Kai-Uwe Eilts, boat builder and lover of old and new wooden boats. We visited him at the Ilensee Boote shipyard and spoke to him about his passion.
BOOTE: What does genuine craftsmanship mean to you in the age of automation and series production?
You say that the Ilensee 16 should be "affordable, available and yet special". What was the most difficult moment along the way?
Eilts: These three points are directly related. A boat becomes affordable and available when savings are made on the biggest cost factors of time and labour. Labour costs are the most expensive item today. If machines can take over work steps faster, more precisely and with less waste, then I work more economically. In this way, you can still build a wooden boat affordably today and maintain it well later on.
What does it feel like when you're standing in your workshop working on a boat?
Eilts: I am a very emotional person. I think it's great to restore old boats. When I imagine how people built this boat in the 1950s and I'm standing here today repairing it. That really touches me. So it's definitely emotional.
If young people today wanted to learn the profession of boat builder, what would you tell them?
Eilts: Make it! Boatbuilding is incredibly versatile: aluminium, GRP, wood - it's all there. If you find the right company for you, you learn an incredible amount in the four years of your apprenticeship. You hardly get this variety anywhere else.
