Berthon and its People

By Dominic May, Photography © Berthon, berthon.co.uk

At the end of January this year, we celebrated the retirement of Martin Young, an important member of our Berthon family, after over 50 years in the business. A highly skilled shipwright, he started his working journey at Berthon in 1973. His time at Berthon is a gleaming thread in the tapestry of our firm, and he is much missed by us all.

MARTIN WINNING THE SHIPBUILDING INDUSTRY TRAINING BOARD’S AGAR TROPHY FOR BEST TRAINEE 1974

Through the projects that he worked on, colleagues that he trained with, those who he worked with and the many who he himself trained, he has left behind a legacy which makes us all richer for both working with, and knowing him. Berthon shipwright Gabriel says “it’s not only that he’s brilliant at what he does: it’s his personality that stands out the most. His positivity is infectious”.

As an apprentice joiner, he was influenced by the Berthon shipwrighting greats that came before – Don Slocombe, Ken Woolgar, Tony Keeping and Ron Hampton. In 1973, Berthon was building the 70’ motor yacht ENVIRONIST which later became TAMBURA. Martin helped make and fit her teak interior, and the next year won the Agar Trophy awarded by the Shipbuilding Training Board, for the best trainee.

ANITA AND MARTIN 1980s

60 foot TSDY SAVIK came next with Martin working on the sycamore and rosewood interior. In the 1970s Berthon built nine Fisher 46s and Martin was on the team building their lovely teak joinery.

In the early 1980s Berthon fitted out the first of the MARI-CHAs for Bob Miller, a Nicholson 70, and Martin ran the team that built her sycamore interior. Soon after, he met Anita from the Berthon accounts department at the Christmas party. They celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary in 2023…

MARTIN AND DEN (WILLIAM) KITCHER (RETIRED AFTER 49 YEARS IN 2021)

24.3 METRE TSDY DALVINA – HANDCRAFTED TEAK INTERIOR

MARTIN WITH GABRIEL, JOINERY FOREMAN

MARTIN YOUNG

Back to boats, with the build of three Arun class lifeboats for the RNLI, the plywood joinery with solid mahogany trim were the work of Martin and his team.

Next up was the restoration of DRUMBEAT, a 57’ Ray Hunt design, originally built for Sir Max Aitken. Today she has a stunning American cherry interior built by Martin and his crew.

At that time, Robert Iliffe commissioned Berthon to build an 80 foot aluminium motor yacht called DALVINA. His father had previously ordered Berthon to build a 17 ton Gauntlet called SYRINX in 1936, one of a series of sailing yachts built by Berthon, and probably the first run of production yachts ever. Of course, SYRINX was built by the shipwrights that had mentored Martin when he started his career back in the 70s. Don Slocombe ran the DALVINA project, and when he became ill, Martin took his place becoming joinery foreman at the age of only 31. DALVINA’s joinery was of lightweight fore-cored plywood with teak veneer joinery – a very different method of construction from SYRINX’s solid teak build.

GALLEY FIT OUT FOR SY AGLAIA 77FT YACHT

MARTANN was next up, a 65 foot motor yacht with a bird’s eye maple and Canadian rock maple interior. After many years in the Mediterranean, she is now back at Berthon and called SILVER SPACE. Her joinery still looks good today and Martin was aboard doing some touch ups not long ago.

The next big project at Berthon was the 90 foot river-cruising barge TIGRE D’OR and her remarkable joinery is the work of Martin and his team. At the same time, they were busy with a few pilot boats with formica plywood interiors.

1993 to 2003 saw the construction of twenty 56 foot Severn Class lifeboats for the RNLI. Martin and his team built the interiors from aerospace grade F board, a GRP/epoxy sandwich with an aluminium honeycomb core to save weight.

ARUN 52′ TS LIFEBOAT, WITH MARTIN’S SON AND DAUGHTER ON THE BOW

One of six motor yachts originally built to support the mighty J Class racing yachts of the 1920s and 30s, BOUNTY’s restoration was an exciting project for Berthon and Martin and his crew were kept busy with a new, yet traditional interior in Edwardian mahogany.

Over the years Martin became skilled in GRP and composite laminating, laying teak decks as well as making invisible repairs to woodwork.

One of the stand-out things about Martin is the way that he passed on his skills to two new generations of apprentices. Here at Berthon, training young people through our apprenticeship training programme is the most important thing that we do, and Martin was an important part of that, passing on the skills learned from those who came before, adding his enormous knowledge and giving the crew today the skills that they will need in the future. Joinery foreman David was trained by Martin as an apprentice some 38 years ago and commented “Martin’s impact on my career is huge. He’s been there throughout my entire career”.

MARTIN AS A YOUNG JOINERY FOREMAN

For Martin and Anita, retirement will mean time with grandchildren both in the UK and Australia, long, leisurely walks in the New Forest which encircles Berthon, and of course there will be working with wood as always.

For Berthon, the business of boat building and fine joinery, as well as working with modern technology and the high-tech materials that are used today marches on. Martin was a huge part of our story for the last half century. His legacy of skills and training will be with us for the next half century. Our commitment to the training and development of our people at Berthon sees many super-skilled technicians learn their trade with us, develop their skills to extraordinarily high level and pass on their skills to the next generation.

This is why Berthon is its people, all of whom are passionate about what they do. Whether refit, repair or new build, for the boats and yachts that pass through the big blue sheds at Berthon, all our work is carried out by a team whose knowledge is deep. Whilst we can no longer offer you Martin to work on your yacht, you can be sure that the team who follow him have the same commitment and skills. He taught them after all!

We wish Martin and Anita a very happy retirement.

Read Another Article
Download The Berthon Book 2024-2025 XX (28.2MB)

M.Y BOUNTY ARRIVED AT BERTHON IN SEPTEMBER 2005 FOR A REFIT

PASSING SKILLS ON TO THE NEXT GENERATION OF APPRENTICES