We’re very grateful for a further donation from FTSE 100 company Babcock International Group PLC; the engineering and support services company is prominent in the marine industry. We particularly appreciate the generosity of our regular friends. Thank you.
Boleh’s recent restoration announcement continues to hit the headlines with a feature in this month’s issue of Classic Boat.
We are delighted to have 2 students from the University of Southampton working alongside our restoration. Please follow the research progress of Jonathan Happs and Matthew Slater along with Professor Phillip Wilson, Professor of Ship Dynamics in the learning section.
After a fantastic Press Launch on Tuesday 4th December to announce our Heritage Lottery Funding, Boleh goes public.
To read the press coverage please follow the links
BBC South Today
Our radio interview can also be found here [BBC Radio Solent.]
The grant will enable the Trust to employ apprentices to restore Boleh. Local young people will be able to learn heritage skills and make Boleh fit to sail again, while gaining credits at Portsmouth’s Highbury College towards their professional shipwright qualifications.
The funding also provides for significant community involvement in this exciting heritage project. Boleh’s story and restoration will be harnessed to inspire pupils from the Portsmouth-based Charter Academy and introduce them to experiences and adventures that they would not normally encounter in their lives.
The restoration will be supported by the design expertise of third-year ship science students from the University of Southampton.
Once restored, Boleh – whose name means “Can Do” in Malay – will be used to help those facing challenges in their lives by giving them the chance to experience sailing this unique vessel and so build confidence, leadership and team working skills.
Boleh, a remarkable 40ft wooden junk yacht, was built after WWII in Singapore by a Naval Officer, Commander Robin Kilroy, DSC, who then sailed her back to Salcombe, Devon in 1950. She is constructed from traditional materials to a mixed junk/Bermudan rig design with many novel features – such as portholes made from the windscreens of Japanese fighter aircraft.
George Middleton, Chairman of the Boleh Trust, said, “We are extremely grateful to the Heritage Lottery Fund whose support will allow the Boleh Trust to make a huge difference to the lives of young people in the Portsmouth area – both now, as we get our apprenticeship training up and running, and in the future when Boleh again becomes a sail training vessel. What’s really wonderful about this funding is that it will help us to share Boleh’s remarkable story and heritage with the local community.”
Stuart McLeod, Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund South East, said, “This rare vessel brings together European and Far East traditions and represents an important moment in sailing ship design. We at the Heritage Lottery Fund are delighted that Boleh will be fully restored, back to her former glory, allowing the Boleh story to be shared with local people and visitors alike. A particular highlight of this project for HLF is the young apprentices from Portsmouth who will be trained in shipbuilding during the process. Skilling up young people is so important and will ensure Boleh’s legacy lives on beyond just the restoration.”
Dame Sharon Hollows, Principal of the Charter Academy, said, “I’m delighted that Heritage Lottery Funding has been awarded to the Boleh Trust. The Trust, with its emphasis on helping young people through skills training and in offering sailing opportunities, together with its inspirational “Can Do” – anything is possible – approach to life, is just the sort of unique and inspirational activity that can enhance learning and life skills at Charter.”
As part of our Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) bid we are offering opportunities for traditional skills development and in particular traditional shipwright training for local apprentices. We are working in partnership with Highbury College (www.highbury.ac.uk), a local further education college judged ‘Grade 1 Outstanding’ by OFSTED in 2011. Highbury’s student success rate makes it one of the top general further education colleges in England.
With Highbury, and subject to the success of our HLF bid, we aim to provide four full -time apprenticeship positions in Marine Engineering, focused on Wooden Yacht and Boat Building. This will comprise four units:
* Competence-based training leading to level 2/3 NVQ Diploma in Marine Engineering – specific pathway: wooden yacht and boat building. Awarding body: Excellence Achieving and Learning (EAL), Qualification code: 600/1054/x. This work will be carried out at the Boleh workshop and assessed by the College.
* Knowledge-based training leading to level 2/3 Certificate and Diploma in Marine Construction, Systems Engineering and Maintenance. Awarding body: City and Guilds, Qualification code: 2463. This activity will be carried out on College premises for one day during a normal working week.
* Key Skills in literacy, numeracy and Information Technology will be strengthened with courses provided by the College at their premises.
* Understanding Employment Rights and Responsibilities and how to perform in the work-place will also be covered by the College.
Highbury College are already advertising these apprenticeships through the Government’s National Apprentice Scheme website (www.apprenticeships.org.uk) and candidates are being selected for interview by the College and the Boleh Trust. Those with an interest in this opportunity should apply via the Government website. Provided we are successful in our bid for HLF funding the four apprenticeships will start this autumn.
We are positive about the future of the Boleh Project – thanks to all our supporters – and have started a ‘Vacancies’ page. Please have a look, you’ll find it at the bottom of the left-hand menu.
We’d like to say thank you once again to the Payne-Gallwey Trust for their continued and generous support. It means a great deal to the Trust and our apprentices to have the regular support of Payne Gallwey as we move ever closer to restoring Boleh.
We’re thankful to report that, after six months of very hard work and with the professional support of our key consultants, Westbrook Marine Projects (http://www.westbrookmarine.co.uk) and Cultural Consulting Network (http://www.culturalconsulting.net), the Boleh Bid for Round 2 Heritage Lottery Funding (HLF) went in on time at the end of May. We will be told at the end of September whether we are lucky enough to have been successful. If so, we will be able to complete the full two year restoration of Boleh, take on apprentices and engage local schools and the community in heritage matters and the Boleh story.
During the bid we have formed close relationships with Highbury College in Havant, with whom we aim to deliver shipwright apprentice training and with the Charter Academy, a Portsmouth inner city school whose ethos is very much in tune with the Boleh ‘can do’ spirit. With Charter we hope to be able to use the Boleh story and the Boleh restoration programme as an integral part of the School’s curriculum over the next 2 years.
Part of our bid, of course, included the Trust’s detailed plans for Boleh’s restoration prepared by our Naval Architect, Graham Westwood. If you click on the thumbnail images below you can see the general layout of the restored Boleh and her sail plan; note that her famous ‘tradewind rig’ will be restored! We have also put forward a progressive, ‘green’ solution for Boleh’s auxiliary propulsion system similar to that in Her Majesty’s Jubilee barge ‘Gloriana’.
On Sunday 25 March the Boleh workshop at Eastney Beam Engine House, Portsmouth was buzzing with activity as local families and other visitors made the most of the opportunity to see Boleh and find out more about our plans for her restoration.
As well as learning from the new sails (information panels), boards and banners, visitors were able to take a guided tour round Boleh and talk to trustees. Children enjoyed building a boat at the Paragon water tank and upstairs everyone could try their hand at nautical knots.
We took the opportunity to collect feedback from people and test out their views on our plans. It was most encouraging to see their responses and messages of support. “What an excellent project and so good for our young people. It’s just what they need.”
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