02.14.07
Posted in History at 7:49 pm by Admin
FOR many years Mercy Jane was in a sorry state, washed-up and neglected. Gutted and stripped of fittings, her larch on oak hull and pine deck were bone dry - worn and weathered as she stood among scrap in a boat yard in Milford Haven, South Wales.
The boat yard had started a restoration by stripping it to an empty shell but went bankrupt before any further work could be done. When another firm moved in, it was taken out of storage and its bare wood exposed to the elements for five years before it was put up for sale as a potential restoration project for £5,000.
Sailing buddies Graham Crawshaw and Rhys Kift, who first met while taking navigation classes at the former Percival Whitley College, Halifax, spotted the vessel advertised in a boating magazine in 1993, along with an engine and various fittings. Having heard of the boat’s distinguished designer Robert Clark, they decided to take a look and put in a successful bid of £2,000.
They then hauled it up to Graham’s yard in Ripponden, and built a shed around the 39ft long boat. As the restoration project began they conducted research into its history and to try to put it back, piece by piece to its former glory.
They were faced with having to work out the levels, spaces and construction of the boat from the positions of the screw holes. “We only had the hull to go on, an empty shell to restore the boat to what it was originally,” said Rhys “We did not have any information, experience or photos of what it looked like. “Then when we wanted to start building the interior of the boat but we had no idea of the lines and levels so we looked where the holes for the screws and bolts were to try to work it out.”
During their research they found out that the Greenwich Maritime Museum kept boat designs, and to their delight they were told they had the original designs of Mercy Jane. Museum officials handed over copies of the designs, and the two men suddenly had a real chance of making their dream come to life.
They also managed to unearth the original logs of the boat’s first owner, the distinguished yachtsman John Morris, who named the boat after his wife Jane. And they found copies of the Royal Cruising Club Journal in which he gave accounts of his trips. Research revealed that the vessel was built in 1939 in the boat yard of Carl Andersson in Sundsandvik, Sweden.
During the outbreak of war Mr Morris and his wife took it on its maiden voyage from Sweden to the Aland Isles in the centre of the Baltic Sea. And on September 1 that year, they were stopped by a German ship. He gave a description of the encounter in the Royal Cruising Club Journal. “At noon we had a mild scare: a German Government vessel, possibly a mine-layer, came out of her way to look at us,” he said. “She circled slowly round, and her officers regarded us fixedly through glasses, while all her crew lined the rail. “Jane saved the situation by giving a cheerful wave, which was somewhat coldly reciprocated, and she steamed away.”
Because of the war, the boat was then stored away in a shed in Lowestoft. The next account of Mercy Jane in the Royal Cruising Club Journal was in 1946 and his last entry was in 1952. Later two sets of owners are known to have kept the boat and sailed it around Scotland, including the Bathgate brothers in the 1960s and 1970s. But it later went into decline and eventually found itself in a Welsh boat yard for restoration. Graham said when he and Rhys bought Mercy Jane in 1993 they worked on it two nights a week, plus Saturday and Sunday afternoons, solidly for about five or six years. More recently, as it neared completion, they have just been working for two nights a week.
Throughout the restoration they have also had to study the science behind the reaction of materials when they are immersed in sea water, and traditional boat building techniques. Recently they contacted a traditional boat builder, David Moss, who owns a boat yard in Skippool, near Fleetwood, to ask him to make a mast and boom and fit the electronics, to complete the boat.
Last Saturday, the four-berth boat was finally taken out of the shed by removing one of the walls. On Thursday, it will be lifted on to a transporter before it sets off to Skippool on the following day. They then plan to launch it into the River Wyre and, after its sea trials, sail up to Scotland. Ultimately they want to retrace its maiden voyage from Sweden into the Baltic Sea. Mercy Jane has two sister ships, Kalistra and Tenara.
Rhys and Graham managed to track down Kalistra in a harbour in Salcombe five years ago and were given a trip on the boat. They have never managed to find Tenara. Rhys said because Mercy Jane had taken up so much of their time over the years it had become a big part of their lives. They have even had visits from local clubs and organisations who are interested in the history of the boat and the progress of the restoration. He said his family had been beginning to wonder if they would ever complete it but they were now extremely excited.
“It is going to be quite a moment. We have never sailed it in the water,” he said. “We have built it from this empty shell. It will just be unbelievable to see it in the water and sail away. “It has been a labour of love. And at the end of the day, we have got something that is a one off. It is unique. “It will attract a lot of attention when we get it sailing. It will be quite an experience when we get it to the ports and harbours in Scotland because it used to be a regular sight up there.”
Rhys
Permalink
Posted in Trips at 7:48 pm by Admin
An account of her inaugural sail following 12yrs of restoration. We’d had a couple of short shakedown sails in the channel just outside Fleetwood to see that everything was working alright and that the new engine behaved itself, which it did, perfectly.
