O2C Admin

Jason Rankin, our very first Apprentice, helped strip out Boleh under Shipwright Richard Uttley’s tutelage in 2008 when the junk yacht first arrived in Portsmouth for restoration.

Now Jason, who is employed as a shipwright by Tim Gilmore at Birdham Pool where Boleh’s mast and spars are being assembled, is back at the weekends helping to complete the Project. Picture shows Jason putting the finishing touches to the forward end of the Saloon.

Famed for classic yacht restorations of the highest quality, Fairlie Yachts were called in to construct two unusual booms for Boleh’s rig.

These aerofoil battens, originally designed by Robin Kilroy in 1950 to improve the rig’s aerodynamic performance, have now been updated following wind tunnel tests by Ship Dynamics students at Southampton University. The completed booms, whose concept will be familiar to modern day windsurfers, are the final part of Boleh’s complex and unique junk rig which is being assembled at Dolphin Quay Boatyard.

Picture shows Boleh’s two Wishbone Booms being loaded on to trustee David Knight’s car at Fairlie Yachts, Hamble.

Hidden away below the floor of Boleh’s cabin but revealed in this photograph is the auxiliary power pack which will drive Boleh’s 16.5 tonnes at 6 knots. These twin electric motors, manufactured by Lynch Motors in Devon, weigh only 15 kilos each yet deliver 13 kilowatts (17.4 horsepower) of power to each of Boleh’s 2 propellers.

Robin Kilroy, Boleh’s original designer, produced an innovative auxiliary power system for Boleh in 1950. This relied on a single 8.5 horsepower Stuart Turner petrol engine working through a unique ‘drive’ to a propeller lowered in to the water when required.

Boleh’s new 35 horsepower diesel electric system rivals this in design innovation and is modeled on that fitted in the Royal Barge ‘Gloriana’ for which our Naval Architect, Graham Westbrook was also responsible.

We are delighted to announce that since the start of the year we have received almost £10,000 towards the costs of operating Boleh as a sail training vessel. This is hugely encouraging as we prepare to put Boleh back in the water and we are most grateful to the Hedley Foundation, to the Payne-Gallwey Charitable Trust and to all our individual donors who have responded so generously to the Boleh Christmas Appeal.

The Boleh team were delighted to introduce The Princess Royal to the Boleh story, as part of her visit to sister organisation Portsmouth Sail Training Trust in the Historic Dockyard on Friday 6th February. HRH had a wonderful visit to Portsmouth and was able to see first hand the opportunities that the Boleh Trust and PSTT have been able to offer young people in the area.

This is now the sixth annual Boleh Trust Christmas Newsletter which we enclose. The year’s achievements with young people can best be summed up by Tim Gallier, our apprentice mentor, recently receiving Portsmouth’s ‘Future Generations’ award from the Lord Mayor on behalf of the Trust.

It is also a pleasure and a sign of the progress made that we are able to enclose the first Newsletter (to follow in separate news item) from our sister charity, the Portsmouth Sail Training Trust. PSTT, to use their popular title, are already taking Charter Academy pupils to sea from Portsmouth Historic Dockyard and will be operating BOLEH as a sail training vessel in 2015. We hope you will register your interest with them.

Our focus is now on moving BOLEH in to her operational role and you will see an appeal for donations to support this at the end of our Newsletter.

Thank you all once again for supporting BOLEH and we wish you a very Happy Christmas and New Year.

We are pleased to announce that our sister charity, the Portsmouth Sail Training Trust have published their first newsletter.

We were honoured to receive our third annual ‘inspection’ from Vice Admiral David Steel, Second Sea Lord earlier this week. Admiral David has been a powerful supporter of Boleh since our HLF funded project started in 2012 and was most impressed with the progress made. This time we were able to focus on Boleh’s future and Portsmouth Sail Training Trust (PSTT)’s plans for her operation as a sail training vessel. Picture shows the Admiral ‘inspecting’ Boleh’s fo’c’s’le and new teak deck with PSTT’s Chairman, Ed Phillips

Things are hotting up at 199 Henderson Road and not just because the shipwright team are striving to get Boleh back into the water as soon as possible. Steam has been needed to help bend and shape the heavy teak capping planks along the top of the bulwarks. In 1949 the Malay shipwrights building Boleh in Singapore faced similar challenges and, as described on page 25 of Robin Kilroy’s book, the timber was ” . . boiled in an old hollow iron telegraph pole and with wedges, clamps, pegs and brute force bent, still steaming, to fit . . . . there were many failures.”