Welcome to Lakeland Wooden Boats

Repairing, renewing, restoring traditional wooden dinghies and dayboats, traditional cruisers, Mallard clinker dinghies, steam launches and boats built to order are just some of what we do here at Lakeland Wooden Boats. We work with our clients to repair, renew, adapt and create wooden boats that are everything our clients hope for. We can work to designs to create a craft from scratch, to designs that require the adaptation of an existing craft or simply restore, renew, repair and improve any wooden boat for better performance, looks and safety.

Lakeland Wooden Boats is owned and run by Kevin Halcrow and along with the input of designers, purchasers and enthusiasts, the workshop turns out some incredible craft for all sorts of conditions and people. Creating, repairing or adapting wooden boats is an old skill that is kept alive by craftsmen throughout the world, craftsmen who take pride in what they do and understand that our work requires the utmost attention to safety and performance. Lakeland Wooden Boats is renowned throughout the industry for our record of achievement both in the quality of our craftsmanship, as well as for our consideration for the environment.

About Kevin
My involvement in boatbuilding formally began in 1991 when I spent a year at the International Boatbuilding Training College in Lowestoft. As an engineering graduate from Bradford University, I had spent 10 years at the Drax coal-fired power station in North Yorkshire before this change of direction. Boat building is actually one of the oldest branches of engineering so the change was at least a natural progression.

There were two major factors which led me to give up this lucrative career in the power industry and embark on this path. One was a desire to creatively express myself in a tangible way and the other was my growing concern about the way the earth’s resources are being used in the pursuit of energy. I wanted to devote my energies to a way of life that conserves and creates...not merely consumes.

So Lakeland Wooden Boats was founded and I set myself up in a workshop in Hull before settling here amidst the beauty of the Lake District in Kendal, Cumbria. I only buy my wood from properly managed timber sources, create crafts that delight designers and purchasers alike and have the sheer joy of working each day with my hands to create more than just wooden boats – but energy efficient pleasures for people to enjoy for generations to come.