Boats

Hi Christian,

I am certain that you will be able to enlighten us as to the identities of these boats at Shoreham.

While down at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this weekend I made a detour to Shorham to look at the Houseboats. For those of you not resident in the United Kingdom- 9th July, driving rain and gusting winds - what a joy the English summertime can be.

I have taken photographs walking upstream from the bridge and have uploaded them in that order.

I have taken other pictures from the bridge with an old fashioned camera ( not digital) with a telephoto lense so we will have to wait for those to be developed. They will show the two boats seaward of the bridge and the other boats with the bows out into the river.

Boat 1

Boat 2

Boat 3

Boat 4 - Is this a CMB hull form, looks very unusual and unfortunatly not in very good repair.

Boat 5

Boat 6

Boat 7

Boat 8

Boat 9

Boat 10

Boat 11 - Fische is BIG. You can seefrom the hull form how she could manage 30 knots.

Boat 12 - Hull form reminds me of a FAIRMILE D is that too much to hope. The bow has been shortened and the hull appears to be crudely plated with steel, it does appear to be about the right length. Do we have a history for this boat.

Boat 13

Boat 14

Boat 15 - This one appears to be afloat.

Boat 16

Boat 17

Boat 18 - Pinnace (similar ASCO and Irvine Wreck?) out of sequence im afraid.

There are at least two other boats down stream of the footbridge one of which appears to be a Whaleback of some sort.

I will add other photographs when they are developed.

Does anybody else have photographs of house boats or abandond MTB's along the south coast? I dead follow a lead on the Chichester canal near the marine and harbour but did not turn up any finds. I was also advised that there may be a boat near Porchester but did not have time to investigate, any ideas?

Hi Johnk

I took the photos yesterday, I hoped that CHRISTIAN might be able to shed some light re identification.As for boat 12 the hull form does look like that of a FAIRMILE D with the last 5 feet of the bow chopped of, as for steel plates over a wooden hull, I hope so or the ship yard that built here should be ashamed of their workmanship. As I said before I am hoping that somebody can shed some light on here origin, I am just not well enough informed myself.

As for the condition of the boats I am not sure whether to be grateful for the oportunity to see 20 MTB/MGB's together or to be heart broken at their condition through lack of maintainance.

Hello Christain and d-zine,

Re my comments, still tired from Zeebrugge! directed at d-zine of course, the book is very informative, hope its still available via small ships group, yes the vessel with the squared off bow was a landing craft as Christian said, I am afraid the dream of finding a D knocking about is just that!

John

Hi John

The book is indeed still available,having just had reprint.The price is now £12.00.

Hi d-zine-It is a tough one,deciding whether these boats are just being mercilessly used and disposed of once rotten,but if you consider that  they are here today only because they have provided several families with a home,an affordable one at that,also giving the boats a last chance at being useful having done their time as fighting vessels designed to last only a couple of years and then served in the intervening years as private yachts,Sea-Scouts headquarters or even as houseboats the whole time,we are lucky to see them at all.It is an opportunity for very rich enthusiasts to take them over for complete rebuilds,there are boats at Shoreham which represent the last of their class,such as Raglan the 57ft BPB Co target-towing launch,the 70ft Whalebacks and the 73ft Vospers.The most numerous surviving MTBs are the BPB Co 71.5ft,of which there are a few at Shoreham and the rest of the UK(including the magnificent MGB81),if I were to buy one to restore it would certainly be one of the Captain Morgan cruise boats from Malta which only went out of certified service last year and have suffered less fresh water ingress in their timbers,rather than one of these houseboats which are less likely to ever be seaworthy.So in my own way,even though I'm an enthusiast,I'd put myself and my bank balance ahead of any nostalgia-fuelled magnanimosity.Funnily enough most of these boats are lost upon change of ownership to someone with more pipedream ideas than practical sense and ability (e.g.NanaLoa).

Food for thought!

Regards,Christian