Welcome
About
The Orkney Historic Boat Society (OHBS) was launched in 2013.
Our Vision: To preserve the boating history of Orkney for future generations.
Our Mission: To preserve historic boats and related traditional boat building skills and crafts. To collect preserve and communicate knowledge relating to boats built in Orkney or having contributed significantly to Orkney life and to further the education and knowledge of the public in relation to historical Orkney Boats, including establishing a boat museum and workshop.
The society is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO) registered with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) with Charity Number SC044884.
This website
Here the society retains information of interest in the long term. This includes information of preserved boats and their equipment. Latest News and Event information is distributed via the society Facebook page.
The society is seeking information on potential boats for gifting towards restoration/preservation and display in the established Boat Museum. To ensure the right boats are selected for potential work and showcasing, an acquisition process has been developed. Please click on this link to download the OHBS Boat Acquisition Form. This form should be completed and then sent to the OHBS for assessment.
Get Involved
You don’t have to be an expert in research or renovation to join the Society. We welcome members who share our belief in the importance of preserving and promoting Orkney’s nautical heritage and traditions. Obviously experience in boat building or renovation would be welcome but we also need folk who are happy cleaning, painting and varnishing.
A lot can be learnt about working with wood and jobs can range from transporting water, wood, coffee and tools right up to actual renovation tasks. If you want to give it a go, contact us. You are welcome to come along for one or two sessions to see if you like it, but be warned, you might end up hooked!
There are few greater pleasures than knowing that you have contributed to the preservation of Orkney’s maritime heritage.
Join the Society
Subscription Rates and Membership Type:
Individual Membership (Annual): £15.00
Junior Membership (Annual): £2.00
Life Membership: £150
Annual Subscriptions are renewed on 6th April each year. If you would like to join please click on this link to download the OHBS Membership Application Form.
Past OHBS Newsletters are available here.
OHBS Policy documents are available on this page.
Latest News
On Facebook
- Today was boat moving day (in the rain). First we had to move some boats to make some working room. Next we used our new stacking frames to store some of the smaller boats on top of boats stored below. We now have a number of double stacked boats which saves floor space.Double stacking some […]
- The steam engine from the steam launch Nellie has been cleaned up and re-painted.Paint work on the Yachting World catamaran Venture continues.Outside clean up work on Nellie's steam boiler has been started.Saga painting is almost complete. The boom now requires stripping and revarnishing and there are some more fittings to be reinstalled including the rudder […]
- The OHBS sign board by the entrance door has been given a clean up, re-oil and varnish.Inside re-painting of the stripped upper boards and stern board of Saga has been started.Work on Laverne continues.
- We are preparing Saga by sanding off the top planks ready for paint to be applied. These planks have been painted once but we needed to strip them back when fixing the new rubbing strake to the boat.Stripping of old paint continues on Laverne.Elsewhere we are thinking about what to do next…We had several visitors […]