A STUNNING handcrafted wooden boat on route to the Jubilee Pageant stopped in to inspire students at Corfe Hills School on Friday.

The 32ft Cornish pilot gig Winspit, worth £21,000, wowed GCSE students taking the boat building course at the school.

India Seddon, 15, said: “It’s inspiriting really to see what you can do with just a bit of wood.”

Fellow student Jed Wallis, 15, who said he was looking forward to crafting his own boat during the next year of the course, added: “It gives you a lot of ideas of how you can do it.”

The students were talked through the construction by Robert Jennings, a member of Swanage Sea Rowing Club, which owns the boat. Mr Jennings, a senior lecturer at the Lyme Regis boat building college, said: “This is quality, top-end craftsmanship. When they go on to their own small scale project they can aspire to the sort of quality they see here.”

Mr Jennings will be among those rowing the craft along the Thames on Sunday, taking up a place in the first squadron – close to the Royal barge.

He added: “It should be fantastic. With 1,000 boats on the Thames it’s going to be a major once in a lifetime event.”

Design and technology teacher George Wallace, who teaches the 39 students enrolled on the boat building course, said: “The course itself is very practical. Students on completion are ideal candidates for apprenticeships. We have sent them on to Sunseeker and local carpentry and shop fitting firms.

“This year around 10 per cent will go on to do the same.”

He added: “We always bring examples of excellence into the school – and this is the top boat of its kind in the country at the moment.”