Restoring Ros Ailither

When my partner, Dave, has a mad idea, he normally finds a way to make it happen. “I’d like to sail across the Atlantic,” he declared one day. “Uh-oh!” I thought.

We were already liveaboards – we had a motor-cruiser that was suitable for winter jaunts down the French Canals and earned us a living as a passenger ferry across the River Exe. But it was hardly suitable for an ocean crossing.

We needed something bigger, sturdier and, most importantly, with sails.

I had no experience with boat renovations but Dave had rebuilt several wooden boats, including Sea Dream, the 40ft ferry boat that we now lived and worked on.

We decided to look for an old fishing boat to convert to a motor-sailer. There was a lovely old Scottish trawler in our home port of Topsham but he wanted more money for it than we could afford.

Newlyn was supposed to be full of decommissioned fishing boats so we set off in our little silver Metro to investigate. We drove miles around Cornish country lanes but there was nothing in Newlyn and no new leads. After a seemingly fruitless search, we stopped in a café to regroup.

On the table was a FreeAds magazine and, flicking through, Dave spotted an advert for a 50ft decommissioned fishing boat sitting in Polruan. After a quick phone call we found ourselves on the last ferry of the day, with just time for a quick look on board.

Heads hunched under the deck, we looked around the dark, damp boat. All the running gear had been taken off to go on the owner’s newly built steel fishing boat. There was nothing inside but peeling paint and it certainly didn’t have the headroom Dave had said was essential. But as the ferry pulled away, he gazed back at the boat. “She’s got lovely lines,” he murmured, and I knew the decision was already made!

We put an offer to the seller. He didn’t accept it immediately, but after two weeks with no other interested parties, he took it. Within a day, we’d borrowed a friend’s powerful Lochin motor boat, and were towing our new purchase back to the Exe.

Now the fun began – where to start?

The boat came with huge legs so we bolted them on and put her aground in Hannaford’s Quay, a traditional spot for boat repairs. While Dave started removing all the big steel hatches and metalwork on deck, he set me