Tarring the bottom planks

The traditional way to preserve a wooden boat's bottom planks is to apply Stockholm tar. It's a tricky, sticky, hot job: the tar has to be heated enough so that it will seep into the pine planks when applied, but not too hot as it could go up in flames in the tar pot. And most of the work's done 'upwards'! Here, the experts – Cakey Drake, Dan Sculley and Doug Bradley – get down to it. [Pics courtesy Yvonne Leguit]