Present History

To continue from the last post, the boat was purchased in 2002 by yet another enthusastic collector of all things steam, Roger Lees. Having homed the boat at Northwich marina in a dry dock he eagerly set to work fitting out the somewhat unloved by now boat with a suitabley impressive steam engine and boiler to his own design.

US Navy 'M' Type 5 3/4 & 12 x 8 Steam Engine

New additions were also added to work started by Alan Ritchie such as twin front bunks located behind a tongue and grove bulkhead.

It was deemed necessary for scale purposes that Roger made use of the bed

Other nice examples of work carried out by Mr Ritchie included a double glazed skylight to match the double glazed wheelhouse all in beautifully finished solid teak.

Front Cabin Roof

And so with steam boiler designer extraordinaire Roger armed with a fantastic boat just a few screws away from being sea worthy the scene was set for this vessel to finally become the boat the late great Jumbo Goddard had dreamed of all those years ago, right? Well sadly not. Due to a number of factors progress on the boat fizzeled out over the years and the project seemed to be too much even for the living. The steam engine was removed and sold and plans were put in place to sell the increasingly unloved looking boat.

Engineless

However this wasn't to be the back of it because in the spring of 2012 news came through that Northwich marina was to be renovated into some kind of useful thing like houses or something, the result of which being the boat had to be moved. The how and the where proved slightly panicky for a while but a location just outside of Macclesfield coupled with a massive crane, a big lorry and no doubt some swearing culmonated in the boat finding itself a much more eco friendly 5 minutes drive from Rogers door, opposed to the 45 minutes to Northwich.

The Back Of It

But why are you telling me all this? Well I'll tell you why. Because this is where I come in and this is when the present history becomes the present. Still working full time for Petersen Engineering I have decided with the help of parents, boat builders, friends, strangers and google to taken on the completion of this boat. Naturally with my own interpritation of how I think it should look and function mixed with what I believe will be most appealing to a prospective 'massive wooden boat' owner.