In the historic dry docks of the former Euskalduna shipyard in Bilbao, Itsasmuseum runs Erain, a project dedicated to safeguarding and transmitting the tangible and intangible heritage of traditional wooden boatbuilding and wooden vessels in Bizkaia. Launched in 2016, Erain brings together conservation, research, documentation, training and participation through an open workshop and a collection of historic vessels. From the outset, the project has been guided by the conviction that preserving this heritage means safeguarding not only the boats themselves, but also the knowledge required to build, maintain and understand them.
Its most ambitious undertaking has been the conservation and restoration of the Nuevo Anchústegui, based on scientific criteria, a wooden coastal fishing vessel built in 1958 at the Arriola shipyard in Ondarroa. Measuring 21.20 metres in length, it is the oldest surviving large wooden coastal fishing vessel in Bizkaia and an exceptional testimony to traditional shipbuilding and the fishing culture of the Cantabrian coast.
The intervention was based on a simple yet demanding principle: the aim was not to make the vessel seaworthy again, but to preserve it as a historical document. A multidisciplinary team assessed each decision by combining contemporary conservation-restoration principles with traditional wooden boatbuilding techniques. Priority was given to retaining original material and to minimum intervention, while components, construction techniques and conservation work were documented in detail through drawings, photographs, models and technical records.
Yet Erain is also a project about people. A community has grown around the workshop, bringing together technical staff, volunteers, students, professionals from a range of disciplines and partner institutions. Working side by side has encouraged the intergenerational transmission of knowledge and has enabled techniques at risk of disappearing to continue to be practised and documented.
After years of work, the restoration of the Nuevo Anchústegui culminates in 2026, leaving a legacy that goes far beyond the preservation of a single vessel. The experience gained has been distilled into a Good Practice Manual for the Conservation and Restoration of Traditional Wooden Vessels, conceived as a way of sharing the methodology, principles and lessons learned with other institutions and communities working with maritime heritage. https://www.itsasmuseum.eus/en/best-practice/
Because preserving a boat is not simply about preserving timber. It means safeguarding the traces left by those who built, sailed and repaired it, and passing on the knowledge that will allow future generations to understand it.
