PATNA


“It was a shared obsession with craftsmanship that brought them together”


Above: No slouch! Right: Antique switch panel and lantern Below right: Greg has added a larger cockpit and a smaller deckhouse, and reverted to tiller steering


boat for 30 years. Prior to that, she had been owned by a Mr Simpson, who had bought her from a Mr Jacobs, a batchelor who lived at Burnham-on-Crouch and had owned Patna since before World War II until after it. His decision to sell Patna came at the age of 70, when he proposed to his housekeeper, who said,“Yes – if you sell your boat.” Mr Simpson acquired, along with Patna, three paid crew and the contents of a shed stocked with gear including monogrammed linen and silverware. Katie and Greg first met in 2002 at the Gweek Quay boatyard in Cornwall, whither she had sailed on her boat Zircon, a 1960 44ft (13.4m) Camper & Nicholson, in order to get the deck repaired. It was a shared obsession with craftsmanship – and boats obviously – that brought them together.


RANGE OF SKILLS Greg is a sculptor, woodworker and furniture maker as well as being a boat restorer. He taught at Plymouth Art School and has been design tutor at the Makepeace School of Craftsmen in Wood – to David Linley among others. The scope of his skills ranges from pattern making for metal fittings to designing and building sometimes quirky and sympathetic buildings – including his property at Tremerlin on the banks of the Helford River, where he has also built the quay and slipway (they won an architectural award) down at the river’s edge. It’s


12 CLASSIC BOAT MARCH 2012


TOM BENN


TOM BENN


TOM BENN


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100