Faversham is a fine community and one that can boast many, to use horrible marketing speech, ‘USPs’. It’s a medieval market town with cobble-clad streets and bucket loads of charm, it’s got a fine independent high street with all the eateries and bars you’d associate with a thriving community.
The above flattery could be true of a few Kentish towns but one thing that the community of Faversham has which is truly unique and unusual and that is the fact that the community are chipping (or should I say shipping) in to build a boat.
This summer just past if you were on Facebook you would have been delighted to see the community coming to build a boat, videos were shared of youngsters carving wood much to our delight. The sight of Ben carving a new rudder was greeted with positive comments like “great to see younger people learning these skills”. Amazingly, these skills and workshops were being offered for no fee during the summer which climaxed with a boat race where the builders saw their boat not only successfully float but race.
Helen Adams said it best when she wrote in response to one of the videos of the boat/skiff racing “the beauty of this skiff isn’t just in the aesthetics but the love, passion and self-effacing time, effort, hard slog that has gone into it. Well done … it shows what can be achieved when people pull through and support others. This is a brilliant community project and the more support that people put behind it, be it financial or volunteering it could generate so much interest in Faversham Creek and make it a great venue for tourists, boat builders, water sports etc. Imagine how amazing a vision that could be.”
A wonderful vision indeed and Helen’s words are spot on, this boat or skiff is built on fine Faversham community spirit.
Shortly before Christmas the voyage journey of the latest Skiff to be made here in Faversham, Findlay McDonald, was on the Faversham Creek. Well done to all involved. A sense of pride and tradition is associated with this project which need your help and involvement to continue to thrive.