Classic Boat — February 2018

POWERED VESSELS

RESTORATIONS

C/O MICHAEL DENNETT

46 CLASSIC BOAT FEBRUARY 2018

Awards

2018

VOTE ONLINE awards.classicboat.co.uk

CARINA

Designed and built by Fred Lawley, 2018, LOD 58ft 9in (17.9m)

Carina (ex-Old Glory) has been the personal project of Joe

Loughborough (LMI, Rhode Island) for the past decade, as he tackled

a serious rebuild in downtime from customers’ boats. The double carvel

fi r planks were OK, but just about everything else needed replacing or

revamping. This summer, she did a timed run at 9.5 knots to celebrate.

WISE FOLLY

Designed and built by John Hart, 1915, LOD 27ft (8m)

This Edwardian Thames launch went from wreck to ready in just nine

weeks, to be shown at the Southampton Boat Show. From a bare,

holed hull with a loose stem, the team at Michael Dennett Boat

Builders was able to come up with a perfect, electric-powered (6kW)

launch fi t for the 21st century, with the mahogany topsides still original.

GELYCE

Designed and built by Charles E

Nicholson, 1931, LOD 50ft (15.1m)

Gelyce is one of only two known

J-Class tenders to survive from

their 1930s heyday (the other was

Bystander). She’s one of a few

Gelyce-class launches designed in

1912 in various sizes and the story

of her past and her slow journey

back to glory is quite incredible

(full story to follow). Her rebuild

by Colin Messer of Classic

Restoration Services sees her with

a new external skin and metal

work plated in Welsh red gold as

she was originally. It’s not gaudy

at all – in fact, it’s classy as hell.

SPARK OF LIGHT

Designed and built by Herbert Woods, 1927, LOD 36ft (11m)

Every great, heritable company needs an ambassador and what better

for the hugely heritable Broads hire and build company Herbert Woods,

than one of its early hire boats? She’s back in public charter after a

six-year on-and-off restoration at the yard, and has kept all her original

charm, despite the modern comforts and demands of a hard life. No

other charter boat on those fabled waterways turns heads like this.

SCOLOPENDRA

Designed John Thornycroft, built Frank Maynard, 1903, LOD 30ft (9.1m)

She was drawn for what was probably the fi rst rule in motorboat

racing – the Marine Motoring Association’s 30ft Rule – and might

be the world’s oldest racing motorboat. This was the infancy of

speed under power, before the hydroplane hulls, but Scolopendra

still managed 18mph with her 20hp Thornycroft A4 petrol engine.

Restoration was carried out by David Moss and Richard Woodman.

ONNE VAN DER WAL

C/O THE OWNER

C/O THE AUTHOR C/O THE OWNER