Wandering around the yard surrounding the Tide Mill Yacht Harbour I stumbled upon a little treasure. Behind a tent I discerned the friendly thwack of a mallet on a good sized chisel. Rounding a corner I found a chap hard at work…

After a short chat: I had no wish to stop the work flow I was able to take a look inside the vessel, gazing down into her belly past deck beams and shelves. The cabin top, a substantial affair, was still in place. One coaming was in need of some piecing out … the structure forward deck beam was about to be removed too … easier to do now than in a year or two’s time for sure.

Looking into what is the fore cabin area…

The cabin top structure remains as was…

A shipwright had part caulked the hull to allow the owner to get on with painting out the inside of the hull aft, “…after I finish the horn timber…” he told me as he bent to show me the gnarled old one sitting in a pile of ‘dead’ wood.

Stern view of the yacht’s hull … caulking cotton can be seen in the seams…

The mast sat on trestles ready for further coats of an oil based varnish, a job between other work…

The boat, apparently, is a little over 100 years old. It was built by a Folkstone timber merchant during a lull in wood sales as a speculative job utilising the skills of a couple of local shipwrights. Yacht builders did this, but I’ve never heard of a wood merchant branching out in a like fashion! The yacht is modelled on a smack, but as can be seen her bow has that Edwardian look… She looked right.

The hull from forward…

I departed with a comment about hoping to see them on  the water sometime…