Another wooden boat arrived in Narooma on Monday morning, adding to the town’s fleet of classic craft.
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The 32-foot, former crayfishing boat the ‘Glenn Robert’ was trucked to Narooma from Adelaide and lowered by a large crane into Wagonga Inlet next to the Narooma Bridge.
It’s owner Neil Henderson said the vessel would now call Wagonga Inlet home and will be berthed at the Narooma Marina at Forsters Bay.
Mr Henderson said he had been looking for a “very seaworthy” vessel he could take out through the Narooma bar crossing to sail on local waters.
“I’ve had a new mainsail made for it and it needs some antifouling underneath and some topside repainting, but she’s as sound as a rock,” he said.
He found the vessel for sale on the internet at Adelaide and decided to make the purchase and truck it up to Narooma.
The Glenn Robert was built in Melbourne in 1984 out of Malaysian Kauri wood and was used a commercial crayfishing boat before being converted to a motor sailer in 1999.
He is not sure how she ended up in Adelaide but previous owners had sailed her around the southern coasts, with a plaque on board indicating she had attended at least one wooden boat festival in Hobart.
Mr Henderson, who lives at Guerilla Bay, is part of an informal wooden boat group that has members around the Eurobodalla Shire and the region. He is also building a 17-foot wooden clinker at home.
He has already entered the Glenn Robert into the 2016 Narooma BoatsAfloat wooden boat festival taking place November 12-13.
In other local wooden boating news, Canberra diesel mechanic Peter Duffy has been able to continue work on his classic former trawler the ‘Gracie M’ and her fate appears not to be in limbo anymore. The former prawn trawler was constructed by local Narooma boat builder Jimmy Taylor at the Taylor Brothers slipway back in 1976 using spotted gum timber.
Mr Duffy also has plans to work on his 27-foot ex-prawn trawler ‘Defiance’ that he purchased to tow the Gracie M from Bermagui to Narooma earlier this year. Both of his vessels are now moored on Forsters Bay.