C/O GEORGE MIDDLETON
C/O RAFA CARRIO
CRAFTSMANSHIP Yard News PORTSMOUTH
Apprentices to restore unique junk yacht with HLF money
Heritage Lottery Funding will enable 12 apprentices to start work on the restoration of a unique junk yacht in Portsmouth. Her name is Boleh and she was built in Malaysia by shipwright Embong Bin Saleh in 1949 to a design by her owner, Cdr Robin Kilroy DSC, inspired by the dhows and junks he’d seen between the wars while serving in the Fleet Air Arm. Kilroy sailed her back to Salcombe in Devon in 1950, where she fulfilled a number of roles, including Sea Cadet training, until 1978, when an arson attack on the boat in Rye burned her almost beyond repair. It was thanks to the efforts of local yachtsman and joiner Roger Angel that she survived. Now it’s time for a thorough restoration, and her new saviours will be young boatbuilding apprentices under the supervision of shipwright Brian Taylor. To this end, the Heritage
Compiled by Steffan Meyric Hughes +44 (0) 207 901 8055
steffan.meyric-hughes@
classicboat.co.uk
Above left: Richard Uttley works on the hull. Above right: Boleh, off Malaysia, Christmas Day, 1949
Lottery Fund has provided an initial sum of £55,800, which will be followed by an application for £440,000 from the boat’s new owners, the Boleh Trust. Her hull has already been restored by Richard Uttley at the Old Pumphouse workshop in Eastney. When complete, she will resume her sail-training role. Boleh, just over 40ft (12m) long, is going to prove a challenge: she’s a one-off, built in Malayan chengai two and a half times the density of oak. She has an unusual rig – sliding gunter
NORFOLK BROADS Redevelopment of Cox’s boatyard
Redevelopment work has started at Cox’s, the 19th-century Broads boatyard rescued by a syndicate of enthusiasts in 1995.
Since then, the yard at Barton
Turf has been busy as a storage, repairs, restoration and build yard specialising in classic boats. Full restorations have included the Broads cruisers Shaft of Light and Jemima, and routine work on a
VALENCIA, SPAIN Classic cutter going strong
Rafa Carrio, our friend in southern Spain who restored the 112-year-old 37ft (11.3m) gaff cutter Grayling (CB243), has just finished a smaller refit on the yacht to put her back in fettle for more years under the hot sun and salty seas. Here she is at Valencia’s docks, the new paint job glinting in the sun.
88 CLASSIC BOAT MARCH 2012
range of different craft including the Dunkirk Little Ship Hilfranor is carried out.
Plans were granted permission last year and phase one, knocking down two old sheds and digging a new mooring basin, has begun. A larger workshop, mobile boat hoist and new slip will follow. As part of the plan, two holiday flats will be built above the water to generate rental income.
with wishbone booms and an unstayed quadruped mast and her decklights use windscreens of wartime Japanese Zero fighter planes.
George Middleton, nephew of Cdr Kilroy and now part of the Boleh Trust, told CB that his uncle “built her for ocean sailing – Solent marinas might be trickier.”
Michael Garlick, who won £1,000 in last year’s NHS/Classic Boat photography competition, donated his prize money to Boleh. The name Boleh means ‘can do’ in Malaysian.
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