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Our last three projects have all been relatively modern boats, ranging from our all carbon fibre modern I14 to the polyester/glass Wildcat F18. In the back of our minds there has always been the memory of a plot we had with Nick Harvey when the National Maritime Museum was auctioning off its collection of classic/historic dinghies. Nick was keen to acquire, renovate and sell on a classic 14, the trick of course was as he is professional boat builder he needs to at least break even which would have been challenging.
There has been the idea of getting a wooden classic 14 in decent condition, we are under no illusions of our wood working skills, but still needed some work. In truth this proved challenging, “Sea Beat” came on the market but the work needed was way beyond our skill level. She went to her crew when she won the POW, who has done a fantastic job to bring her up to date.
‘Freebooter’ K-1078 came on the market a while back and was still available. The boat is in great overall condition and had an exceptional providence, having been in the same family since new in the 1970s. Understandably the owner was careful about who they sold the boat to and after a very pleasant couple of hours and catching up on old friends from Tynemouth Sailing Club and a video call with Duncan Walker a highly respected classic yacht restorer the deal got done!
As is to be expected the fittings on the boat are of an age and in need of modernising, but we want to try to do it in a sympathetic manner. Plan is to bring the boat’s systems up to a modern standard but to try and do it in a way which doesn’t totally lose the boat’s classic look. Which is probably going to be tricky.
Duncan is coming to visit and will give us an idea of what we will need to do on the varnishing and finishing front. Plan is to spend the winter varnishing and refitting the boat with a view to relaunching her before the Howth YC Round Ireland’s Eye race.
While we were at it, we took comparison shots of Freebooter and 1537, just to see how much the boats have changed in the last 40 plus years. 1537 does look like a missile sat next to Freebooter.
