Motor Boat & Yachting — November 2017

T

o paraphrase the slogan from Patek
Philippe’s advertisements for its
posh watches, ‘you never really own
a wooden boat, you merely look after
it for the next generation.’ I don’t know
whether my grandfather had this in
mind when he commissioned Isabel II
from Frank Curtis’s Cornish boatyard
in 1947, but given that this pretty and very practical 22ft
wooden motor launch has been in our family ever since,
it certainly feels that way to me.
I’ve enjoyed using Isabel II for every one of my 49 years
to date, and I hope that one day my grandchildren will
continue to do so long after I’m gone. The only trouble
is that unlike a fancy watch, which only needs the odd
service to keep time, wooden boats need a little more
love and attention to stop time getting the better of them.
To be fair to my predecessors, they’d done a pretty
good job of keeping Isabel II afloat for the last 68 years
using plenty of paint, varnish and on one infamous
occasion, some embalming fluid from the local

undertaker. My tenure in charge didn’t get off to a great

start either when I learnt the hard way that after a long

winter in a dry shed, wooden boats need a bit of time for

their planks to swell before they become watertight. Only

by running her aground did I manage to prevent her from

sinking completely.

However, with her 70th birthday fast approaching,

it was clear that more extensive work was required. The

teak fore and aft decks were completely shot, resulting

in a slow but steady leak of rainwater into the timbers

beneath. As wooden boat owners know, fresh water is

the scourge of sea-based boats as this is what causes the

rot to set in. A poke around in the fore cabin, which used

to house an ancient sea toilet until we opted to brave the

freezing waters of the English Channel rather than risk the

putrid smells which used to emanate from it, confirmed

the bad news. The internal ribs, which support the pitch

pine planking, were rotting from the top down. In places,

they were already so soft that you could stick a coin into

them. Worse still, the gradual flexing this allowed meant

that the bow planks had started to separate from the

75

OWNER’S UPGRADE

Back in rude health

and ready for the

next 70 years

Hugo takes Isabel II’s helm 70

years later after a restoration

by the IBTC helped preserve

her for generations to come