How deep is your love? It’s a question Martlet must have pondered many times as she sat on the drive of Anne Roe’s house in Maidenhead, near the banks of the River Thames. For she had carried her owner in the morning sun, looked after her in the pouring rain and frolicked together in the summer breeze. But now, the 15ft (4.6m)dinghy was slowly sagging into her trailer, her once-vibrant hull splitting at the seams, apparently beyond repair. Would Anne be the light in her deepest, darkest hour, would she be her saviour when she fell – or would she simply walk away and consign the old boat to the bonfire?
In the end, the decision was put in the hands of Cornwall-based boatbuilder Ashley Butler. His verdict, when the boat was brought to him in 2017, was that the hull needed to be completely rebuilt. The idea of building a new hull for venerable old yachts, such as the great Fife and Nicholson classics, is something we’ve grown accustomed to. But a 15ft (4.6m) dinghy? Surely it would be cheaper just to buy a new boat? But that of course would be missing the point. This wasn’t just any old wooden dinghy. This was Martlet, the boat that Anne had learned to sail on and which was the repository of countless memories for her and her family over the previous 30 years.
It all started when she was
