Classic Boat — February 2018

Above: the clinker built

Southern Queen. Right and

inset: William Allchorn

CLASSIC BOAT FEBRUARY 2018 17

TELL TALES

Tall Ships in fashion

Model Sophie Grieve poses in a Tall Ships-themed outfi t by

designer Kathryn Russell to help promote the Tall Ships Races,

starting in Sunderland on 11 July. More than 1.5 million people

are expected to visit Sunderland for four days of entertainment.

Find out more at tallshipssunderland.com and read about last

year's Tall Ships event on p54.

New fi lm Darkest Hour, due to be released in British cinemas on

12 January, tells the story of the early period of Winston

Churchill’s leadership in World War Two, a time when victory

seemed nearly impossible. Actor Gary Oldman has been widely

praised for his performance as Churchill and meanwhile the fi lm

stars the 1930-built Ramsgate day-tripper New Brittanic in a

scene depicting Operation Dynamo. Owned today by Greg

McLeish, the open carvel boat, at 54ft (16.4m) long, was licensed

to carry 120 passengers and was ideal in her role at Dunkirk,

where then-owner Walter Read and his 15-year-old son used her

to ferry 3,000 stranded troops to larger ships lying off shore.

Filming took place off Beachy Head and Greg said: “They used a

helicopter for our scene and New Britannic was the lead boat. It

was November, so you can imagine what it was like taking an

86-year-old, open, wooden boat for three days travel from the

Swale to Eastbourne and back. It was a great trip.”

A long tradition of day-tripper boats is set to return to Eastbourne,
East Sussex, after the creation of a consortium to save three historic
local vessels. The Victorian town has entertained summer visitors with
trips out to sea from its shingly shores for the past two centuries.
The once-thriving trade declined after World War Two and the last
remaining boats – William Allchorn, built by Cantell in Newhaven in
1950, and the Southern Queen built the same year by Pragnell and
Sons of Eastbourne – ceased operation in 2011. The new consortium
aims to return both these boats to their original function and they will
be joined by the Duke of Kent, the old Eastbourne RNLI lifeboat.
The consortium, led by boatbuilder Lloyd Stebbing, naval architect
Daniel Goldsmith and marine scientist and educator Denise
Goldsmith, is known as the Allchorn Pleasure Boat Trust and has
secured funding from private donations.
The boats, both around 50ft (15.1m) long, beachable and capable of
carrying more than 70 passengers, have been lying on Fisherman’s
Green Beach. The project's fi rst job was to restore the landing winch,
housed in the boats’ shed, to winch them in to prevent further
deterioration. Visitors will be able to see the work themselves from a
new Maritime Education & Heritage Centre, with an upstairs viewing
platform overlooking the working restoration area at Fisherman’s
Green. Funding to get the three boats back to sea, is estimated to be
around £500,000.

Visit allchornpleasureboattrust.org.uk to donate

DUNKIRK

Operation Dynamo to return

to the silver screen

EAST SUSSEX

Pleasure boats to return