer 2006 out in Cardigan Bay
A remote little beach between Cardigan and Aberporth
Difficult to get your camera out in time for...
Writing this in the middle of a wet and cold January, it is great to imagine warmer weather and sailing events this summer. Top of your 2008 list should be our local event, organised by the Teifi Boat Club, on the 28th and 29th June. They have kindly invited all Swallow Boaters, Drascombers and traditional day boats to a friendly regatta and cruise over the weekend in the beautiful Cardigan Bay. The area is renowned for dolphins, seals, and sandy beaches with a host of other amenities for families to enjoy.
Weather permitting, we hope to be able to enjoy two days of excellent sailing with a friendly race on the Saturday and cruise in company down the coast (via any beaches we fancy for lunch) on the Sunday. On Saturday night the clubhouse (set in the sheltered sand dunes overlooking the estuary) will host a barbeque and bar for those that want to socialise whilst on Sunday there will be a high tea for hungry travellers. There are plenty of nearby campsites, bed and breakfast and hotels.
The Teifi BC is 5 minute walk from our new workshop, which should definitely be finished by then! We will be happy to show any interested parties round and we can provide overflow parking and overnight space for any camper vans (though we regret the ground will be a little uncomfortable for tents).
If that is not reason alone to come to West Wales, Milford Haven is again hosting their maritime festival for traditional boats, SeaFair Haven, the week before our Teifi event. Milford Haven is about an hour south of Cardigan, the whole stretch of this Welsh coastline is just gorgeous, with hundreds of sandy beaches and stunning cliffs. SeaFair lasts from 18-25th June and is a very relaxed affair. Participants can do the whole thing or just join in for a day or two. More details can be found on their website. http://www.seafairhaven.org.uk
Anyone interested in taking part in the Teifi Boat Club weekend should email the organiser Gareth Rowlands
for full details and a registration form, or get in touch with me and I can pass you on. There is a £5 administration fee which covers launching and use of the club facilities. We do need to know numbers in advance, so please get in touch.
The New Workshop Build Continues...
Almost water tight
The building is looking good, and has been fully clad and insulated. We are no waiting for the remaining glass, the elctrician and plumber, and of course, we have to finish our doors. Hope to be up and running by the end of Feb.
Another Photo of the Building site, Jan 18th 2008
The ends of the new workshop will be part glazed and the rest clad in timber
This photo shows the start of the western red cedar cladding. We have used green (un-seasoned) stock which has kept the costs down a little. Once the cladding is finished we will get it sprayed from the inside with insulation foam. This sticks to the timber and should provide a warm, condensation free environment.
These are the latest pictures of the new workshop we are building on land adjacent to our current site. (Jan 08)
The steel frame goes up quickly.
The roof goes on, showing the strip of ridge skylights which should give excellent light levels inside.
The first picture was taken in early December, the second just after Christmas. We are hoping for a spell of mild weather soon so that we can pour the concrete floor. The building will be a mix of steel and timber, with a fair amount of glazing to give good lighting inside. Watch this space for more photos.
Swallow Boats are in the middle of expanding their workshop facilities with a new site adjacent to their current premises (October 07)
View to the West - Teifi estuary at full flood
View to the South, where the building will be sited
Those of you who have spoken to myself or my father Nick recently will probably have heard the phrase "when we're in the new workshop" repeated as an almost holy mantra. It has taken us 2 years to get to this point, I won't bore readers with the details, but we are very excited and hope to be in by Christmas (that's Christmas 2007).
The amount of work that has to go into a project like this is huge, especially for non building industry professionals like us. I am lucky to have had my father supervise, plan and manage the whole thing, leaving me free to concentrate on the business. Without him I would have some pretty irate customers. Thanks Dad!
Our local sailing club invites all Drascombe and Swallow Boats owners to a friendly informal race in Cardigan Bay
Some of the craft participating in a joint Swallowboats and Drascombe Rally in July 07
Back in July we had a friendly rally for drascombes and Swallowboats, which despite Squally weather on the Sunday was a huge success. The Teifi Boat Club could not have been more generous in their hospitality and have extended an open invite to all Swallow Boat customers and Drascombers for for an informal race/rally out in Cardigan Bay. This August Bank Holiday Weekend (25th). For more details, please contact us.
The New Trouper 12 hits the water at last!
