Year: 2009

WWII fast patrol boat Garth on show at the Beale Park Boat Show

[ad name=”intheboatshed-post”]

garth

Garth

One of the last of the WWII fast patrol boats still afloat, Garth, is to appear at the Beale Park Thames Boat Show.

In the months leading up to the D-Day invasion of France, a key concern was that the landings planned to take place along the Normandy Coast would be tremendously difficult for the Allies. Field Marshal Rommel was in charge of the defences and there was every reason to believe that the landings would be hard going, and that there would be many casualties.

In order to help defend the troops in landing craft and amphibious DUKWs, the Britishy Army was given 80 fast patrol boats armed with anti-aircraft and assault weapons, one of which was Garth, pictured above.

In fact, these Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) boats were never used for this purpose – the date of the landings was brought forward and they were not ready to be brought into service at the time of the invasion, and instead they were sent to various hot spots around the world including Egypt, India, Hong Kong and the Middle East.

Garth is maintained by workshop staff serving with the British Army and is kept by the Coastal Motorboat Heritage Trust. The CMHT exhibits a number of craft from this era on behalf of their owners, including MGB 81, the gunboat that led the American attack on Omaha Beach on D-Day.

The designer grins as the first Julie skiff is built and launched in Florida

[ad name=”intheboatshed-post”]

p1040115

p1040209_22 p1040073

Bill Gay’s Julie skiff

I’m really chuffed today because the great news this morning is that Bill Gay has built and launched the first Julie skiff. From what I can see she still needs some work, including knees at the stern (they’ll add a lot of strength) and the breasthook (which will add some strength and provide a place to attach the essential painter), painting and some drain plugs for the boxed-in areas, but she’s looking good and will look even better (and go faster and further) with the batteries in the middle of the boat.

‘After three weekends of hard work the Julie Skiff saw the flats of the Intercoastal of Fl today. What a great boat. It will be great to fish, clam and camp out of for years to come.’

Thanks for the report and the photos Bill! She looks like a winner to me. To download the plans Bill used to build this 15ft 7in rowing skiff, click here.

Violet in the Vineyard

[ad name=”intheboatshed-post”]

violet

dscn0348 dscn0361

dsc_0033 dsc_0026 dsc_0018-1

dsc_0010-1 dsc_0002

Violet: under sail, internal views, working on the keel

Gary Maynard has sent us these photos from Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts, where he and his wife keep Violet. I’m a little shy of opening another fifie, baldie or zulu discussion I’m sure Jay Cresswell will put us right as he has before – but I think we can agree that she’s an outstanding old vessel, and that we’re delighted that the Maynards are looking after her. Many thanks for the information Gary!

Here’s what Gary wrote:

‘Violet was built in 1911 by James Nobles of Fraserburgh for Alex Stephens, who named her after his newborn niece Violet. Her original cost was £199.

‘Rigged as a typical zulu, she was fished by her owner until his retirement, probably in the 1930s, when his sons converted her to power, adding the typical skeg and vertical rudder discussed in your blog. She had a big Gardner engine with a Thornycroft gearbox and a very small wheelhouse added. Oldest son John skippered her through the war, with both younger brothers as hands. The youngest, Georgie, never married, but instead took care of Violet until they sold her in 1975 and retired. She was known locally as the ”Grand Old Lady of Fraserburgh” and was kept in very good condition.

When I bought her in 1986, she was on her second American owner, and in semi-derelict condition, hauled but on an old marine railway in Vineyard Haven. My wife and I spent four years rebuilding her before relaunching Violet in 1991 when she was 80 years old. Since then, we have chartered her and sailed quite a bit, including through the Caribbean, Panama, the Galapagos, the Marquesas, Hawaii, British Columbia and Alaska.

‘With her big rig, she is a good sailor, and has made some remarkable passages, including 3000 miles across the Pacific in 21 days, comfortably averaging 165 miles a day, and 2100 miles to Hawaii in 14 days. She powers at 7 knots with an 80hp Ford driving an offset feathering propeller.

‘My wife and I can sail her ourselves, but she is great with four to six crew.

‘I always thought she could be stiffer, so I decided to remove all the inside ballast and cast a 10,000 lb ballast keel and bolting it to the wooden keel, adding about 12in of draft. That’s when we discovered the keel bolt issues and got into the project shown in the photos.’