Whilst in Boston, USA, Henry Middleton (Trustee) met Grahame Ledson who skippered Boleh from 1963 for 5 years when she was used by the Junior Leaders Regiment of the Royal Engineers for adventure training. Grahame had many anecdotes of his time with Boleh but he remembered how sea friendly she was; an easy motion, helm sensitive, and with easy sail management. He appreciated Boleh having two booms port and starboard that were designed for trade wind sailing; goose winged on a broad reach, or with a couple of genoas in a light wind, she was a delight to behold. He recalled that legions of young trainees learnt a lot from Boleh!

As a mark of his association with Boleh, Grahame (in the middle of the picture with his wife Kristen) presented Henry with a Royal Engineers’ cap badge. The intention is that the badge will now be mounted and, with an historical explanation, will be displayed in Boleh’s cabin.

We are very pleased to report that the Boleh Trust has started the New Year with generous donations from The Radcliffe Trust and the Support Services and Training Company, Babcock International Group.

The grant from the Radcliffe Trust recognises the craft skills used in the restoration of Boleh.

We are most grateful for this support.

Click on the image below to see our Christmas ’10 Newsletter:

Boleh Christmas newsletter

The last few months of 2010 have been eventful ones for the Boleh Trust. The quality of Richard Uttley’s work has been recognised in the full survey by MARINTEC on completion of the structural repairs, which reported Boleh to be, “in a very sound state“. Very sadly, however, Richard has had to leave us on grounds of ill health.

The picture below shows Richard discussing the finer points of design with Colin Mudie, FRINA, RDI, the renowned sail training vessel designer and Naval Architect. We are fortunate to have had the benefit of Colin’s knowledge and experience in planning the future layout of Boleh.

Credit: tallshipstock.com

Happily, we were able to find an appropriately qualified replacement for Richard with very little delay - Flint Elgie joined us with experience both of sailing a 1903 French pilot cutter and of managing a local boatyard.

Flint is supported by a new apprentice, Josh Brookes,who has been awarded an IMATT training bursary. We are most grateful to Hampshire County Council and the Heritage Lottery Fund for this assistance.

And finally…

…despite the blisters, Boleh Trustee Piers Middleton completed the New York Marathon (see previous blog post). We are extremely grateful to everyone who sponsored Piers and helped us raise over three thousand pounds.

Piers Middleton is running the New York Marathon, on 7 November, to raise money for the Boleh Trust.

Piers, a first time marathon runner, is hoping to raise as much money as possible to help the Boleh Trust complete the renovation of the historic sail training yacht, Boleh. The Boleh Trust is a charity helping young people, particularly from disadvantaged backgrounds, to develop the skills they need to succeed in life.

Piers, who is also a trustee of the Boleh Trust, said, “I know that the Boleh Trust is doing excellent work with young people and anything I can do to help I will – even if that means early morning training runs in the rain. I’m looking forward to crossing the finishing line knowing that I’ve done my little bit to help the Trust in its mission.”

To sponsor Piers and support the Boleh Trust you can donate online here, http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/Piersmiddleton or click on the icon below.

Thanks for you support.

The Boleh Trust is very grateful to Livingstone and Company and to Guy and Casper Fithen for very kindly sponsoring a fund raising evening for the Trust at the Travellers Club in September.

This event centred on the story of Boleh and our vision for the Boleh Trust – click here to view the presentations given to the invited audience. We were heartened by the messages of support from two our our local MPs, Penny Mordaunt (Portsmouth North) and David Willetts (Havant).

Many thanks to all our donors who helped us raise several thousand pounds for the work of the Trust.

The Boleh Trust has had a busy summer so far:
 
Richard Uttley and his team of apprentices have made excellent progress over the summer. Jason Rankin, who’s been working on Boleh since the beginning of the project, has prepared a portfolio of his work  that shows how far we’ve come since Boleh arrived in Portsmouth just over two years ago.
 
The work of our apprentices can continue thanks to the support of all our donors. We’re delighted to announce that the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Community Foundation has given the Boleh Trust another generous donation showing their continued confidence in our work.Thanks also to local business VT Group for their contribution and one of our apprentices has recently found employment there in the shipyard. We are grateful as well to Portsmouth City Council for extending our lease at the Old Pump House, Henderson Road.
 
And finally, another piece of good news is that the Boleh Trust is involved in the Shipshape Network and will provide opportunities for trainees from across the UK to broaden their experience of conservation and shipwright skills.

Many thanks to The Bulldog Trust for their support to the Boleh Trust.

Click on the image below to see the new Boleh Project brochure

 Boleh Brochure

We are grateful to the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights who have helped kit-out Boleh’s workshop with new equipment for our apprentices. This has now been installed with a generous discount from Axminster Tools and we are looking forward to continuing our close association with the Shipwrights Company as the restoration proceeds.