A form of therapy and a means of using logic is how two students have described a ship model-making course they have just followed.

The course, held at the Maritime Museum in Vittoriosa and led by Joe Abela, was a joint venture between the Malta Society of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce and Heritage Malta.

Thirteen students attended the course, the first of its kind to be held at this level with the youngest participant Matthias Attard aged nine and the oldest Guzeppi Vella 75.

Victor Rodenas, 62, said he wished such a course had been available some 20 years ago. He claims that the craft of boat building is dying out and most of the craft seen at sea are made of fibreglass.

"It would be a great pity if in the next few decades this craft died out altogether," he said.

Dexterous hands and a good sense of improvisation are some of the abilities needed to make the models. The important thing is the enthusiasm to build something from scratch rather than going to a hobby shop and buying a ready-made kit that would only need assembling.

The Maritime Museum owns a collection of plans of traditional Maltese boats together with others of antique and contemporary ships including warships of the Order of St John, Royal Navy warships and Maltese military and commercial vessels. There is also a research library.

Mr Abela started out as a ship modeller in 1991 and was promoted to restorer in 1999. He is now keeper of models at Heritage Malta whose main collection of ship models is at the Maritime Museum where he also leads guided tours. He has taken part in international conferences on maritime heritage and has had articles printed in the magazine Model Shipwright published in the UK.

Various models he has built are exhibited at the Maritime Museum. One of his models, the flagship of Don Juan at the Battle of Lepanto, 1571 is one of the prime exhibits at the Battle of Lepanto Museum in Nafkastos, Greece.