Most of the original bronze and period fittings
have been kept in a private refit carried out by
Nerissa’s owner, who is a sculptorNERISSA
T
ake a stroll around the London Boat
Show this month and you’ll be
overwhelmed by the sheer number of
white GRP production motor boats on
offer. From the White Cliffs of
Sunseeker, boats reaching in tiers high
into the sky, to the massed ranks of Princess Yachts that
start at over 40 feet and stretch on ever larger, like
Russian dolls, to past 100 feet, they all share a common
purpose. To be big, voluminous, high-sided holiday
homes afloat. You can’t blame the manufacturers, they’re
simply responding to customer demand. But it’s easy to
forget that production boat building once took the form
of the elegant canoe-sterned craft you see on these pages.
Ironically, in the early 1930s, while production
builders were far from uncommon, this vessel would
have been remarkable for her size too. James Taylor
and Bates in Chertsey (on the Thames) had been
production-building larger boats for some years, but
Margo III would still have been a headturner.
Mr HG Heap ordered her to be built for him at a
cost of £3,000. She was a natural progression from the
35ft Margo II predecessor that was kept in Poole and
used mostly for fishing trips and local cruising.
With a pitch pine bottom and Oregon pine topsides
and deck, copper fastened to an oak timbered frame,