Princess Anne recommissions WWII junk
The Princess Royal re-commissioned a unique historic yacht for charity work in a ceremony at Haslar Marina, Gosport.
The 40ft (12.2m), 16 ton, junk-yacht Boleh, a registered national historic vessel, was designed and built in Singapore by Royal Navy Commander Robin Kilroy and Malay shipwrights after World War II and sailed to the UK with a Naval crew in 1950.
Designed for ocean cruising with a fusion of Eastern and Western traditions, Boleh has many innovative features, including a unique quadruped mast, a long-keeled sea kindly hull, teak decks and diesel electric motors. Among her most unique features are deck lights framed from the windscreens of captured Japanese WWII fighter planes.
Following fire damage in the late 1970s, Boleh was restored in Rye harbour by her new owner, Roger Angel and subsequently based in the Mediterranean. In 2008, she was acquired by Robin Kilroy’s family, who formed the Boleh Trust (www.bolehproject.com) and set up an apprentice school in Portsmouth to restore her again with Heritage Lottery funding.
Now based in Gosport, (whose name has sailed over 260 young people, including service children and army cadets, as well as injured service personnel and veterans.
