TROY STORY TWO

The 20 January 1947 was a big day for Arthur and Olive Bate, residents of Polruan just across the harbour from Fowey in Cornwall. Not only was their daughter Barbara born but it was also the day that they had planned to put a deposit down on a family house. So it must have come as something of a shock when Arthur visited the hospital that evening and told Olive that he had used the money to order a boat instead. Whether or not it softened the blow that the new boat would also be called Barbara is not recorded.

The boat in question was a Fowey Troy. Arthur had ordered his from Fowey boatbuilder Archie Watty who had designed the Troy almost two decades earlier and had subsequently built 11 of them. Arthur owned Barbara had consecutive lady owners – Mrs Gilchrist and then Miss Bradbury – both of whom kept her where she belonged in Fowey Harbour.