The Liverpool Link

Yacht Transport News 2010

RETURN TO DUNKIRK 1940 - 2010

Restored in Scotland by the Little Ships of Dunkirk team, ANNE, built in Cornwall in 1925, crosses the border by lorry on the evening of May 14, for the 70th anniversary of the epic retreat from Dunkirk in 1940. The surviving "little ships" gathered in Dunkirk on May 27 to mark the anniversary of the battle that Winston Churchill called "a miracle of deliverance".

From left to right, shipwrights Dominic Bunting, Morgan Riley, Louis Purvis, team leader Kes Travers and his father Les, Scott Bawden and Farquhar Mackenzie saw her off from Burnouses in the Cheviot Hills, where two other "little ships" ALUSIA and FOLKESTONE BELLE have arrived for major refits. [scroll down for story]

CLICK for PBO story.

NEW DEAL FOR HEAVY LIFTS ON LEEDS AND LIVERPOOL

Skipper Derek Bent blazed a trail through the new Liverpool Link on Good Friday 2010 promising a new deal for owners of heavy craft on the 127 mile [204 km] Leeds and Liverpool Canal.

Back in 1978, at the end of eastbound commercial traffic out of Liverpool, Derek skippered the last loaded grain barge from Stanley Dock to Trafford Park in Manchester. Since those days, boat owners on the great broad canal have been denied access to a permanent boat hoist capable of lifting more than 20 tonnes. Owners of wide beam boats and 62ft narrowboats were regularly facing lifting bills of more than GBP 2,000.00 for spot-hire of a mobile crane. Some traditional bankside lifting locations were ruled out of bounds by new BW regulations. Now there's a new way to lift a heavy boat to transport, using the Liverpool Link to reach the 60 tonne boat hoist at Liverpool Marina.
CLICK for Liverpool Link pictures.

SALVAGED FROM MALLORCA

Riva Corsaro 20 SUE ELLEN lay beached and holed at Port de Sóller in Mallorca until salvage experts called in Transboat UK to move her by road for 'recycling' in North West England. First stage in the salvage was to patch her watertight for a coastal sea tow before lifting the exotic Italian-built 28 tonne 21.3m [70ft] yacht to trailer at Porto Adriano.

Last stage was down the winding Mythop Lane near Weeton, Lancashire, leading to a graveyard of glamorous yachts and sports cars run by SRC Recycling Ltd at Reams Hills Farm. Pictures by Peter Owen.

ONLY ONE WAY INTO BEESTON STREET

There's only one way in - and only one way out - of Beeston Street, near Goodison Park in Liverpool. Sealand Boat Deliveries and O'Connell Site Services agreed to try and squeeze a 3.6m wide, half-built, motor cruiser through an angled 3.5m wide gateway to turn an old dairy yard into a boatyard and berth her next door to the friendly residents of Beeston Street.

With a team of speedy bricklayers working to fractions of inches they squeezed the 12 metre power cruiser into her new home.

RESCUING DUNKIRK VETERANS

In May 1940, in the heat of the Battle of Dunkirk, Gunner Northcott RN skippered this magnificent motor yacht across the English Channel with a volunteer crew to ferry drinking water to soldiers as they waited under air attack for rescue from the French sand dunes.

Sixty-nine years later, Sealand Boat Deliveries stepped in to rescue ALUSIA from scrapping at a boatyard on the River Medway. Built in Southampton in 1938 for luxury cruising in France, she has now been hauled to Scotland in a major new effort to save some of the 150 surviving 'little ships of Dunkirk' comandeered by the Royal Navy to rescue 385,000 soldiers from death or captivity in the first year of the war.

In November 2009, Sealand headed north on the M6 with the 50ft [15.24m] launch FOLKESTONE BELLE, another Dunkirk veteran bound for The Spirit of Dunkirk workshops in Berwickshire.

October 2009: ANNE and ALUSIA arriving at the new Borders restoration workshop.

If you can lend your boat-building skills to the restoration of ALUSIA and FOLKESTONE BELLE, or if you would like to learn the shipwright's trade with the team at The Spirit of Dunkirk Limited, phone Kes Travers on +44 7896598172 or email: kestravers@hotmail.com

CLICK 1940 battle plate for rare Dunkirk reunion story.

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Griff Rhys Jones's celebrated Rhodes 45 sloop UNDINA alongside at Cherbourg, bound for Les Voiles de St Tropez.

Lifting UNDINA to a Transboat super-low trailer for a BTX move from Cherbourg to St Tropez in 2007.

CLICK this picture of UNDINA for boat transport news from 2009.

NAVIGARE NECESSE EST, VIVERE NON EST NECESSE
To sail is necessary, to survive is not necessary.

Attributed by Plutarch to Gnaeus Pompeius who sent sailors to sea in bad weather to bring grain from Africa to Rome.

Ici on trouve la metéo, des vendeurs de bateaux, les spécialistes du transport bateau et la cyberbourse électronique des transporteurs.

Ein Amerikaner aus Kalifornien war 1997 unser erster Kunde. Er liess seine Yacht in Amerika von Küste zu Küste transportieren. Seit diesem ungewöhnlichen Boottransport, hat unsere Transportbörse hunderte von Yachtbesitizern mit anderen Bootstransporteuren in Verbindung gebracht. Stellen auch sie ihr Transportproblem auf dem BTX board dar. Die Bootstranporteure geben kostenlos Ratschläge und bieten ihnen Preise an.

Luxury Boat Hire Norfolk Broads with richardsonsboatingholidays.co.uk

NAVIGARE NECESSE EST, VIVERE NON EST NECESSE
To sail is necessary, to survive is not necessary.

Attributed by Plutarch to Gnaeus Pompeius who sent sailors to sea in bad weather to bring grain from Africa to Rome.

Ici on trouve la metéo, des vendeurs de bateaux, les spécialistes du transport bateau et la cyberbourse électronique des transporteurs.

Luxury Boat Hire Norfolk Broads with richardsonsboatingholidays.co.uk

Sealand Boat Deliveries Limited
Operations Office,
Tockholes,
Darwen.
BB3 0NA
England
Telephone: 01254 705225 International +44 1254 705225
International fax : +44 1254 776582

e-mail address: ros@mcr1.poptel.org.uk

1078992 England VAT Reg: GB 147 2903 64

Use the btx questionnaire to give us the vital details of your boat transport projects on http://www.btx.co.uk/btxforms.htm