LOCHGELLY in Fife may seem a bizarre location for sailmaking -- or

canvas engineering, to use another term -- but this landlocked venture

is now providing services to a wide range of businesses, writes ALAN

HUNTER.

One of the most important, in the wake of the Braer oil-spill

disaster, is the construction of a new type of oil-containing boom,

which, following research undertaken by the engineering department of

Edinburgh University, could add a whole new dimension to the work done

by the firm of James Hamilton Sailmakers.

If the tests are successful, the company may be busy stitching 1100

metres of boom, invaluable to the oil industry should there ever be

another

major spill.

All good news for the ex-sailmaker who served his time in the sail loft

of Rosyth dockyard, and who recently decided to go it alone.

Thirty-five-year-old Hamilton has adapted his skills, and is dealing

with customers from as far afield as Norway and Taiwan.

Working on awnings for ships -- he is regularly called back to his

former employer -- caravans, debris netting for the building trade,

flags, and even trampoline repairs, the company is establishing itself

in a market unexplored by the commercial sector in recent years.

Orders coming in to the former joinery business in the West Fife town

are encouraging, he says. But he is particularly encouraged by his

involvement with the university's Professor Stephen Salter, and by

advice he received on an action learning programme run by Glenrothes

Technical College, funded by Fife Enterprise, which, he says, gave him a

kick start.

The programme, headed by Jack Redpath, leader of industrial studies,

is specially geared for prospective entrepreneurs, helping them to

discuss their problems and solve them in their own ways.

Hamilton says: ''As far as I was concerned, it allowed me to know that

help was available, and that was a big advantage.

''I had access to banks of computers and videos, and it effectively

gave me the confidence to decide to go on my own.''

The opportunity of the oil industry order may mean a move to bigger

premises -- extra space will be required to work with heavy canvas

material and welded seams.

The company recently took over East Lothian firm Elvin Covers of

Prestonpans, which has allowed access to markets in Northumberland -- it

has since received orders for tarpaulins from a Sunderland-based

company, and Hamilton is confident others will follow.

He is involved in talks for new contracts with British Aluminium at

Burntisland in Fife, and has provided screened spray booths for a Leven

engineering company.