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
- 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 […]
- The hardwood runners on which Saga's centreboard rollers ran have now been reinstalled. Next we will reattach the mechanism used to raise the centreboard.Outside the rings used to support the heavy duty rope of our safety fence have been painted as they were rusting.The Yachting World catamaran Venture is now getting painted with a top […]
- The dinghy Saga was originally fitted with a 6 mm steel centreboard which is lowered and raised without a pivot using a pair of rollers and blocks to take the weight. We do not want the weight of the original steel centreboard sitting inside the now fragile hull so we have made up a ply […]
- The weather continues to be better than average so a few members made an outing to check on some of the historic vessels stored in a separate boat shed in Stromness. On our way back we stopped off at Ian Richardson's Boat Shed to view his latest build. Ian is building an elliptical stern yole […]