Restoration and repair – Page 58

All aboard the Skylark! Photos from Brighton, January 2010

The Skylark and name plates at the Brighton Fishing Museum

The photos above show the figurehead of one of the legendary series of boats named Skylark used for ‘pleasuring’ off Brighton Beach, now found at the Brighton Fishing Museum, together with the beach punt Sussex Maid and a selection of name boards.

The Skylarks were very well known indeed, and there is still a generation of older men who call out ‘All aboard the Skylark‘ whenever a group of people board a train, bus or boat together.

We dropped by for a visit just after Christmas as part of a birthday treat (for me, actually). The museum’s well worth visiting, not least the boards explaining Brighton’s pleasure boat trade – despite its name, pleasure boating occupies just about as much of the museum as the fishing trade.

While we were there, I also took a few snaps of the exhibits outside the museum.

More exhibits at Brighton Fishing Museum

For some reason we also dropped by the marina where we didn’t find too much wooden boat interest, but did come across a boat for sale (the telephone number’s just about visible in the pic below, if anyone’s interested), a rather coyly-dressed double-ender (is it a Hillyard?) and a nicely looked after fishing boat.I guess that’s a better haul than might have been expected!

Ben Wales’ clinker launch restoration

The new stem, and the old stem piece and apron removed

Some time when you’re sitting in the warm, spare a thought for dedicated Ben Wales working when he can in the open air during this winter restoring his 18ft clinker-built motor launch Mary. While you’re at it, wish him luck and good weather.

Here’s what he wrote a few days ago:

‘Here is the latest update on my restoration on Mary. The work has been slow – the weather held us up for over a month as it was just too cold, and before that it was wet whenever we wanted to work on her outside.

‘The stem has now been replaced in English grown oak as the old one was badly worn and soft. Without a doubt this is the most complex and time consuming job we have done on the launch, and all without power tools or power.

‘First, a template had to be cut out for the bottom and top stem piece and then drawn out on a new in 4in thick oak plank where the two were cut out.

‘The lower part of the stem, which joins with the kee, was first shaped to fit and then holes were drilled out for stainless steel bolts made the job. It had to be scarphed on each end, and a mixture of paint and putty was applied for packing.

‘The top part of the apron was also replaced and that was cut and shaped before the top stem piece was fitted.

‘While the upper part of the stem was fitted we had a quite a task to shape it, as we tried to follow the original patten precisely – but found that had been cut wrong. So after more shaping it fitted far better than the original it replaced.

‘The next task is to fit the gunwales and knees, and to reframe the topsides. When the Weather gets warmer and I have saved up some money, I will purchase the timber to plank her topsides.

‘Ben’

Thanks Ben – I’ll be thinking of you at least!

For an earlier post about this project, click here.

Steel-hulled schooner for sale, lying at Standard Quay, Faversham

A pal and I dropped by Standard Quay at Faversham to see if we could spot a little lugger that we’d heard a friend is considering buying, so I took the opportunity to bag some photos of how things are there now. I’m sorry if you feel they’re not up to my usual standard – on arrival I discovered the battery of my usual camera was flat and so had to use my mobile phone, which seems to produce quite blue-grey images. I must get a spare.

Anyway, if you’re in the market for a steel-hulled schooner liveaboard, the one currently for sale at Standard Quay may be just what you’re looking for. It looked in pretty good shape to us, though neither of us has ever seen it sailing. The schooner’s pictured above.

On a more cheerful note, the first two shots above are of the lovely small Thames sailing barge Lady of the Lea, two shots of Bob Roberts’ old sailing barge Cambria in restoration and a nice little Roxane that lives on the creek here.

And below is the bow of another Thames sailing barge Lady Daphne, here in a dry dock being repaired after a racing accident (I believe) and the yuppie flats that have already encroached the area opposite Standard Quay. The blue banner reads ‘Save Standard Quay’. For more on the Standard Quay campaign, click here.

Lady Daphne, Save Standard Quay banner

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