Home Page	The Restoration of a Tamarisk 24 October 1997 to – (Will it every be completed?) perhaps now, on the dawn of 2010 it will by Denys Harland, Michael & Sue Swarbrick and now by new owners John & Issy Edginton	Home Page
1998 1999 2000/1 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006/7/8/9 2010 Click on photos for a bigger picture. Click on browser 'back' button to return to main document. Some 'Before' pictures Looking aft from the companionway you can see the strange sloping inwards cockpit seats? Inside the main cabin looking aft Same position but looking into engine tunnel, we've removed the engine at this stage The starboard side as you enter the cabin - quarter berth	History of the Tamarisk The original Tamarisk was built by North Sea Craft in Norwich where she was moulded in GRP direct from an original East Coast 19th century fishing smack and was only 22 feet long. Our Tamarisk is also based on traditional designs but from the West Country. Her designer David Cannell is said to have distilled designs like the Itchen Ferry and Falmouth Quay Punt into her. She is a traditional gaff rigged topsail cutter with a 'deep forefoot with a long run of keel not over deep, a little more beam, but still with a fine entry and firm quarters at the transom stern' - Boat Magazine, March 1979. She won the 'Best West Country Built Boat Award' in 1979. Hopefully, she will win the Best Rebuilt Boat Award of 1999. Our Tamarisk 24, named 'Spendthrift' by her previous owner, is believed to date from 1980. The hull moulding was supplied by North Cornwall Marine in St. Columb, Cornwall to her first owner, Malcolm Robert Aitken, know affectionately as 'Prison Bob' to his friends at Glasson Sailing Club. He was called Prison Bob to distinguish him from another Bob in the club who was dubbed 'Newspaper Bob'. The nickname was based on their occupations. Malcolm, as he is known to his family, worked at the Prison in Lancaster, he was involved in the prison workshops and taught handicrafts. He was a very quiet person and unfortunately little is known about him as he was only beginning to 'circulate' amongst the club's elder statesmen when his untimely death was brought about by a heart attack. He lived alone and perhaps if he had had a companion he would still be with us. I am writing this on Christmas Day 1998 and it is with sadness that one thinks of all the lonely people in the world. Malcolm's boat was dying with him, but we hope to bring it back to life, sadly something we can't do for Malcolm but the boat will be there so we will remember him. On his death the boat passed to Malcolm's sister, Barbara Joy Bell, who lives on the outskirts of Bath. Malcolm lived in Bebbington in the Wirral and we think his boat started out on the Mersey, possibly only coming to Glasson because it was near where he worked, in fact we know he lived on her, in the basin, during the week whilst he was at work. Strangely I have some pictures of her in pristine condition in the eighties on the club's then new trailer that Denys, Peter Wragg and I built If anyone has any more information about Malcolm - Bob or the boat Barbara and I would be glad to hear from than. I got involved with the boat after Malcolm's death, I am calling him Malcolm out of respect for his sister, thinking that it was such a lovely boat and wanting it to go to a good home and not be left to go to wrack and ruin, loosing its value. In my mind it was still the lovely boat on our trailer. Sadly after it was surveyed lots of inadequacies were found and the price came tumbling down. So Denys and I could afford it. Many is the time we have regretted our decision but hopefully one day in the not too distant future it will come to life again. We have already spent as much on it as we paid for it so now we are moving into the 'love' territory and it is costing more than it will ever be worth. I suppose it was the 'romantic' idea of a sail training ship for this Club's youngsters that inspired us to be reckless and buy it. It will be interesting to see if we ever take any youngsters on board. I think they would have to be orphans because no sane parent would trust their childrens' lives to a couple of old 'Long John Silvers' like us. Young Dennis of Weasel says he will never sail on a traditional boat again after his adventures this year in a similar but larger boat.	1998 1999 2000/1 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006/7/8/9 2010 Click on photos for a bigger picture. Click on browser 'back' button to return to main document. More 'Before' Pictures Looking down into the main cabin, you can see the engine on the cabin sole.  The starboard bunk tops have been removed About to enter the fore cabin, the toilet (I know you like to say heads) is on the left The fore cabin with the bunk tops lifted
Some of the forward recast ballast in position. The small ply bulkhead at the top of the picture is the start of the bow well.	First Task – Ballast  Some of the ballast was loose. I was very unhappy about this so we had to sort that out. Denys was unhappy with its disposition so we had to rearrange that at the same time.  We removed all the loose lead pigs and cleaned up the bilge. We then decided where to put the ballast. Next we had to recast all the pigs to fit in the bottom of the boat. There were two wells for the bilge to drain into, one in the bow and one under the engine compartment. Malcolm had had two bilge pumps to cope with this. We filled the front one with foam and sloped the bilge towards the stern to drain into the rear well, which we cut deeper, removing the concrete. I would have liked to remove all the ballast and repack the lot but it proved to be an arduous task that overfaced us. We organised the weight around the roll centre to reduce pitch and generally improve the handling characteristics - Denys's expertise. The finished job was secured by layers of 2 oz CSM, making the boat look like new with its sparkling clean bilges some o fwhich you can see in the picture on the left. Before we did any fibre glassing the hull was ground clean as can be seeen in the picture of the left wher the ballast has still to be glassed in. As you can see in these and subsequent pictures we removed the interior woodwork as we went along. In hindsight it would have been much easier to clean the whole lot out first but we hadn't decided exactly what we were going to keep?	In the foreground you an see the top of the lead ballast, further up you can see the foam to lewvel the bilge and the fillet is microballoons and resin.
Tamarisk Home Page	1998 1999 2000/1 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006/7/8/9	Tamarisk Home Page