just spent a week up in Scotland working on the new boat, there was a pile of stress, but in the end we started the engine after scavenging all the parts needed off the half dismantled sister boat next door. This is going to be home for the next 20 years. On the night her engine came back to life, after siting silent for quite a few years, the gods smiled on us as the night sky light up:
She is a British made 10.5m drop lifeboat from 1987 This is replacing the existing 7.2m lifeboat, which is due to be retired to a slow life cursing the canals of London.
This home will take 2 years to fit out, then a shake down cruise to the North Sea. The plan is another long inland boating adventure through Northam Europe, Scandinavia, 2 years through Russia, down the Volga river, the Caspian Sea, visiting the Stans, before exploring Iran.
The boat will be arriving by truck to be dropped into the River Thames in a few weeks.
As always, looking for a crew for the fit out and voyage, message if you have skills and want to help. You can also cover some of the funding as this is a no budget project 🙂
We toasted her new life with slow gin, she is around 50% bigger and 2 knots faster than my old boat, which we took on a 5-year voyage to 13 countries.
https://www.youtube.com/@BoatingEurope for the videos from this adventure.
If people are interested, I could make a video about bring the boat back to life.
@ana my partner is working on a brilliant presentation for our talk next week, come and see us in Oxford.
