The 48ft 1932-built Scottish fishing boat yacht conversion Scots Miss is for sale after 36 years in the hands of a couple I met through music, Liz and Andy Weekes.
She was designed and built by Weatherheads of Cockenzie, and has the very elegant canoe stern and sheer associated with the boatbuilder. In her earlier life she fished out of the West Coast of Scotland, mainly Tarbert, and was named Maireared.
She seems to be quite a well-known boat of her type: she features on the front cover of a book by Brian Ward about the Tarbert fishing boats, and I gather photos of her can be found on the Trawlers in Pictures and Trawler Photos websites.
Regular intheboatshed.net correspondent and observer of the Scottish fishing scene Jay Cresswell, who owned and worked a similar boats, has described her to me as having had one of the most sympathetic conversions of any Weatherhead boat that he’s aware of. (The conversion was carried out by Hallidays of Ramsgate in 1964.)
When asked, another long-time student of fishing boats described her to me as lovely.
Her hull has a long keel with keel hung rudder, and is mainly of pitch pine on oak frames; the wheelhouse and superstructure are of oak with aluminium windows, several opening. Decks and coach roofs are laid with teak, and her masts can be raised and lowered using an on-board A-frame mechanism.
Her measurements are length 48ft 6in, beam 14ft 6in, draft 5ft 6in, with a displacement of approximately 25 tons. She has eight berths in three cabins and saloon.
Scots Miss’s Gardner 4L3 engine was the first L3 model engine ever built and was initially sent over to the USA for an exhibition in 1932, after which she was installed in the boat; it has been extensively rebuilt over the past two years.
Owner Andy tells me she was last surveyed for insurance in October 2006 and was dry-docked in May 2010 to renew the cutlass bearing, check skin fittings, fit new anodes and recoat the bottom with tar varnish, etc. He adds that she sails quite well and that he has done over 8 knots under sail alone, though 6 knots is more usual: she needs a force 3-4 to get her 25 tons moving, but once under way she is very smooth through the water, with very little wake.
How much is the sellers looking for? She’s on the market for £65,000, but the Weekes are open to sensible offers. If you’re interested in buying her, buzz me an email at gmatkin@gmail.com and I’ll forward your enquiry.
