Training ship set to be restored at Portsmouth
While Lively Lady arrived in Portsmouth to great fanfare last weekend, a ship built in Singapore has quietly slipped in under the radar to help more young people.
The Boleh, meaning Can Do in Malay, was driven to the Meridian Sailing and Training Trust in Eastney, Portsmouth, on the back of a lorry, watched by descendants of the man who once restored her.
Wendy and Roger Angel are the relatives of Robert Angel, who repaired the ship – built by Royal Navy Commander Robin Kilroy in 1949 – after a major fire in 1978.
But now it is young apprentices from Portsmouth who will work on the vessel, so she can provide sailing training for disadvantaged local people.
Apprentice shipwright Jason Rankin has been working on the boat since last week. The 17-year-old from Southampton Road, Port-chester, said: 'It's great to have such a historic boat here to work on, I've been here since I did work experience at school and this is the kind of thing I want to get my teeth into.
'It's a big project because she hasn't had a lot of maintenance done over the years.
'The first thing to do is clear her out and then we will take up the deck to work out exactly what needs doing.'
Mr Rankin will be working with shipwright Richard Uttley for up to 18 months to refurbish the Boleh.
When finished, visitors, indirectly funded by Portsmouth City Council and Hampshire County Council, will be trained by the trust in the basics of sailing.
Mr Rankin said: 'I hope it will be finished as quickly as possible so that people can start using her.'
When they do get going, it will be the craft's second training career.
In the 1960s, following Cdr Kilroy's death, Boleh was used by a cruising club in Salcombe, Devon, then in Dover, before she was damaged by fire in 1978.
Mr Angel, a joiner from Sussex, saw the wreckage and restored her, before she was sold to the Kilroy family.
The Meridian Trust, set up in 1990, provides opportunities for about 1,500 disadvantaged young people each year.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Portsmouth
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 13 C to 25 C
Wind Speed: 22 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 13 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 24 mph
Wind direction: East
