Freeman 22 Mk2

Motor boats have never really appealed to me, simply because I can’t fix them when they go wrong, which inevitably they will. The idea of being stuck out at sea with my head down an engine compartment in a rolling boat has never appealed.

But Brenda, my wife, prefers a motor cruiser with plenty of headroom and all the facilities. So, one day when visiting Mike Roud’s boat yard at Rye I bought an old 22ft Freeman Mk2. I never intended to take it to sea.

Named White Dove, she had spent most of her life since 1968 on the Medway. Now, 50 years later, she had somehow found her way to Rye and required some TLC.

With no cockpit cover the original Ford WaterMota engine and electrics sat in a puddle of rusty water and I thought that making this lot work would be beyond my skills.