Sunk wooden cruiser at Wargrave - quite a few years ago.

[ianc1200]

Hi

There was a thread on here, I'm sure, about a wooden cruiser which sank on her mooring outside a bungalow in the Wargrave area about 1.5 - 2 miles above Shiplake lock. I've tried and tried, but cannot find that thread (I'm sure I contributed to it) - I'm useless at the search engine. I'm fairly certain it was Quest. A former owner has written to the Thames Vintage Boat Club asking for information.

At the Festival our Rear Commodore Jane was approached by the Bidgood family who had owned a boat called QUEST since before the Dunkirk Evacuation and she is one of the Little Ships.

They are now trying to trace her whereabouts.

The TVBC has very accurate information about her on our database, although she was never a member boat as such:

She was built by the Navy in 1916.
32 foot, clinker hull (typical Navy pinnace). She was restored in 1936 and used as a family cabin cruiser before requisition by the Admiralty.
She appeared at the Trad for several years and won the Peter Freebody Trophy in 2000.
She was moored by Maidenhead bridge for some years then was sold out of the family and went to Caversham marina. She could still be in that area?

 

[Pump-Out]

QUEST | The Association of Dunkirk Little Ships (adls.org.uk)

Probably best contacting John Tough, Archivist for the ADLS

 

[ianc1200]

There appears to be two boats called Quest on the ADLS list.

The 1937 ADLS Quest is a carvel Gibbs cruiser and is at Dennets awaiting restoration (easily findable doing a google image search). The ADLS list says this is the one associated with the Bidgood family. There isn't any details about the other Quest.

 

[Barge]

I may have the wrong boat completely, but i seem to recall it sank and was moved up to the yard at better boating Reading. Might be worth a call just to cross it off the list if i have it wrong.

 

[ianc1200]

I may have the wrong boat completely, but i seem to recall it sank and was moved up to the yard at better boating Reading. Might be worth a call just to cross it off the list if i have it wrong.

A very good suggestion, I'll pass it on - many thanks.

 

[Parabordi]

I may have the wrong boat completely, but i seem to recall it sank and was moved up to the yard at better boating Reading. Might be worth a call just to cross it off the list if i have it wrong.

It did sink and it was the same boat from Maidenhead.(i used to moor in same yard)

The bil family tried to rescue it and will no doubt know where it went.

 

[Outinthedinghy]

Steve Bil et al now have the lease at the old Tom Jones boatyard just below Romney lock.

Boatyard currently registered as Stanley and Thomas. Google will find it.

Are we talking about the vessel which was previously moored behind the Hallsmead ait about 20 minutes above Shiplake lock? Nice boat. Used to be well varnished and had a park bench in front of the wheelhouse. Moored to the towpath side top end of the Hallsmead Ait for quite a long time and deteriorated quite quickly then it went down.

If it's that one then it is still extant out of water at Better Boating and for sale.

I thought it had been broken up but apparently it has a teak hull so is a survivor.

 

[ianc1200]

Andy, no that was a different one. Was "Viking" when it used to come to the Trad Rally, but renamed ("Feral Lass"?) when a liveaboard. She was teak as I remember. The one I'm looking for was "Quest" and had a white clinker hull with a transom, then varnished upper hull parts. had a Thorneycroft Handybilly paraffin/petrol engine, lots of rods/wheels/brass controls etc. Was once featured on front cover of Waterways World magazine in a lock, perhaps Hambleden.

 

[ianc1200]

Sorry about the large image, but this is the boat. It sunk on a bungalow mooring a few plots downstream of where the St Patricks Stream leaves the river.