Graham and myself work together and the prospect of a day off, known locally as ‘September Break’ with a good weather forecast persuaded us to take Mercy Jane on her first sailing trip following an extensive restoration which had taken us 12yrs. The plan was to leave on the tide at about 2.30pm on Sunday, 11th September,05 which would give us plenty of time to get to Piel Island, stay overnight then sail back the next day.
We’d never been to Piel Island before but had been informed by local sailors that it was an ideal first trip being about 11 miles. Piel Island is located off Barrow, A . small island with a castle and a pub and sounded good. The boat was provisioned up, with lots of beer, the sun was shining and we were off. The lock gates to Fleetwood marina opened up at 3.45pm so we cast off, Graham at the helm and headed out into the river.
It was decided to motor till we were out of the channel where we would hoist the sails and make for Piel Island. We got to the Cardinal Buoy at the seaward end of the channel in no time, the engine easily pushing us along at 5 knots, to find that the wind was directly on the nose, which in my experience it always is. Anyway, undeterred, the sails were hoisted, we would tack, we were going to sail there regardless of the wind direction.
Once Mercy Jane gets into the groove she sails very well, making about 5 knots under main and jib sail, the original sails, the main being very baggy and the jib being too small, nevertheless it was good going. After a couple of tacks, Blackpool Tower was clearly visible keeping us company as we headed generally for a new wind farm installation under construction just off Barrow. We were having a really good sail, Graham suggested making a cup of tea and went below. This type of distraction nearly always invites trouble and lo and behold as soon as he had gone below the wind increased and with it so did the sea.
Mercy Jane was now well over on her ear, Graham was still trying to make the tea and we had full sail up and definitely overcanvassed. The sea by this time had risen to a nasty short steep chop that was bouncing Mercy Jane all over the place. We drank the tea quick, it was time to reduce sail, in fact we decided to get all the sail down so I made my way to the foredeck. Mercy Jane’s bow was now dipping into the oncoming waves and then rising dramatically, so hanging on with one hand the jib sail was dropped and tied onto the rail.
Next the mainsail was dropped, roughly flaked onto the boom and tied in place, I was glad to get back into the safety of the cockpit. By this time we had reached the Shoal Buoy marking the channel into Barrow which we followed until we reached an area full of mooring buoys between Piel Island and the Isle of Roa, which in fact is part of the mainland connected by a narrow causeway, where we picked up a good sized mooring. It was a very quiet and peaceful place with very few other boats, the anchorage being split in half by the deep channel leading into Barrow docks and the pub on Piel Island looking a long way away.
Once we had checked out our surroundings, the sea had died down to a flat calm so we pumped up the dinghy and motored across to the island towards the inviting lights of the Ship Inn. The landlord informed us that we were the first customers he’d had for about 3 days, most people had gone back to work,the holiday season being over and it was a bit quiet, anyway the beer was very welcome. Back on board later in the evening we lit the oil lamps, warmed up the chilli and enjoyed a couple of glasses of wine from a bottle that Graham had given me some 10 yrs earlier called ‘Cabin Boy Kift’ which I had saved for this occasion.
Surprisingly it was very good,so was the chilli. The atmosphere in the boat was very cosy, we both looked around not believing that we were here, actually sailing in Mercy Jane after all this time. Next day we awoke to a lovely bright, sunny day. It had been a quiet night, the weather that is, not so inside the boat, sleeping in the same cabin as Graham is like sleeping next to a Rhinocerous! Taking advantage of the sunny weather we went across to the island again and explored the castle which has been there since 1450 or so. After mooching around for a couple of hours we returned to the boat, had some lunch and got ready to leave.
It was still a lovely sunny day with no wind so we resigned ourselves to motoring back to Fleetwood in time for the lock gates to open at around 4.30pm. We had a fairly uneventful trip back, except that the chartplotter lost all the GPS data which was puzzling to us, the same had happened on our outward trip, apart from that it was a very pleasant sail back. We entered Fleetwood Marina with a little excitement caused by the Lockmaster asking us to go to a visitors berth not recognising our name.
We are a little nervous entering the marina normally not quite having got the hang of how she handles at close quarters so we entered in some trepidation to find with some relief that our berth was still free. After a couple of waltzes around the pontoon we were finally tied up and with some relief sat down with a couple of beers. All in all it was a successful trip, we had got to Piel Island and back, Mercy Jane sails very well and she is very comfortable. There are a couple of minor teething problems which can be expected from what is essentially a new boat, the biggest problem being the Chartplotter losing the data, this is a brand new bit of kit so is still under guarantee and hopefully can be put right.
Mercy Jane is a very lovely boat and attracts attention wherever she goes, she is also a very technical boat and requires quite a lot of skill to sail her, John Morris was obviously a very skilled sailor having sailed Mercy Jane all over Europe without an engine and very little in the way of navigational aids. We are looking forward to our next trip, The Isle of Man perhaps…
Permalink
