NIC COMPTON21NEWS
CLASSIC BOAT MAY 2015P
lans to preserve the 1901 Colin
Archer rescue boat Stavanger
RS14 have stalled, reports Nic
Compton. She was bought by the
Norwegian Society for Sea Rescue
(NSSR) in 1997 in order to preserve
an authentic redningskøyte for
posterity. Stavanger was then
considered the most original Colin
Archer in existence. After a fi nal
‘farewell cruise’ around the coast of
Norway in 2009, she was lifted out
at the Norwegian Maritime Museum
(NMM) in Oslo where an extension
was to be built to house her.
Instead, Stavanger remained
outside for the next fi ve years,
covered by a large tarpaulin, while
her hull dried out. Plans to spray her
with antifreeze (ethylenglycol) to
stabilise the hull, as has been done
with other historic craft, were
rejected and, apart from some linseed
oil applied in the fi rst year, the boat
was left to fend for herself.
Finally, in December 2014, the
NMM issued a statement saying the
project had been abandoned. The
reason? Cost. According to the
NMM, the original 8.3m NOK
(£670,000) had been unrealistic, and
the actual cost was now around
40-50m NOK (£3.4-4.2 million),OLSO, NORWAY
Fiasco for Colin Archer rescue boat
which they could not afford.
According to the museum’s critics,
however, the fi gure has been infl ated
by including the cost of refurbishing
the entire Boat Hall, where she was
to be exhibited, rather than just the
section needed for Stavanger.
Meanwhile, the boat itself, which
had sailed 1,000 miles the year
before being handed over to the
NMM, has suffered inevitable
shrinking and damage from being left
out in the elements for fi ve years.
Were she to be relaunched now, she
would require a complete restoration- which is ironic.
“Stavanger is a special and unique
reference for Norwegian maritime
culture,” said former skipper Johan
Petersen. “When we brought her to
the museum we were convinced she
would be preserved in her original
state, as had been agreed. To see her
in this state with no immediate plans
to take her indoors is extremely sad.”
While plans for a dedicated
building for the boat have been
shelved, the museum is in discussion
with donors about using the
promised housing funds for a
‘rehabilitation/management project’
to preserve the vessel while her future
is being decided.
“The preservation of the vessel is
not abandoned,” said Eyvind Bagle,
of the NMM, “In the future, we hope
to create an exhibition for her outside,
and implement measures to restore
the vessel. We still hope in the long
run we may be able to build a
building for her on our premises.”Below: a project to
restore Stavanger
combined with the
museum’s fi nancial
needs led to stall
and damaging delayNIC COMPTONCB323 TTp20-21(NHS photo).indd 21 24/03/2015 18:35