The lug sail arrived at last and we got out new 12 footer on the water. She really goes well and we are very pleased with her stable feel under sail. We will post more photos when we get the chance for better weather. Click here to see more
We are Selling our Strip-Planked Storm 17 Hull
After much deliberation, we have decided to offer the strip plank storm 17 hull (that we used to make the GRP mould from) for sale. Our initial intention was to turn her into an even more beautiful, wooden version of her GRP sisters, but we have reluctantly concluded that we do not have the time to dedicate and do justice to this hull. Click here to see more
Storm 15 at Beale Park Show 2006
Shows and Events 2007 Swallow Boats will be atttending a large number of events in the UK and abroad in 2007. 5-7th May: Welsh Boat Show. Carmarthen Show Ground. First public appearance for the BayRaider. 12-20th May: Semaine du Golfe du Morbihan. A lively French festival. Swallow Boats will be there with their new BayRaider, the Storm 17, possibly the Cardigan Bay Lugger, and Claus will be bringing his SeaRaider, "Craic".
8th-10th June: Beale Park Thames Boat Show. The friendly successor to the Wooden Boat Show. Come and try as many of our range as we can bring, including the new BayRaider and Trouper 12.
15th-17th June: The South Wales Boat Show. Held at Margam Park, about an hour from the Severn Bridge along the M4. We will be there with as many boats as we can muster.
Look out for more updates to this list. Swallow Boats will be organising an open regatta and open day - weekend of the 7th-8th July, on the river Teifi and out in Cardigan Bay - details to be confirmed. There is also the Teifi BC regatta on the 25th of August (Bank holiday weekend). They hold an informal Drascombe race and all swallowboats customers have an open invite. Please contact us for more information about these events.
The first two boats are being built winter 06-07
Latest Construction Photos of BayRaider posted. A link to the photos can be found at the bottom of the BayRaider page (see the link at the top of this page) or you can go straight there by clicking here We are hoping to launch these boats in Feb 07 - and are happy to take bookings for a test sail. Please fill in the form at the bottom of the BayRaider page.
The New Trouper 12 from Swallow Boats. A Car-Topper designed as a kit or complete boat
Trouper 12 - A Roof-Rackable Dinghy The Trouper 12 is a new dinghy we designed especially for car topping. She was on display at the London Boat Show, and she is having her rig designed and built at present. She should be ready for production by Late Feb/ early March 07. You can read more about this curvaceous little craft by clicking on the drawing board
Winsome Pedal Launch in Production Winsome was publicly launched at 'The Broads Green Boat Show - A Silent Sensation' at Salhouse Broad, Wroxham on Saturday 30th September 2006. See the Winsome pages for a report on the show.
New BayRaider to Start Building The BayRaider, our latest project is coming closer to reality as the design phase draws to a close. The design is a collaborative effort between Swallowboats and three future owners and is a slightly de-tuned and smaller version of our SeaRaider design. More emphasis has been placed on family comfort while maintaining the self righting and self draining characteristics that were so impressive on SeaRaider. More information on BayRaider can be found on the drawing board
The first UK Home Built Boat Regatta has been organised by Alec Jordan, of Jordan Boats and is a chance for home builders to get together, chat, and try their own and others' boats in the Cotswold Water Park. It is being held the weekend of the 16th/17th September 2006 and Matt Newland of Swallow Boats will be there, bringing their new Storm 15 and possibly their Sandpiper sailing canoe. It's a central location, there is camping virtually on site, and there are quite a number of interesting boats already committed (see website). We would strongly encourage any swallowboats customers to bring their boats along. There is also a three month free subscription to Watercraft magazine, to anyone who brings a boat they have built. More information can be found on the website: http://www.uk-hbbr.co.uk/uk/index.htm
Our newest design, the cabin topped Cardigan Bay Lugger was launched yesterday (9th July 06) for the first time. She is essentially a Storm 19 with a cuddy cabin, sleeping room for two with space for basic cooking and a chemical loo. She has been in build over the past two months and lurking on this site under the Design Work section. You can see more of the launch photos there.
Launched!
After a longer than anticipated period of development, our unique pedal powered boat Winsome will be ready for production, summer 2006. Please click on the winsome link at the top for more information.
Swallow Boats had a successful show at Beale Park taking several orders for kits and complete boats. Make sure you see us there again next year, early June 2007.
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