The Boat Building Academy (BBA) at Lyme Regis now has the “Rolls Royce of saws” for its students, thanks to the generosity of a fellow, local woodworking enthusiast.

Martin Young, founder of the bespoke swing seat company Sitting Spiritually Of Lyme Regis, donated £5000 which enabled the Academy to purchase the Felder K500 dimension saw.

The saw will be used by the students of the BBA’s furniture courses. Director Will Reed said:  “This saw is the Rolls Royce of dimension saws and will be used by our furniture making students on the intensive 12-week course. The students will be taught using the machine and will then use it themselves to cut wood to accurate dimensions for their projects, including their final design and make project.

“It is a real upgrade from our previous saw and means the students will be learning on a top-quality professional piece of equipment. We are incredibly grateful to Martin for his generous gift.”

Martin Young founded Sitting Spiritually in 2004, creating the first wooden swing seats himself, before going on to employ a network of local woodworkers to meet UK and international demand.

In 2012, Sitting Spiritually became the only bespoke swing seat, rope swing and bench maker endorsed by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS).

Martin said: “My father advised me to complete a carpentry apprenticeship as a young man and said it would always stand me in good stead.

“He was right. My success has been borne out of carpentry and so I love what the BBA does, both through its wooden boat building courses and its furniture making, and I have a great admiration for the many fine tradespeople it helps to produce.”

The BBA introduced a range of new courses this summer. In addition to its world-renowned, twice yearly, 40-week boat building course, is a more compact, six-week Build a Boat Course.

The established 12-week furniture-making course also now incorporates some boat building techniques including scarf joints and copper riveting, alongside its core values of first-class joinery training and design.

Martin Young continued: “It’s a real pleasure to fund this piece of machinery and see it here inside the workshop. It gives me great satisfaction to know it will be used by other craftspeople from across the world, for many years to come.”