Restored Victorian gentleman’s racing cutter Leila emerges into the light!

 

The Victorian gentleman’s racing cutter Leila currently undergoing restoration at Southwold Harbour is out of the shed after three hard years of repair work – and is within weeks of being launched.

Congratulations fellas!

Read an earlier post Leila here, and the restoration weblog here.

Leila needs more financial help to get her rig sorted out, so if you can help them out with a few quid, I’m sure Rob Bull and his pals will be very grateful.

Matt Atkin’s photographs of the long-tailed working boats of Phuket, Thailand

Matt Atkin photograph of the boats of Phuket for intheboatshed.net

Matt Atkin photograph of the boats of Phuket for intheboatshed.net Matt Atkin photograph of the boats of Phuket for intheboatshed.net

Brother Matt Atkin has been on his travels again, this time to Thailand, and sent back this small collection of elegant long-tailed working boats on the island of Phuket.

Reua hang yao, as they are properly called, are powered by a road vehicle engine balanced over the stern; I’m curious that they appear to be overpowered with those big engines married to efficient displacement hulls. Still, those Thais will know what they are doing after using these craft for generations.

The bows of the boats are decorated with coloured scarves and other items that are believed to provide good luck and protection.

Thanks for the shots Matt! For more photos from my brother Matt, click here and follow the link to ‘older posts’.

Is it a Humber yawl? A Thames canoe yawl? Restoration begins with detective work

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The mystery canoe yawl. Does anyone have any clues as to what this
particular boat would have looked like when launched? And what’s the
meaning of the enamel plate showing a paddle?

One of the interesting items that turned up at the Turk’s Boatyard sale wasn’t actually in the on-line auction – an old canoe yawl spotted by our good friend Steve Taylor.

The Turk’s yard folks quickly accepted his offer, and so last week he trailered the old boat home to begin the first stage of any restoration: trying to work out what the boat must have been like before age and botched modifications and repairs brought it to its current condition. This boat has certainly had it’s share of odd, badly executed changes, though the original workmanship seems to be quite fine and the materials certainly seem to have been expensive.

The boat’s 18ft in length, and came with some stories attached to it. These had it that the boat was originally made by Turk’s, that it was made for William Baden Powell, that it was depicted in Dixon Kemp and that it had been brought to the yard many years ago by a pair of elderly ladies who intended that it should be restored by the yard, though the project never went ahead.

Having looked at my copy of the book, I don’t think we’re convinced by the Dixon Kemp link, but I suppose she could have been built by Turk’s to a set of plans that might have been associated with the Humber. Does anyone have any information that would help Steve towards working out the details of his restoration please? If you do, please email me at gmatkin@gmail.com and I’ll pass it on.