Mobile boat repairer Simon Papendick gets to work on a Yorkshire coble

Yorkshire coble

Simon Papendick, otherwise known as the mobile boat maintenance and repair service J-Star Boat Services, is in Yorkshire and getting down to work on a coble in need of some TLC, and is weblogging the job.

Apart from anything else, it provides some interesting views of the structure of these fascinating craft.

Simon Papendick starts Anderson, Rigden and Perkins register

Gadfly II on the water pic 2

Professional Essex boat builder, restorer, travelling boat maintenance man and enthusiastic weblogger Simon Papendick (read his stuff here) is setting up a register of vessels built by the Whitstable firm of Anderson, Rigden and Perkins, and is calling for owners to get in touch.

Contact Simon at jstarboatservices1@gmail.com .

The boat photographed above is Simon’s Anderson, Rigden and Perkins-built Gadfly II before its current refit.

Part of the the aim is to demonstrate the range of yachts that Anderson, Rigden and Perkins built, and to provide a forum for yacht owners to get in touch with each other, piece together bits of history, help each other with technical issues and so on.

The company is the subject of a book by Faversham boat builder Alan Staley, but I gather there are gaps in the history because many of the records were burnt in a fire at the boatyard, while other material was destroyed after a local library was unable to provide a home for them.

Looking around the World Wide Web, I notice that there’s this article from The Whitstable Times that neatly summarises the Anderson, Rigden and Perkins’ history – which includes motor boats, vessels for the Admiralty and a lot of repair work during World War II. However, it likely dates from before the period of its success with the well known fibreglass Anderson 22 lifting keel sailing cruiser and racer.

Simon Papendick fixes up a Fox and Son motor launch

jstarmotorboatrestoration3

jstarmotorboatrestoration jstarmotorboatrestoration2

Mobile boat restorer, repairman and sailing instructor Simon Papendick’s weblog shows him restoring a Fox & Son of Ipswich motor launch originally built around the 1960s. See the photos here. To see earlier posts relating to Simon’s projects, go here and click through the ‘earlier posts’ links.