52 1/2 foot ex admiralty WW1 Harbour Service launch

Discussion in 'Wooden Boat Building and Restoration' started by westray, Jan 1, 2021.

  1. westray
    Joined: Dec 2017
    Posts: 5
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    Location: Orkney, Scotland

    westray Junior Member

    Hello. We are working on our WW1 Harbour Service Launch, double diagonal teak on oak, copper sheathed. Solid teak deck. Originally steam, now diesel.

    Starting a thread here in the hope of finding other similar boats

    Noup Head- Sept 29020.jpg

    or folk who have had/worked on them in the past.
     
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  2. bajansailor
    Joined: Oct 2007
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    Location: Barbados

    bajansailor Marine Surveyor

    Welcome to the Forum Westray.

    Your HSL looks very fine - and I love that sheerline!

    Did you intend to post this in the 'Stability' section?

    I think you will get a much better response if you re-post the above in the Wooden Boat Restoration group -
    Wooden Boat Building and Restoration https://www.boatdesign.net/forums/wooden-boat-building-restoration/
    <Mod note: Thread now moved/merged>

    I see that you have also mentioned your HSL in this thread -
    pinnace project https://www.boatdesign.net/threads/pinnace-project.29351/page-2#post-896777
     
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  3. westray
    Joined: Dec 2017
    Posts: 5
    Likes: 4, Points: 3
    Location: Orkney, Scotland

    westray Junior Member

    Hello. we are restoring/converting our boat. She is an early one of this type, understood to be WW1. She has straight stem, is narrow (12ft 6 wide) double diagonal teak on oak with galvanized steel bulkheads. Obviously modified with up front steering and a diesel conversion in a rush job for WW2. But has had several engines since then. She has a long interesting history in Orkney.
    Looking for interested / knowledgeable folk to share experience. sea trials1.  2020.DSCF1676.JPG
     
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  4. hoytedow
    Joined: Sep 2009
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    hoytedow Carbon Based Life Form

    If boats could talk imagine what that one would tell.
    Welcome!
     
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  5. Mr Efficiency
    Joined: Oct 2010
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    Location: Australia

    Mr Efficiency Senior Member

    Used at Scapa Flow perhaps ? Might have taken old Lord Kitchener on board ship, for his final "cruise" !
     
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  6. hoytedow
    Joined: Sep 2009
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    hoytedow Carbon Based Life Form

    What he did to the Boers is inexcusable.
     
  7. westray
    Joined: Dec 2017
    Posts: 5
    Likes: 4, Points: 3
    Location: Orkney, Scotland

    westray Junior Member

    Hi. This boat Noup Head is named after a headland (with the lighthouse) in Westray. She came to Orkney in the mid 1950s from Leith. We understood she had been sold off after the WW2 like many others. We think there was another owner between the navy and Captain Kent. He ran her as a privately operated ferry based in Kirkwall but serving all the North Isles. He as owner skipper lived aboard and would go to sea at very short notice. His main trade was islanders, school kids, football teams etc. In those days the ferry ran twice a week and took 5 hours to get round the islands in turn to the last one, before returning to Kirkwall, so she offered a much quicker passage home. There were no rescue helicopters then and not even a lifeboat stationed in Kirkwall. Loganair had not yet started so no plane service either. If you were an emergency hospital case in the north isles, someone with a landline had to ring a shop in Kirkwall. The young girl from the shop would run down the street and get Capt. Kent to head for whichever island you were on. He had little navigation equipment besides a compass, his watch and deep sea as well as Orkney experience. The Noup Head was the fastest boat about and he would go in almost any weather. Tides are fast around here and you need to know what you are doing. There are folk here who remind us that they owe their lives to this boat and Capt. Kent. So no Kitchener trip as far as we know but many other more important ones. He ran her as a ferry from the mid/late 1950s to the late 1960s.
     
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  8. hoytedow
    Joined: Sep 2009
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    hoytedow Carbon Based Life Form

    People like Captain Kent are the salt of the Earth. God bless him.
     
  9. john wardale
    Joined: Jan 2022
    Posts: 1
    Likes: 0, Points: 1
    Location: hants

    john wardale New Member

    Hi Would you have a boat number for Noop Head, I have a photo of your boat taken about twenty years ago when a friend of mine visited the orkneys.
     

    Attached Files:


  10. westray
    Joined: Dec 2017
    Posts: 5
    Likes: 4, Points: 3
    Location: Orkney, Scotland

    westray Junior Member

    Hello. Correct name is Noup Head after a headland here in Westray. When that earlier photo was taken we had her in the Burray boatyard while we replaced the entire keel. She is the narrow (12 1/2 ft max beam) Noup Head, Westray Basin, autumn 2022 IMG_20220714_203737928.jpg WW1 type. There are no numbers, we have searched thoroughly. Apparently carved in numbers did not start till about 1930. Early ones just had their painted naval number. Long since gone! Picture here taken autumn 2022 Copper sheathing repairs visible along the water line.
     
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