Rebuilding 1919 Sailing Trawler

[copernicus]

Sold some down here to boat yards over the years,as big lumps,& some nice curved stuff from old oak pollards,had a few of then turned their roots in the '87 storm'.

A joy to see them utilised in restoration work,and look round down below at the work done & the timber notched & bolted in,giving it a new structural purpose.

Lovely stuff.

Hi Geoff, I love the thought that its not wasted, but has a new purpose, hopefully you'll be able to see the completion over the next couple of years.

 

Regards

 

Derek

[Daniël Bos]

Hi Rover, I had a look at Ripple, she's going to be a nice boat when you've got her back, ISBC have been very helpful to me with advice, ideas and suggestions, If they restore her she'll be a force to reckon with in the smack races! Never considered Speedwell for the Historic Ships Register, something I should look at, Thanks for that.

 

My father-in-law bought her in the sixties with a mate and they raced her then. As they didn't win too much they removed one of her masts and moved the remaining one back to make it a single mast vessel. It was much faster then (but probably less stable on the crossings to scandinavia for wich she was designed). Then they gutted her completely to do a full refurbish, and then they lost interest....

Wild women, careers and children forced her to the background. My wife has lovel memomries of her dad picking her up from school because "her auntie was poorly" (dad-daughter code for: you've got the rest of the day off school, we need to go and bail out Ripple as she's not come up with the tide...)

Then about 20 years ago he was forced to sell her. She was sold off under the strict condition that she was to be restored fully, in keeping with her origins and because of that he sold her for very little money.

Not many years later she was lifted out of the water and had her hull cemented, keeping her afloat for a bit longer but signing the deathwarranty for her timbers....

All this time my wife had secretly been keeping contact with the owner and as soon as she could she bought her back, with a monthly payment system set up that weighed heavier than our mortgage..

Since then we've been keeping her afloat and tried to halt further decay by fitting permanent tarpaulins covering her etc whilst trying to find funding to get her sorted (estimates vary from £500K to £1.5million to get her back to former glory, so that's alomost a full two months salary!! Life got in the way of her, we moved around the country and through europe, made some kids etc but finally last year we succeeded in getting the shipbuilding college to take her on. It will be a looooong project and it won't be cheap, but we pay for materials and they provide the knowledge and labour!

She's the 2nd oldest boat on the register I believe, only Cutty Sark being older. But she floats!

 

Like yours too Alec, I never thought they'd ever built canal Ice-breakers. That is a seriously cool ship!

[copernicus]

My father-in-law bought her in the sixties with a mate and they raced her then. As they didn't win too much they removed one of her masts and moved the remaining one back to make it a single mast vessel. It was much faster then (but probably less stable on the crossings to scandinavia for wich she was designed). Then they gutted her completely to do a full refurbish, and then they lost interest....

Wild women, careers and children forced her to the background. My wife has lovel memomries of her dad picking her up from school because "her auntie was poorly" (dad-daughter code for: you've got the rest of the day off school, we need to go and bail out Ripple as she's not come up with the tide...)

Then about 20 years ago he was forced to sell her. She was sold off under the strict condition that she was to be restored fully, in keeping with her origins and because of that he sold her for very little money.

Not many years later she was lifted out of the water and had her hull cemented, keeping her afloat for a bit longer but signing the deathwarranty for her timbers....

All this time my wife had secretly been keeping contact with the owner and as soon as she could she bought her back, with a monthly payment system set up that weighed heavier than our mortgage..

Since then we've been keeping her afloat and tried to halt further decay by fitting permanent tarpaulins covering her etc whilst trying to find funding to get her sorted (estimates vary from £500K to £1.5million to get her back to former glory, so that's alomost a full two months salary!! Life got in the way of her, we moved around the country and through europe, made some kids etc but finally last year we succeeded in getting the shipbuilding college to take her on. It will be a looooong project and it won't be cheap, but we pay for materials and they provide the knowledge and labour!

She's the 2nd oldest boat on the register I believe, only Cutty Sark being older. But she floats!

 

Like yours too Alec, I never thought they'd ever built canal Ice-breakers. That is a seriously cool ship!

What a woman! keeping in touch like that, sounds like its going to be a real project. Dare say I'll be seeing Ripple in the Classic Boat mag soon. Good Luck.

[Boatbuilder]

Best of luck with the restoration