Living on an island for all or much of their lives, Keith Buchanan and his wife Carol have boating in the blood. They sail a 54-foot ketch, Carol used to row in one of St. Mary’s eight wooden gigs, and Keith has been crafting canvas sails on the part of the quay in Hugh Town on St. Mary’s known as Rat Island for as long as he can remember.
In 1977, when Keith got a large commission to make an awning for a restaurant, he had a lot of canvas left over and was scratching his head for a way to avoid wasting it. He had a brainwave. He bought some 1955-made industrial sewing machines from his brother (also a sailmaker), made a bag from the leftover canvas and sold it. Rat Bags was born. “The name was the suggestion of a local doctor and seemed perfect so it stuck,” says Carol. “It makes people smile.”
Soon Carol, and her sister Helen (who joined later and now runs Rat Bags), were making a host of items out of their colourful canvas offcuts, from holdalls and hats to smocks and aprons. Each carried a label displaying a rat, the company’s logo, designed by a local artist. “The joy of canvas is that as it’s tightly woven it’s waterproof and incredibly strong so it can take a lot of use. I still use a bag that I made in 1986,” says Carol. “People find it nostalgic too. It reminds them of their school bags when they were children.”
Over time, sailmakers like Keith stopped using canvas and switched to lighter man-made polyester, so Carol and Helen no longer use his offcuts and instead buy in their own vat-dyed canvas from a UK supplier. But they still avoid waste by using every morsel. Scraps are used for luggage labels, dog bowls or mobile phone holders. Some are even transformed into canvas art by employee Nancy Parsons, one of the team that now numbers five.
How does the canvas get to St. Mary’s? Like everything, by boat of course. But Helen and Carol don’t use anything as ordinary as a freight ship. Instead, they often use Keith and Carol’s CT 54 ketch. “The boat winters at Mylor, so in spring we collect our annual supply of canvas from Penzance or Falmouth, cram it into the boat and sail it over,” says Carol. “It saves freight costs and means we have the boat here for the summer.”
Carol and Helen are both lifelong gig boat rowers and for two years in a row Helen held the title of veteran world champion. So, both have always been painfully acquainted with a rower’s perennial complaint: sore backside. In 1987, Carol had the ingenious idea of using their canvas to make foam-filled rowing seats. They flew out of the shop. And although other companies have now jumped on the bandwagon, the seats (£58 apiece) remain one of their bestselling products, with many gig crews ordering sets to collect on arrival at the World Pilot Gig Championships that Scilly hosts in May.
Another brainwave was a heli-holdall that meets the specifications of Penzance Helicopters which require soft luggage. Choose the colour of your bag, straps and zips. Holdall zips, like all of Rat Bags’ zips, are made from waterproof nylon rather than metal which would soon corrode in Scilly’s salty environment.
The team’s creative minds came up with other ideas too, like rudder-shaped shoulder bags that are a cross between a daysack and a money belt, and last year developed a cult following among the islands’ youngsters. Colourful Rat Packs are also popular, a cheery variation on standard back packs.
Given how robust canvas is, sewing it is not easy. Helen, who is Rat Bags’ chief seamstress, says learning how to operate the company’s heavy duty machines effectively and safely takes years. “I’ve been using them for thirty and I’m just starting to get good at it,” she laughs. “The canvas is so tough it can break the needles, so you need to be careful.”
Rat Bags is very much a family business. Helen’s son Mikey and his girlfriend Nancy look after cutting, orders and serving customers. Dulcie, who works as a seamstress, is girlfriend of Keith and Carol’s son Jake. “There’s a lot of pressure to grow the business, but we want to remain a small family business rather than a sweatshop,” says Carol. “We don’t have the space to get any larger anyway.” That, perhaps, explains the low-key “Canvas Shop” sign outside the store located down an alley off Hugh Town’s main street. Only the eagle-eyed find it.
Rat Bags’ products can be ordered online (which accounts for around a quarter of sales) but for visitors and locals who manage to find the shop, half of the fun is visiting it and watching the stuff being made. The array of colourful merchandise is a feast for the eyes and the team are happy to take on commissions, big or small, such as mending a tent or a jacket zip or altering a pair of trousers. The smell of the canvas, rather like that of leather, is mesmerising too. But perhaps the shop’s biggest draw is the breath-taking view of St. Mary’s Harbour and Town Beach through the windows at the far end. As the Singer machines sing, staff and customers alike can watch the tripper boats departing for other islands and waves crashing over St. Helen’s rocks in the distance. It’s a fitting backdrop for a company that’s all about the sea.
Image credit: adjbrown.com
