OBITUARY: A tribute to coble builder Joe Gelsthorpe

A well-known figure around the repair shed of Bridlington harbour, Joe spent the last months of his life at the Magdalen Care Home in Hedon. After his funeral at St. Nicholas Church, Hornsea, on Thursday, August 20, he was buried in Southgate Cemetery to join his mother and father.

He always had a passion for boats and, when only 13, he built his own 16ft canoe, using it to set crab pots. As a youth in Hornsea, he befriended two teachers who happened to own a sailing coble. One day, they took him sailing and, from then on, he was hooked. Cobles would play a major part in his life.

When 18, he became a Coastguard volunteer, and was later in charge of the Hornsea station for ten years, eventually receiving his 35-year service medal. He did not retire from the service until he was 60. In 1971, he received the Royal Humane Society Award for rescuing a boy who had been washed out to sea off Hornsea.

Joe respected the sea but loved nothing better than going out in what he called ‘silly seas’ when others held back. Once, people took bets on the beach as to whether he would get back, or not, but he never needed rescuing. Members of the Bridlington Yacht Club might recall him sailing at this time with the Rix family when he relished the challenge of a strong wind and a hefty sea.

In the 1960s, he began his Pebble Boat Business in Hornsea and built over 1,500 fibreglass fishing boats; these were made from a mould taken from a 16 ft wooden coble he’d made in the traditional way using larch and oak. He also built a larger coble for his own use.

When he moved to Barmston, he continued to build boats from a workshop there, notably the coble, Gemini, in 1979. This was built for the Pockleys of Flamborough, and it was later displayed in Goole Waterways Museum.

When the demand for boats declined, Joe turned his woodworking skills to furniture and longcase clocks. He moved back to Hornsea and turned Hebden’s Funeral Parlour in the Market Place into an Antiques Shop. In the workshop behind, he restored antique furniture and clocks, and rose to any challenges – to make a spiral staircase, a cart wheel or even renovate a gypsy caravan. Among his many interests, he loved collecting old tools; at one time, he possessed about 600.

While most people retire in their seventies, Joe had two knee replacements and spent time working with John Clarkson for the Bridlington Harbour Commissioners – to restore the hundred year old coble – The Three Brothers – and he enjoyed a chat with Prince Charles when he visited Bridlington harbour and saw the coble.

Then, again with John, two years later, Joe built identical sailing cobles, the first ones built there for nearly 40 years – Free Spirit and Misnomer (later renamed Gansey Lass).

It was Joe’s dream to preserve the coble traditions and pass on his boat building skills. To this end, he was a keen supporter of the Bridlington Sailing Coble Preservation Society and helped instigate the now annual Coble Festival in Bridlington. He did nurture hopes of a Coble Museum one day that would house both boats and the tools used to build them.

As Joe retired from building large boats, he built model cobles instead – perfect replicas of the different types, complete with sails.

As people who knew him will agree, he was always available for a chat about almost anything from ganseys to lobster recipes to ways of rigging a yacht.

An authority on cobles, he was interviewed as part of an East Yorkshire Oral Project; this and another interview can be seen on YouTube. He later assisted the local historian, Paul Arro, offering photos and information for a published history of the Hornsea Lifeboat.

A true craftsman at heart, he has left behind beautiful boats and furniture.

He also leaves a son, Tom, a daughter, Joanne and two grandchildren, Hannah and Dominic. Whether as a customer, a fellow worker, or a sailing companion, people will miss him and fondly remember their time spent in his company.