Amy Stringfellow | The Place That Made Me

Amy Stringfellow is a rare breed. A female boatbuilder with a passion for old shipwrighting techniques, she keeps alive a tradition and trade that dates back centuries. But this talent might never have been uncovered had it not been for her choice to go to Falmouth Marine School, back in 2017.

We caught up with Amy in Penryn, surrounded by a forest of masts, to find out more about her incredible journey and how her connection with the sea, and Falmouth in particular, was central to her finding the passion of her life.

 

So, you’re a boat builder. I wouldn’t think that’s the easiest thing to just fall into, so how did it all come about?

Towards the end of my third year I ended up living on a boat in sailors creek which is just up the Penryn river. (Amy gestures behind her towards the forest of sail masts sprouting from the grey water.) She’s been restored since, but she’s probably about 120 years old now… a Manx Nobby Lugger, one of the last of her kind. In boat terms it’s a really big deal!

So yeah, I didn’t really do much to her. I didn’t really know anything about boats. I just had to learn pretty quick! I got a couple of books out from the Library, tried to learn how to sail, tried to learn how to fix bits that were leaking, because when you wake up with a wet face in the morning, that’s something you don’t want…

No, you definitely don’t. So what was it that drew you down to Falmouth in the first place?

I moved to Cornwall when I was 18. I’ve travelled a bit but Falmouth is always the place I come back to. Falmouth is an amazing town. I’d come to parts of Cornwall before on holiday, but I’d never been to Falmouth. I don’t know how I passed it though. There’s something about the place and about studying by the water, and the maritime heritage here is just incredible.

%cross-sell-products-start%

womens-eldon-tee-navy-stripe | womens-lewis-chinos-sable | kelson-sock-navy-marl

%cross-sell-products-end%

Once you’d moved down to Cornwall, you were here studying, you were living on the boat starting to tinker around. How did it go from that place, to turning it into your actual career?

Well… I had lived on the boat. I’d never worked as a boat builder at this point, it was just our boat and I was messing around on it. It was only when I went travelling and I was dotting around boatyards between some of the islands in New Zealand and I just went all in. I think that was my first proper taste of the boating lifestyle. I did some absolutely amazing sails. New Zealand is an incredible place, but getting to see the mainland from the sea is something else. It’s a similar vibe to around here when you get out on the Carrick Roads and you’re looking back at the land and it leaves you a bit speechless.

So, this is really interesting. With you starting down this path a bit later in life, you will remember really clearly the first time you went out on the water to sail. Not everyone can say that. What was that first experience on the water like for you?

Wow, yeah… I guess maybe it’s like the first time you try surfing, and you’re ab-so-lutely stoked. You come out and you feel like, “1) I can’t believe I’ve never done this before, and 2) you’re just so immersed by the ocean and you’re kind of… Wow, this is hard. I’m not explaining it well. How do you describe a feeling where you feel really small and massive at the same time?

%cross-sell-products-2-here% 

I think in surfing people say a lot of the time that it’s a moment of pure mindfulness. You’re so focused on what you’re doing that you’re not thinking of anything else. So, when was that? Do you remember?

November 2012? It was a long time ago. It was just coming into the New Zealand summertime, so it was perfect, beautiful weather. It was just such a special time. And I think it shaped me a lot. I went out there with a group of friends and they went off and did their thing and I was just like, “I need to go and do this, see ya later!” I didn’t see them for about four months.

Now, if I hadn’t have done that – and I know my friends were sad when I left – but if I hadn’t done it, I would not be where I am now. I think you kind of have to be selfish sometimes and just go for it. It was the only thing that I’d found that really got me excited and the only thing that I really felt passionate enough about to follow through on.

Was it simply wanting to be on the water? The boats themselves? What drew you to it?

Everything. It’s just all of it. When you’re invited into the boat-building community and the boating community, it’s so niche and it’s so small that you have this whole crew that makes you feel like you’re a part of something. It’s exciting and there’s a sense of freedom that you’re not going to get from anything else. Maybe surfing is the most closely related, but there’s something different when you’re out in the middle of the ocean, and you’re there with 2 other guys, and you realise, well, this is me now for the next few months.’

