Girl overboard!

I am not sure that my dad ever planned to ‘replace’ the little Falmouth Quay Punt that he lost, when it sunk of the Kent coast on his way to Hamble.  But our sailing boat he then converted from a ship’s life boat did bear a striking resemblance to the pretty thing. My dad salvaged the life boat from a ship called Trooper and we retained that name. She had,  in layman’s terms a point at both ends and not particularly attractive; so my ever resourceful father removed one end and replaced it with a transom this  nautical term means a ‘wooden beam across’  and in this case the back end.  Hey presto!! After many more hours of bending, screwing, riveting and sewing of sails she became a 30ft sailing yacht.

Once sea worthy we spent summer weekends and holidays sailing the creeks and rivers of the Solent like water…