Postby Whimsicalfish » Thu Sep 30, 2021 10:28 pm
Hi All,
Firstly, our apologies for the long absence from the CFV forum!
A quick update. We have continued to work hard on the restoration & renovation of ML357 - it has not been without it's challenges and we have spent much of the time carrying out essential structural repairs to the original internal plywood frames from stern to bow, structural supports underneath the wheelhouse and engine room roof, a new insulated deck has been installed over the original planking to keep her weathertight and the almost complete re-build of the sub-floor and bilge areas!
As Bee mentioned, work slowed considerably through the COVID lockdown, with St. Osyth Boatyard (where she is moored) closed completely for a number of months. Also, during the spring of 2020, during an exceptionally high tide, our old gangway/bridge crashed into the estuary! So, most of 2020 was spent building a purpose made staging platform with hinged access bridge to the boat, thus making access for "crew" & materials much easier!
We are really keen to re-establish contact with all those who were kind enough to supply some history & photographs a couple of years ago and helping us fill in the blanks. We are planning a high-quality website for ML357, dedicated to the boat and crews, with regular updates and photos of the on-going restoration work. For accuracy and image use permissions & credits, we are particularly keen to make contact again with:
Peter Turner (son of crew Bill Turner): we have a large archive of photographs which have finally made there way to us via the boatyard (some of images have been hand-written with crew members, locations, etc), others not.
We are really keen to go through the images in detail, etc. Also, we only have the first A4 sheet of Bills Turner's "My Memories of ML357" starting with "I joined up in 1942" and would really like to see the complete memoir.
Look forward to hearing from Bee, etc again.
All the best
Mark & Jacqueline Walker, ML357