Can anyone save a Watson class lifeboat?

The Frederick Kitchin in Cambridgeshire

THIS BOAT HAS NOW PASSED INTO NEW OWNERSHIP

A chap called Alan has got in tough to say that he is desperately trying to find a new home for an ex-RNLI Watson class lifeboat, built in about about 1908.

She’s listed as the Frederick Kitchin by the National Historic Ships, which has got a small but useful few items of history. It seems she was the first motor lifeboat stationed at Beaumaris on Anglesey, and may have been the first to have an engine fitted during building.

I’m told she has a good double-diagonal construction wooden hull of Honduras mahogany. Alan’s son bought the Frederick Kitchin aiming to restore her, but the Cambridgeshire marina where it is based is closing and it has proved impossible to find somewhere affordable to keep her – and the alternative seems to be the old boat’s destruction.

There’s a little more about her history here and here.

Contact Alan at ajc2647@aol.com if you can help!