Paul Dyer worked in IT management before completely changing career and becoming a student on the 38 week course here at the Academy, where he gained Distinctions at Levels II and III.  He worked as a boat builder and as Accommodation Manager at Lyme Regis Marine Centre before being promoted to his present role of Training Manager and Instructor.

Mike Broome spent six years as a marine engine fitter before becoming a designer of special-purpose machinery.  He left engineering to train in traditional boatbuilding skills in Lyme Regis.  On graduating he set up Simmons & Broome Ltd with a fellow student, building and restoring wooden boats.  Mike has been teaching at the BBA since 2005 (part-time), joining as a full-time instructor in January 2008.  Mike is a member of the Institute for Learning, having gained QTLS status.

Before taking the City & Guilds course at the BBA in 1999, Matthew worked in education and research at Trinity College, Dublin.  Prior to that he worked in emergency relief and development in East Africa, running displaced people centres for NGOs and United Nations.  After deciding to completely change his career Matthew joined the ‘long’ course at the Academy.  He served as a shipwright in Lathams Boatyard in Poole afterwards, but we persuaded him to instruct at the BBA in 2004.  He’s been here ever since.

Before training as boatbuilder in 2008, Joe worked as an architect in London. He has continued to be involved with a number of building design projects concerned with engineering in timber and has been teaching on and off at the BBA since 2012. Joe is now a full-time instructor on the 40 week Boat Building course.

Rob grew up around water, his father runs a fish farm on the River Kennet, but had never sailed.  Over the years Rob covered almost every job on the farm, including working with green oak and making bridges and jetties.  Wanting to master a craft, Rob attended the Academy’s boat building class of March 2012.  One of his many accomplishments while on the course was to grow a vegetable garden on the Small Machine Shop roof.  After leaving the course Rob managed and maintained a private estate until he joined the Academy as full-time Machinist in August 2017.  His hobbies include camping, walking, swimming, playing the guitar and bushcraft.

A professional designer/maker of over four decades, Dan Williams joined the Academy in September 2021 to teach the 12-week Furniture Making course and the series of 2-to-5-day woodworking short courses.

Dan is a graduate of the prestigious Parnham College in Beaminster, the world-famous design school created by legendary designer/maker John Makepeace OBE.

After graduation, he enjoyed a wide and varied career across Europe in both furniture making and boat building disciplines – including stints working for renowned contemporary designers Fred Baier and David Colwell.

Since 2004, Dan has worked as a maker in his Bridport studio, primarily on commissions and restoration projects, as well as bespoke joinery and camper van conversions.

Recently, Dan finished a commission to design and build a treehouse in Spain.

Petter started his career as a boat builder in Norway before transitioning to furniture making to study at the College of Redwoods in Maine, USA, under intuitive cabinetmaker James Krenov. In 1989, he came to Dorset and joined John Makepeace’s forward-looking sustainable design college at Hooke Park. There he started to design and make his steam-bent furniture using innovative combinations of boatbuilding and cabinet-making techniques.

Since 1991, he has been based at his workshop in Sladers Yard, West Bay, where he has trained a generation of woodworkers – many of whom have gone to have successful furniture design studios of their own.

Petter teaches the 12-week Advanced Furniture Making course.

Geoff graduated from BBA in the summer of 2014, following a thirty-five-year career in the Royal Navy. While qualified as a Yacht & Small Craft Marine Surveyor, Geoff pursued boat building and secured a workshop near Dorchester to set up Bowker Marine Services. Projects have been some new builds but mostly renovation, restoration and repair of wooden boats and particularly of clinker vessels.

Geoff teaches some of the 2 to 5-day boat building and woodworking short courses.

Bob graduated as a biochemist and worked for the same laboratory supplies company for 32 years – in laboratories, human resources, IT management and European marketing. He joined the 38 week course in March 2007. Bob then gained a PGCE and QTLLS status and set up boat building apprenticeships at Bournemouth and Poole College, working with Sunseeker. He joined us again in 2016 as tutor.

Colin Henwood, Founder of ‘Henwood & Dean’ on the Thames, has been restoring and maintaining traditional Thames boats over 25 years, as well as using traditional methods and techniques to design and build new boats.  Craft restored by Henwood and Dean have won many prestigious awards, including the Classic Boat Magazine trophy for ‘Best Professional Boatbuilder’ for the stunning 13′ electric launch, Polly, in addition to the ‘Thamesis’ Trophy for best new boat built to a traditional design.  Henwood & Dean boats are often featured in Thames-based events and on TV.  Colin instructs our 5-day Renovation and Finishing short course. Find out more about Colin in a Profile written by Classic Boats.

Mark has 28 years experience in all aspects of sail making including construction, design and repairs. He lives locally, just across the bay in Portland. Mark teaches all sail making training at the BBA.

Christopher Booth has been involved in the care of antique furniture for over forty years. After completing his training at West Dean and in Paris he worked for Jeremy’s on the King’s Road, before setting up his own restoration business, Ballantyne Booth, in Notting Hill.

Chris then moved to West Dorset where he still works as a master restorer. He is a specialist in all aspects of period property maintenance, including gilding, picture hanging, textile and fabrics, french polishing, stone masonry, veneer matching, furniture making and wax polishing.

In 1987 Christopher established Christopher Booth Furniture Restoration in Dorset, specialising in 18^th century English and French furniture.  In 2010 he took on the restoration and conservation of all furniture at Hoglands, former home of Henry Moore and continues with the ongoing annual maintenance for the Henry Moore Foundation.

Chris instructs our Antique Furniture Restoration short course, details can be found here.

Justin Adkin was brought up on boats in the fishing village of Beer. He built his first boat in his spare time during an engineering apprenticeship, then went to Rowsell and Morrison to build rowing dinghies and ocean rowing boats.  In 2003 Justin set up his own business building Salcombe Yawls and ocean rowing boats, including the boat he built for himself and in which, with his brother and two cousins as a four-man crew, he won the ’05-’06 Atlantic Rowing Race.

Roy began as an apprentice boat builder in 1946 before enlisting in the Royal Marines where he was responsible for landing craft operations and later senior instructor of seamanship, craft handling and navigation. He returned to Lyme Regis to manage the family fishing business for several years until he finally reopened the toolbox – building clinker dinghies and working boats for local use. He is a visiting Instructor and mentor at the Academy and produces wooden sculptures and carvings from home – examples of Roy’s work can be seen on his website www.lymebaycarvings.co.uk