Llys Helig - 1922 Gentleman’s Yacht

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little ship with an extraordinary story.

As she nears her 100th year, she is about to embark on a new life. In her time she has been the pride of a city, entertained the rich and famous, has had at least three names, has been modernised and chopped, has been sunk and practically abandoned. Along the way she was a pirate HQ. What will the next 100 years bring?

1922 – Our story starts on a rainy day in Southampton in 1922. The staff at the Woolston Shipyard of John L Thornycroft were expecting a very special visitor. William Ernest Corlett, a wealthy solicitor and property owner from Liverpool, had commissioned a motor yacht and would be arriving to inspect the boat. The twin screw vessel had been designed following the template of some of the fastest patrol boats of the Great War, and was one of the few projects in the yard at the time.

The boat was to incorporate the latest technology with an exceptionally strong riveted steel hull, for the first time with experimental electric welding along many of the vital joints including on the engine blocks. With sleek lines designed to cope with the heaviest seas, 360 horsepower engines and large fuel tanks, this boat was no weekend runabout. She would make 15 knots and was in effect a fully operational transatlantic liner squeezed into 107 feet of length and 18 ft beam.

Now she was nearly ready to launch, and had been scrubbed ready for the visit of the new owner. So it was with horror that the yard manager discovered a scruffy looking mechanic wandering around the boat in a pair of dirty overalls. He ordered the man off the boat, and gave him both barrels: how dare he go on board on such an important day. What would Mr Corlett say if he turned up to see someone running grimy fingers over his new yacht? His anger quickly turned to embarrassment when the “mechanic” simply smiled off his tirade. The man in the scruffy work clothes was in fact William Corlett himself who had turned up much earlier than inspected and couldn’t help himself but put on his work clothes and scramble into the engine room to have a proper look at his new purchase.

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