THIS WEEK IN 1978: A major set back in plans for Lively Lady

Hopes of Southsea traders that they might have been able to acquire Sir Alec Rose's yacht, Lively Lady, as a permanent feature and star attraction in the planned new pedestrian precinct in Palmerston Road hit a major setback.

Sir Alec said he was ‘shocked’ by the plan and was firmly opposed to it.

‘I feel it would be distasteful to exhibit the yacht in a shopping area,’ he said.

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‘It would also be at risk to damage by vandals and there could be no guarantee that it would be properly protected in the long term.’

In 1975 Sir Alec handed Lively Lady over to the Maritime Trust and she had since been used as a training boat.

‘When Lively Lady reaches the end of her useful life I hope it will be possible to arrange for the yacht to be preserved in Portsmouth Dockyard,’ he said.