PATNA
F
Above: Co-owners and restorers Greg and Katie
10 CLASSIC BOAT MARCH 2012
or Greg Powlesland, Patna is the second major Charles Nicholson restoration of his career. He’s famous, revered indeed, for what is generally considered the deeply sympathetic and authentic restoration of the 59ft (18m) 1892 Nicholson cutter Marigold
during the 1980s and early 90s.
This was an epic project that began with a boat model and a boyhood dream, and then in 1981 became reality when she was discovered in Wootton Creek on the Isle of Wight, seemingly destined to be broken up after having failed as a houseboat.
Her rescue and delivery to Plymouth were followed by a seven-year hiatus during which Marigold languished on the shores of the River Lynher near Saltash, and Greg sought ways of funding her restoration. Eventually, at the suggestion of Alex Laird, who was restoring the not-dissimilar Partridge, he put Marigold into Sotheby’s first and only classic boat auction. Stimulated by an article by Sam Llewellyn in the Telegraph weekend magazine, bidding was intense, and Marigold went, for five times the estimate, to Bermuda- based yachtsman Glen Allen, who, alone among the bidders, had already indicated he wanted Greg to carry out the restoration, which was finally completed in 1994. The entire tale (including the dramatic Plymouth delivery) was told by Greg in CB82/83 (April/May 1995).
The story of Patna’s restoration is different in many ways. For a start, Greg and his partner Katie Fontana bought her to restore and then enjoy, which they are now doing. The process this time has taken a relatively brisk six years or so. But Greg’s brief to himself was just the same as it had been for Marigold: “To get the feel of the detailing right and thus promote the aesthetic of hand and eye which has been discarded by today’s visually barren quick-fix production-line society.”
PRE-WAR LINES Patna’s on-deck length of 55ft (16.8m) is only slightly less than Marigold’s, but the 28 years between them spanned two centuries, three reigns and a world war. The two boats look very different from each other, but as Greg points out, even though Patna was built in 1920, her lines hark back to a pre-war style. Katie, who comes from Essex and created and co-owns the company Plain English, makers of bespoke kitchens, had known Patna since she was a teenager. “She was in Heybridge Basin – lots of my friends sailed or crewed on her. She was the pride of the East Coast.” Katie had been under the impression Patna was owned by a group of people – it turned out that she had been at one time, but her then owners Fred and Helen Lockwood had gradually bought the others out. The Lockwoods, with or without their friends, had owned the
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