In the early hours of 22nd January 1978, as Boleh was completing a refit in Rye, West Sussex, prior to sailing for Germany and the USA, a milkman spotted a fire on board her. As a result of the arson attack, she was destroyed as far down as the waterline, with the damage so severe, that Boleh was declared an insurance write off.
Roger Angel then came to Boleh’s rescue!
When Robin died Boleh initially remained in his family but was later sold and had a succession of owners. Based in Rye, she was not sailed to any great extent for several years.
After her voyage to England Boleh was registered in Salcombe and began to provide sailing experience for young people including Sea Cadets, Island Cruising Club trainees, and young soldiers from the Junior Leaders Regiment, Royal Engineers at Dover.
Boleh sailed for the UK on 18th January 1950. Robin’s Crew for the voyage to Salcombe, Devon was made up of 2 fellow naval officers, John Rusher and Peter Aplin, a naval shipwright, George Jarvis and Robin’s Chinese cook Chang.
Described fully in Robin’s book “Boleh” they called at Sabang, Colombo, Minikoi, the Seychelles, Mauritius, Port Elizabeth, Simonstown, St Helena, Ascension and the Cape Verde Islands, finally arriving in Salcombe on 1st September.
Boleh undertook Christmas Trial Cruises later that year.
“The object was to find all kinds of weather and see what went wrong. In fact , we had a fair variety of weather, though mostly light or very light winds, and a highly enjoyable short holiday.
Christmas lunch was the high spot of the cruise. The stove worked perfectly, and Chang, with John Rusher in an advisory capacity, produced a meal much more than adequate to the occasion.” – Extract taken from Robin Kilory’s book Boleh.
“Mutt smashed the bottle with a mighty swing against the bows, singing out “I name you Boleh – and may you live up to it!” Boleh pitched gently as she slid off the trolley and was afloat” – Extract taken from Boleh by Robin Kilroy.
Before committing to the design of his dream vessel, Robin Kilroy made a scale model. “Without the model, I should not have been able to try out and satisfy myself that the peculiar hull form adopted was seaworthy; and lacking this assurance, I should have been obliged to be far less daring in the final design of Boleh.” – Extract from Boleh by Robin Kilroy.
Boleh – the name means ‘can-do’ in Malay – was constructed in 1949 by Malay shipwrights from Trengganu led by Embong Bin Saleh, taking about 12 months to build and costing £3000.
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