I am Kevin Longstaff and welcome to my website. I suppose that websites are "old hat" now and everyone has moved on to Facebook, YouTube, Tik Tok, Twitter, Instagram and Whatsapp but I still see this as a good way of sharing my passion for working with wood and exploiting the best of it's natural form. Over the recent years I have extended this hobby-passion to making a range of wooden creations which I have sold directly or through galleries and exhibitions. This site is aimed at showing you what I do and explain why I do it. Yacht sculptures are now my main speciality and if there is something you require that is a variant (size, shape, wood type) I can make it to your specification or simply create something entirely different - just call, email or join us on facebook (OK I did succumb!!).

I am very flexible in the sources of wood that I use but my main philosophy is to enhance the natural grain and maximize the use of all aspects of the wood. Even the flaws in wood can be turned into a feature such as the rotten knot removed from this Acacia wave. This knot induced vortex of grain highlights the water tumbling over the wave. Each piece of wood presents an exciting challenge of how best to exploit it's good and bad features to create the finished item. I use a wide variety of hardwoods including ash, oak, spalted beech, sycamore, maple, elm and cherry as well reclaimed wood. I have transformed a broken X One Design mast section into a yacht tacking duel sculpture and an old table leg into a buoy.

Sculpting wood in it's various forms holds an on-going fascination. I enjoy the challenges of how best to use the different types of wood and how to engineer their assembly. My stylized wooden yachts have been a very popular form of my sculpting and started as a consequence of my combined passions for woodwork and sailing. You will find a selection of the yachts on view for sale at a number of galleries and occasional exhibitions.

This stylised depiction of sailing yachts initially began with the Windward Series intended to show the dymamics of combined wave motion with the balance of sails and keel. Sailing to windward is the most dramatic and exciting point of sail literally sailing into the wind and waves. Multiple pieces of hardwood with defering grains and colours are employed to enhance the respective sea motion, hull design and sail panelling. The process involves selecting the most appropriate sawn seasoned hardwoods followed by planing to make the grain visible and then drawing the out lines of the hull, sails and sea wave mount so as to make best use of that grain structure.

Saws, planes, chisels and sanding tools are used to turn the pencil outlines into solid shapes that are then brought together using in some cases mortise and tenon joints. The balance of the yacht is key to achieve the desired heel without having the assembled piece falling over but not to make it too stable since yachts are themselves finely balanced between the competing forces of the wind on the sails, wave motion against the hull and the righting moment of the heavy keel. Once everything is found to look and feel right (and stay upright) then the unique yacht number is carved on the base and the long work of fine sanding followed by waxing and polishing completes the yacht.

The Windward Series has since been extended to include a specific sub-series of Salcombe Yawls. Further to this I have also introduced two more collections called the Windward Buoy and Windward Lighthouse Series to highlight the close association of navigational aids and sailing. Navigational buoys and lighthouses are still important even in this digital GPS age providing safe passage for the sailor both day and night. There is great reassurance and comfort in the sight or sound of a lighthouse on a dark,cold and wet night passage.

I am very happy to fashion yacht sculptures to defined hull shapes and sail aspect ratios as well as undertake other commissions - a selection of which are shown in my projects section. Please contact me to discuss.