PATNA
“Restoration can be slow, and expensive, as you’re slightly in the dark about what you’re doing”
PATNA
DESIGNED AND BUILT Charles Nicholson, Camper &
Nicholson, 1920
LENGTH OVERALL 55ft (16.8m)
LENGTH WATERLINE 38ft (11.6m) BEAM
11ft 9in (3.6m) DRAUGHT
7ft 9in (2.4m)
from here that we take the dark, much-varnished clinker dinghy, also restored and maintained by Greg, to row out to Patna on her mooring.
Greg, though modest in his demeanour, does not lack ambition in his projects. He managed to get Penzance Harbour and the historic buildings around it listed, though his plans to use one of them to house a maritime museum were thwarted by the council which had other ideas. He also helped save the Borlais Smart Studios in St Ives from potentially uninspired redevelopment by getting them listed – they are currently undergoing a $4million refurbishment instead. At Tremerlin there are sheds full of rescued boats, mostly dinghies or gigs, “special boats in need of a home”, and mostly in need of a good deal of care and attention. Greg believes it possible to exhibit them, more or less as they are, “in a meaningful way” and is still harbouring ideas of a museum – possibly in London, perhaps in an early warehouse? He believes there’s room for such a project, questioning as he does the direction taken by the Cutty Sark and the Greenwich Maritime Museum in recent years.
There are also two diminutive Victorian yachts: the 27ft (8.2m) Collinette (1885) restored by Greg (CB109) and the clipper-bowed 30ft (9.1m) Corbie (1895), still a restoration project, and currently possibly for sale with her original drawings to someone who would take it on.
14 CLASSIC BOAT MARCH 2012
And now, lying in the river with white canvas covers over her brightwork, is Patna. When she came up for sale in 2005, Katie knew she had to buy her. Greg agreed. They both sold boats to raise the price – Katie, Zircon and from Greg, Zoraida, the 54ft (16.5m) 1888 Dixon Kemp design that he rescued, and had planned to restore, after discovering her languishing as a houseboat on the Isle of Wight. The pace of Patna’s restoration was inevitably slow, sometimes involving a step back for one forward. “It can be very expensive, as you’re slightly in the dark about what you’re doing,” explains Greg.
MASTERMINDED
As with previous restorations, Greg masterminded the project, designing and making as he went – notably the ingenious, smaller deckhouse – but contracting out work to suitably skilled people, many of them based at Gweek Quay. The work isn’t entirely finished; further work on the upholstery down below is needed.
Nevertheless, as you step aboard and make your way down the curved companionway, noting the original interior – removed, stored, refurbished and replaced – as well as the wealth of period fittings and detailing, it is impossible to be unaffected by the rich patina of antiquity. Patna is a boat that both defines and benchmarks the art of restoration.
Above: Work in progress; the saloon is restored, but those blankets conceal unfinished business – reupholstering the benches is a job for this spring
TOM BENN
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