MARTYN HEIGHTON
“NHS has raised over £100,000 – over half of it has gone straight to desperate ship-owners for restoration needs”
bring traditional boats to the attention of as many people as possible. Entries are still open for candidates this year, and the award includes £1,000 in cash. “One of the things we’re most proud of is this,” Martyn says, producing a thick, black book full of beautiful illustrations. Conserving Historic Vessels (along with its two sister publications, Recording Historic Vessels and Deconstructing Historic Vessels), has become an international textbook for best practice in the care and restoration of old ships and boats. This work is now backed up by an ever-increasing body of practical articles on the NHS website, which is now undergoing a revamp to make the ship databases more searchable and usable. Last year, NHS also sponsored three apprentices to work on various historic craft through another Heighton initiative: the Shipshape Network, which is a forum for owners of historic vessels.
ADDITIONAL FUNDS You don’t manage all this on £240,000 a year. NHS has raised more than £100,000 of additional funds, most notably through the Headley Trust, one of the Sainsbury charitable trusts, earning commendation from the DCMS for ‘value for money’. Over half of this extra money has gone straight to ship-owners desperate for temporary sheds, engine rebuilds, boiler inspections and the hundred-and-one other things that a restoration needs. At present, Heighton is in talks with the RYA to develop training courses or modules that are specific to sailing classic boats. “I mean, have you ever tacked a lugger?” he asks. Turns out neither of us has, although it’s good to learn that while he may not have tacked a lugger, Martyn is also a sailor, learning on the Norfolk Broads as a boy. His first boat, like so many, was a self-built Mirror and today,
34 CLASSIC BOAT MACRH 2012
he keeps a GRP Salcombe Yawl near his home near Bristol (he divides his time between an office there and the one in the National Maritime Museum in London). Between Mirror and now, his CV includes setting up and running the Merseyside Maritime Museum (which was never covered in graffiti, unlike the council’s vans), a job that involved a bit of boat-buying: namely the 177ft (54m), 1953-built Liverpool pilot boat Edmund Gardner and the Dutch three-master De Wadden, built 1917.
THE MATTHEW
That was followed by a spell as director of arts for Bristol City Council, then director of leisure – “ridiculous title,” Martyn adds, bristling at the cosy panacea. It was here that in 1996 he managed to secure a loan from Mike Slade (now known for his ownership of the super maxi ICAP Leopard) to build the caboteur The Matthew. To fund it, he hosted the UK’s first International Festival of the Sea, in Bristol in 1996, which not only paid for itself, but a good chunk of the Matthew too. Today, NHS offers much to boat-owners: grants, information, help, and direct representation to Government, the Heritage Lottery Fund and other grant-giving bodies. You could even say that the Heighton – together with Hannah Cunliffe, Paula Palmer and Emerald Laing – in their little warren of rooms in the maritime museum are ‘working for you’. The next thing Martyn would like to achieve is a moratorium on important boats, to save them being scrapped while preservation plans are being made. At present, there is no protection against this, as there is for buildings through the listing system. Until then, at least those old ships have a tireless, energetic ambassador.
Above: Pilot cutter yacht Polly Agatha, left, and, right, steam yacht Carola, both entries in the NHS photography competition and featured in the NHS/Classic Boat 2012 Calendar Below: The version of the defaced red ensign worn by vessels of the Historic Fleet
MICHAEL GARLICK
ALAN KEMPSTER
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