The Boat Project. Garry Winters and Greg Whelan in collaboration with Simon Rogers and Jesse Loynes.

Photos: The Boat Project Individual and collective memories going back hundreds of years have been captured and used to create a yacht that will become a cultural archive. The project is commissioned by the Cultural Olympiad in celebration of this year's London Olympics. Wooden items as diverse as a coat hanger, a Victorian police truncheon, a shaving off a Jimi Hendrix guitar, and many things besides, have been donated to the project with the proviso that each donation has a story to tell. What was donated informed the form of the boat. The designer, Simon Rogers, unsure of what he would have to work with, waited until all the donations were collected before creating the contemporary design for the yacht. Jesse Loynes and his team based near Emsworth, Hampshire, used a method known as the West Epoxy System to bind the wooden pieces together to create the incredibly strong hull. The boat will be named by public vote, and will be launched in May 2012 for its maiden voyage as part of the Olympic celebrations.