Provident style Plymouth sailing trawler restoration

[Johnty0]

I floated Flete Lady, a Mashfords of Plymouth built wooden 73' trawler(1954,Ply 36), almost a year ago. I'm living aboard and have a couple of weekends work paying seams, replacing bullworks, installing engines etc. I need info on where to place the masts and spars! eg Is Provident etc. under/over canvassed, has lee/weather helm, is under/over powered?

 

[Poignard]

Good luck with this project. I once had a weekend sailing a Lowestoft sailing trawler, Excelsior and she was a fine boat, about 77-feet long and steered with a tiller. I believe the Lowestoft trawlers were very similar to the West Country ones so you may get useful information from the Excelsior Trust in Lowestoft. There was a well illustrated book called "Sailing Trawlers" by Edgar March [now very expensive].

I'm impressed by "....a couple of weekends work paying seams, replacing bullworks, installing engines etc. .

 

[Seagreen]

[ QUOTE ]
a couple of weekends work paying seams, replacing bullworks, installing engines etc.

[/ QUOTE ]

A couple of weekends for all that? Its taken me two weeks to get 100lbs of scrap and concrete out of my bilges! Best of luck.
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[boatbuilder]

Mashfords are still going , why not try contacting them.

 

[JonA]

Provi is pretty well balanced but is under canvassed, in a couple of years as mate (one full season and lots of bits) we never reefed. Have sailed in F8, just down main tops'l (mizzen tops'l goes earlier). She is reputed to have lost some sail area when converted to a yacht. Not always a bad thing if undermanned. If you get the jib and staysail and their sheeting right you can easily tack single handed. If you are in the Kingsbridge area look up Chris Spencer-Chapman at J.McKillop sailmakers, Ebrington street. He was skipper for several years.

Jonathan

 

[Seagreen]

More seriously, are there any old photos extant of Flete Lady? You will find Edgar March's "Sailing Trawlers" a good reference (though I can't remember anything specific about Plymouth Trawlers, except most of them were built at Galmpton!), and there should have been a clue in the positioning of the framing and the mast partners in the boat which will tell you where the mast was. I don't know the condition of the vessel as found so I can't add much to this.

Any good old photo will give you rough dimensions, but there must be builders plans in some public or private archives - try contacting the Plymouth library in the first instance, they can be surprisingly helpful.

 

[Poignard]

The National Maritime Museaum at Greenwich [including the Caird Library] is a tremendous resource and worth contacting for old books, photos, plans etc.

 

[mikefleetwood]

You could try the achives of the long etablished postcard/photography companies Frith, Judges, Gibson, etc. - most seem to be online these days.

 

[Johnty0]

Thanks guys, 1, Mashfords (under newish ownership) suprisingly unhelpfull, 2, Flete Lady has the lines of a sailing trawler but was built for power only so no hints as to where spars should be, 3, I've always thought Provi looked undercanvassed so thanks for the info, 4, Plymouth library curiously can't find any info. on her, to all others-thanks

 

[Johnty0]

I'm just recaulking the decks - 150 tubes of Sika and 25 L of primer - and whilst slowing down for a 'cup'o'tea' was looking at the hull. Has anybody had any experience of sandblasting a hull? Proper air blasters extremely expensive!

 

[Casey]

I had the hull of Kala Sona blasted six years ago and was very satisfied. The people who did it have gone out of business but they used the Farrow system. At the Beaulieu Boat Jumble I spoke to the Antifoul Removal Company ( www.arccompany.co.uk ) who use the same system and are hungry for business.