Click on the image below to see our Christmas ’11 Newsletter:

Boleh Christmas ’11 Newsletter

The Boleh Trust’s success in securing funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund is reported by the Portsmouth News, who welcomed the apprentice positions being created for youngsters in the area. Click here to see the News article.

We are absolutely delighted to report that our Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) bid has been successful. Tthe Boleh Trust has received initial HLF support  for our project to involve local young people in restoring Boleh.

The HLF  first round pass provides development funding of £55,800 so that we can apply for a full grant of just over £440,000.  This exciting news is the first step towards winning the funding required to restore Boleh and establish an expanded apprentice training programme.

The HLF grant will allow us to involve the local community in learning about Boleh and the conservation skills which our apprentices will use as they restore the vessel. Over the next six months will be be holding Open Days to bring local people into the project and explain our plans for Boleh’s future and how this connects with her heritage.

In welcoming the funding announcement,  Staurt Mcleod, Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund South East, said: “We are delighted that Boleh is on the first step to being fully restored with apprentices trained in shipbuilding during the process … The trust has worked hard to realise the vision of this project, and HLF is pleased to give the project initial support.”

Click here for press release

We are very grateful to Michael Garlick who has very generously donated his prize money for his winning picture of ‘Maybird’,  in the 2011 National Historic Ships Photographic competition, to the Trust. We aim to buy a specific item to mark this welcome gift.  Michael chose the Trust because, like Boleh’s designer and builder Robin Kilroy, he was in the Fleet Air Arm and shares a family connection with Salcombe where Boleh is registered.

Once again we are grateful  to the Payne-Gallwey Trust for a further generous donation to Boleh. We have also received a welcome anonymous donation which has arrived just in time to provide matching funding for our bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The Trust has decided to ‘go for gold’ and apply for a substantial grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). The current economic climate means that, despite all the kindness and generosity of our many supporters, the Trustees have concluded that donations are unlikely to keep pace with the demands of Boleh’s restoration.

A comprehensive bid has just been submitted to HLF with letters of support from Portsmouth City Council, the Royal Naval Museum, Dolphin Quay boatyard, IT Paragon, and Bay House School, Gosport.  If successful, HLF funding will allow us to complete Boleh’s restoration with an enhanced apprentice training programme and wide community engagement.  We expect to hear the result of our Round 1 bid in December.

When Boleh left Singapore for England in 1950 she carried a clinker built ‘pram’ dinghy lashed to the foredeck as her tender.  That dinghy has long since disappeared but, thanks to local yachtsman, James Stock, a similar traditionally built 1950’s ‘pram’ now sits in the Boleh workshops.  James has very generously given ‘Dawn’  (something of a family heirloom) to the Boleh Trust so that she can be restored – and later sailed – by our apprentices.

Thank you to all those who have kindly given to the Boleh Trust with a click of a mouse though online giving at Virgin Money Giving.

We have been fortunate to receive three generous donations to the Boleh Trust over the past few months: firstly, from the Payne-Gallwey Trust whose main funding objective is to support adventurous activities; secondly, from the Coral Samuel Charitable Trust in recognition of our educational support to young people; and lastly, from one of the UK’s major charitable institutions, the Garfield Weston Trust. We are extremely grateful to our donors whose generosity will enable work on restoring Boleh’s hull to be completed.