Page 79 - It's a Rum Life Book 3 "Ivy House Tales 1970 to 1984"

We had found that coping with a small
daughter and trying to sail a heavy gaff
rigged cutter had become difficult.

More than once I had managed to loose
the channel while sailing in the Wash and
run us aground on a falling tide, this
resulted in 10 hours of boredom, criticism
and not an enjoyable day!
We decided to sell “Peregrine” if we could
find something easier to manage.

HERBERT WOODS
Herbert Woods boatyard in Potter
Heigham on the Norfolk broads were
selling all their older wooden built boats.

The time to change to “Tupperware hire
boats” had arrived and here was a chance
for us to buy something really useful for not a huge cost.

We took Ray Keightley, one of the brothers who had built “Peregrine” for us, to Norfolk to
see if there was anything worth buying.
On arrival at Potter Heigham, six identical large cruisers were moored in the centre of the
broad and we spent the morning looking them all over.

The “Vesta” boats were all built of mahogany on oak, they were truly solid, sturdy craft with
many years life ahead of them. Being wooden though, annual maintenance would always
be expensive unless one could do it oneself!
A thorough internal survey showed that the best boat of the six was one with a huge
plywood patch on its starboard bow.
One of the hirers had rammed a jetty and punched a hole right through the hull above the
waterline. The repair would be relatively simple, Ray explained and it could be done
without taking the boat out of the water. Apart from this devastatingly looking patch the
remainder of the boat was in excellent shape.

We now asked the yard to take the boat out of
the water at lunchtime so we could survey the
outside of the hull.
This exercise was mind boggling. They brought
the boat to the slipway and attached a cable to
a shackle located through a large access hole
in the front of the boat’s keel.

A number of wide greasy wooden bearers were
laid on the slipway and the other end of that
cable was attached to a winch-drum on the rear
of a “Track – Marshall” logging tractor.
On the word, the tractor roared, the winch
turned and our chosen Vesta, which was 32

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