So after the travelling, Falmouth called you back again. What is it about this place for you that’s so special?

My connection with Falmouth is so closely linked to how I feel about the sea and how I feel about this landscape. I’m just grateful. I wouldn’t be who I am now if it wasn’t for this place. I wouldn’t even have considered a life on boats or anything like that if it weren’t for the Manx Nobby Lugger that I lived on.

If you go and explore this landscape by boat, it’ll blow your mind. Go up the creeks, they’re incredible. You feel like you’re in the amazon, it’s absolutely amazing. Seeing the land from the water is really special. Falmouth is like a painting, all these tiny little multi-coloured houses and lights, it’s beautiful.

I really like hiking and I climb a lot, so I have a good balance of land-based activities and what I like to call ‘messing about on boats’. Having the ability to go for a surf, then the next minute hiking on the cliff path and then you can go to the pub and then back in the sea if you want…

I still feel like that when I go back and visit family in Grimsby. I hated it when I grew up there but, when you go back to a place having not been there for a long time, you’re suddenly taller, and everything feels far smaller than you remember. The River Humber is brown, it’s dirty, it’s grotty. But it’s so powerful at the same time. I went home last year and just remember being sat, watching the water move. The sun was going down… it was beautiful. I just remember thinking, “How did I miss this? How did I not see this?”

I think I developed my love for the sea down in Falmouth, but then when you transfer it to a different place you appreciate it more for what it is. It grounds you and reconnects you to something powerful and natural.

%article-slider%

Since you first found your passion for the water, has your relationship with the sea itself changed over time?

My connection to the sea has actually changed a lot. I was diagnosed with epilepsy about 4 years ago. I’m fine and it’s all ok, but it changed things for me. I got scared real quick and I stopped going in the water because of it.

It’s a shame, because it put me off going sailing and it put me off going surfing. But last year I sailed from the Scilly’s to Ireland on a friend’s boat, and that was life-changing for me because I finally got over myself and realised that actually, if anything does go wrong, what’s really the worst that’s going to happen? There’s always someone to hand on a boat. It was just about not letting it hold me back.

All the doctors said, “you can’t do your job now, you need to find something else to do”. But I had already found the thing that I wanted to do! I loved it, and someone was trying to take that away from me. It really scared me. But I realised gradually that it’s just about finding your own way of doing things safely. I think at some point you just have to accept you are who you are, you want what you want. A medical condition doesn’t have to define that. I feel like that was a huge moment. It disconnected me with the sea and I still feel it a bit now. I really want it back; I want to get that stoke back. I miss it, I miss messing around and enjoying it. It sucks, but I’m ok and I think it’s worth noting. Things change and your life changes all the time, just like the sea does I guess.

Last question. There’s an amazing boating community year round here, but we do have some highlights. The tall-ships coming in, for example. So, when is your favourite time in Falmouth? When is boat-builders Christmas for you?

My favourite time in Falmouth is Classics. It’s around the shanty fest, and we go out every year, sailing and racing. I love when you do the parade of sail in Falmouth Week as well, it’s so much fun. When you’ve got all your friends in one place and everyone’s scattered on different boats and you’re lobbing water balloons at each other it’s awesome, it’s fun. And with the big traditional ships, you’re sat on the deck or lying on the deck, looking up at these massive mainsails, you have the topsail going mad, and you have the jib out… they’re such massive things.

You can’t describe it. I think whether you’re sailing big boats or small boats, it is the closest thing you can get to flying; you’re on top of the water and you are, essentially, flying.

%cross-sell-products-2-start%

womens-litus-waterproof-jacket-sea-spray | womens-luder-jeans | spey-beanie-indigo

%cross-sell-products-2-end%

 

Interviewed by Zak Rayment  |  Images by Abbi Hughes