The Lady Evelyn or the Bountiful SO 424 her story, her history

I have been led to believe that there has been some discussion locally about the boat.
   
Of course I can understand why, as for the main and most obvious reason is the fact that she is town centre (ish!) and is probably one of the most photographed vessels in the world... even today its cloudy, cold and yet there are people taking pictures for their own use  for whatever reasons.

So I suppose I could give a little detail about her and a wee bit of her history.

First of all, she was built in Dingle, launched in August of 1972 and called the Bountiful (SO424).  She is 59 feet long and her beam is 19.5 feet, made of Oak and has Oroco planking with Larch decking. 
She had a GRT (Gross registered tonnage) of 48, we think that she may be nearer 80 actual.
We think that she was renamed the Lady Evelyn in 1994 and had a larger engine (330 Pi-od or Pyeod) put into her by Tyrells of Arcklow in 1985. 

From the research it seems that her wheelhouse was changed in killybegs around 1999 and she went from three windows forward to five. 

She seemed to have a gear change around then for fishing for Herring (and probably any other pelagic species as well).  Before that she was Gill Netting and (I believe) Seine netting as well.

Thats a bit of the history so far, when we get the website up and going I will build a proper timeline along with photo's and explain in more detail the information I have so far.

Thanks to John Baird for most of that.  John is a marine artist and his site is  -

http://www.bairdart.net/

John used to steam the West Coast both Fishing and on Coaster's and knows a huge amount about the Fishing fleets, Irish and Scottish, both past and present.   John has also supplied a cracking picture which he has kindly allowed me to reproduce (and I will do later on in the blog).

Right, so thats a wee bit of her history now as to her future.

Originally we had planned to take her out the water at the local boatyard.  Unfortunatly they are unable to take out anything over 50 or so tonnes.  They have tried with the Lady Evelyn before I had anything to do with her but, I had a cunning plan to allow the Lady to dry out for a couple of weeks and trying to do it again as her GRT is 48 and technically they should be able to do it.  However,  I miss interpreted what the yard had said about where she could lie in order to dry out before the lift and in reality there is nowhere for her to go for that to happen (Her drying out that is).

So the next idea is to put her on legs and keep her somewhere safe on a beach, until the next plan can be put into action.  

The main problem, as with any project, is money.  If we had some, then for a mere £25K she would be away and repaired professionally in a yard and returned in a few months with everything sealed up (But no engine or steering, budget another £15K or so for that!), but since we dont , we have to do her as a long term project ourselves until funds are available or I win the lottery.

This is where we, as well as those watching with interest, have to be patient.  Things will happen as we can afford them.  Also we have to rely on goodwill from people with boats and the like in order to move her, we need to ba able to fit around them rather than them around us.

Oh! to have money!!

The aim of the whole project is to preserve the vessel for the future, she was built by hand and lets face it, few of these are ever likely to be built again.   Certainly she could be used as a wreck for divers (as I know that very nearly happened), but it would be criminal to let that happen without a fight.  

Ok, I will leave it at that for today.  I'm suffering a bit with the old 'sore back' and buggering around on the laptop is killing me..

If you have any questions, please by all means e-mail, comment or get in touch and I'll explain what's going on.  I know that there has been some real rubbish talked about this boat and whats happening if nothing else we get a laugh about it!!

It has been a while since I have been able to do anything on this 'blog' basically because I chose to update my system to Google 'Chrome' as well as upgrading to Internet explorer 9 (Beta).  So in my efforts to keep up with technology the whole system F*&^%£$ up!!
Now I have de-installed all the upgrades everything is back to normal and I can update pictures as well as everything else (Including getting my iPod back up and running! which is the most important thing)

So whats been happening with the Lady?  Well as you can see from the picture she is turned around. Love my fingers in the sodding picture!?!

 This was her half way round (I tried to download these in order but have failed miserably!!)

This is her at the end of the day, pumps off and being left for the night.  Unfortunetly there was a couple of issues when the tide went down and it was far from the end of my night with her!

She sits well for a boat that has been that has been on her side for the best part of a year, the list to starboard is basically because she has several tonnes of water 'logged' planking on that side .

Another picture of her sitting alongside.  Trust me at this stage I could barely move! let alone the Lady..



This was taken the day before, and I missed the tide by ten minutes.  She won't lift unless she is completely dry as the tide comes in and the pumps cope fine with this.  However, there is a point that if the pump stops for ten minutes she floods beyond its ability of the pump to cope.  Which has happened on at least four occasions due to blockages or (Lets face it) bad luck.

We are starting out here, Brother was a but dubious as to whether my clever rope system and relying on the wind to do her stuff! But hey ho... experience and all that the next picture says it all!!

 Here she is around and afloat.  The pumps are more or less acedemic when she's upright and the two inch honda four horse power copes absolutly fine (When not choked up with crap!)

A view aft.

 Its amazing the cold sweat I had on here, thoughts like 'if she goes down here the harbour master is going to have my B*&^s!!

 She is still moving with minimal effort... well by me I had the camera recording for history!!

Floating fine!

These are two pictures that have been kindly supplied to me from a very kind Irish friend who I have managed to contact about her history amongst other things, John deserves a blog to himself and I will re-post these pictures along with a fuller description of her history (as well as a bit about John himself who is an established artist).

And finally here she is floating fine!  It took quite a bit of effort but this was the result of a days work and you have seen a bit of the process above, thanks to David (My brother) and his mate Aiden who put their backs into the job....literally!

So at this precise moment she is back lying on her side, well away from the harbour wall.  She has just survived a North Westerly force 9 (Thank you Posiedon!) but we are due another blow on Tuesday so I am a wee bit panickly at the moment.

There is an awful lot yet to be 'B'Logged' about, but I'm just out of hospital after a wee procedure on my back and its getting painful sitting here typing.  So I'll update again tomorrow, hope fully, with a bit more about everyone and everything that is going on.

Aye


Kered