Building Boats, Making Waves
The British Boat Builders 2023 Tour: Where No Media Representation Exists, Women Create It For Themselves
What does it mean to be seen? More importantly, what does it mean to see yourself in others? These questions, intrinsic to human nature, laid at the heart of conversations Belinda Joslin and I had about gender and the maritime sector.
Belinda is the founder of Women in Boat Building, a British community interest company designed to support and inspire women in boat building and related trades.
Our discussions began across the Atlantic Ocean via regular Zoom calls. On Thursdays, Belinda would settle in with her evening cup of tea, and I, being seven hours behind, would match her with a double shot of espresso (taken neat). Over the course of these talks, we began to outline The British Boat Builders 2023 Tour.
This tour, conducted over last summer, aimed to offer a visual snapshot of the women working in England's boatyards. Joslin had been ruminating on this project and its potential impact for several years. She explained, "Boat building has historically been a predominantly male space, and as a result, imagery of boat building has consistently featured men. One of the things I wanted to do was create content and an image bank of these amazing women that could be used to inspire others."
With a Trainline pass, a decade-old DSLR camera, and a $15 lapel microphone, we set out to bring the work of these boat builders to the public. Our pool of interviewees ranged from one-woman-run operations to multi-million-dollar yacht production lines, including globally lauded companies such as Sunseeker International, Oyster Yachts, and Spirit Yachts. From cover makers and varnishers to shipwrights and electricians, we spoke with individuals from all aspects of the boat building process.
Although the tour was composed solely of women, the focus of our interview questions didn’t revolve around gender but rather on the skill sets and current projects of these shipwrights. As Joslin points out, "These women are working with tools every day and are highly skilled, and I wanted to normalize it. From hand tools to the machine shop – all tools are for all people. It's empowering to see and listen to experienced people talk about their work, not just how they got their job."
Joslin’s sentiments were echoed by many of our boat builder interviewees. While these women recognized the importance of representation within the boat building industry, many found consistent narratives focusing on their minority status to be marginalizing rather than empowering. Working behind the camera, I had the opportunity to connect with many of these boat builders, and what was abundantly clear through all of the interviews was these shipwrights' passion for and dedication to their craft.
It’s clear. Boat builders are boat builders first, irrespective of gender.
However, this is not to suggest that visual representation holds no importance in male-dominated fields, or that an individual's passion alone is sufficient to overcome the numerous barriers to entry in such sectors of work. “None of the scripted questions were about gender. But time and time again, the women found a way to talk about gender in their answers. This collection of videos highlights yet again that we need to be doing this work,” said Joslin.
Several craftswomen emphasized that their employers do not provide appropriately sized Personal Protective Equipment, crucial for health and safety, leading them to purchase their own. Many women noted the challenge of finding well-functioning workwear, as few companies cater to non-male body types. Even more common was the narrative of companies having to create a women’s restroom when one of our interviewees joined their team.
Regardless of these gender-based barriers, the ending message of each episode of the British Boat Builders 2023 Tour is resoundingly upbeat. Each boat builder seems to speak in tandem with their counterparts, urging and encouraging women to get involved in the trade. Alison Taylor, a boat builder in Faversham, summed up her impressions of the importance of gender representation, saying, "It’s always been the way that if you don’t see it, you don’t do it."
We hope that these videos will encourage not just women, but everybody to “do it”, to get involved in a marine sector that they’re curious about. So far, our web series has been well-received, reaching boat magazines as far away as Australia and even having an episode premiere at The SPILL Festival, Ipswich’s international festival of contemporary arts.
As for the future of Women in Boat Building, who co-created this tour, their trajectory isn’t dissimilar from the sentiments of our interviewees. “For Women in Boat building – the future is short hopefully. All women we’ve spoken to just want to be boat builders – not ‘Women in Boat Building’ – so our goal is to eventually be unnecessary”, says Joslin. These videos represent a crucial first step in that mission. By normalizing the presence of women in the boat building industry today, we hope to, one day, make gender-centric conversations a thing of the past. Until that day comes, however, these webisodes offer much-needed media representation where initially there was none.
If you want to watch the entire British Boat Builders 2023 Tour series, you can view it now on Women In Boat building’s YouTube Channel.
Read more about the WIBB video series in the resources below:
Water Craft Magazine's Coverage of the British Boat Builders 2023 Tour
National Historic Ship's Press Release on the British Boat Builders 2023 Tour
Ipswich Star’s Coverage of Episode 3: “SPILL Festival Announces British Boatyard Video Screening.”
National Historic Ships Network Covers The Films of The British Boat Builders 2023 Tour