Don’t fear the Reaper

and R Way Boatbuilding have been involved in the resurrection of one of the most extraordinary vessels in the British workboat fleet, the ‘Fifie’ . Although still sailing, a gradual deterioration in condition was structurally sound again. The funding for this, around £1 million, came from Scottish central government, via the defence and engineering company Babcock. The boat motored from the Babcock facility, where the work took place, back home to the Anstruther Fisheries Museum, the boat’s owner, in 2019. Confidentiality agreements meant that this is the first we’ve heard of this major project to renew around 70 per cent of ’s material. was built in 1902 by J&G Forbes of Sandhaven near Fraserburgh for the Buchan family. She’s a 70ft (21m) twin-masted lugger, one of the herring drifter fleet, of a type known as a ‘Fifie’, extreme vessels with massive sail area, broad beam, and vertical stem and stern. These vessels are among the fastest working sail vessels ever conceived. In the late 1930s, is said to have broken the Scottish record for a single herring catch, with around 250,000 fish.