NB Lucy restoration website

I see there's now a restoration website for NB Lucy:  www.phobox.com/lucy 

This is the old wooden butty which has been gradually rotting on Braunston Puddle Bank for several years, and has finally been lifted and moved close by, for restoration.  (There's a history of the boat here.)

I wrote about it a couple of years ago (see Butty Reg held together by magic) and earned myself a slap for a facetious remark.  I'd said I hoped it was never restored but instead would remain where it was, preserved by magic, looking like a charming ruin.

Well, it's being restored.  According to the Lucy website it was moved under a 'Section 8' order from BW (i.e. it's unlicensed, so move it or lose it.  BW was probably practicing tough love.)

Preserving old wooden boats is an expensive process, and like the Philosopher's Stone they must keep receiving treatment and remain museum exhibits forever.  Mary Rose and Vasa are in this category.

Restoring a wooden boat like Lucy is a more practical alternative, allowing the boats to resume a life afloat, although surely little will remain of the original boat.  

The most famous of the other wooden boat restorations is Raymond.   But didn't I hear somewhere that nothing remains of the original Raymond but the iron 'knees'?   (Correction:  The website of Raymond says the boat was not 'restored' but 'rebuilt'.)

I'm always reminded of the original Roman axe which has had two replacement heads and three new handles.  To me, there's something almost mystical about a boat quietly rotting away, although I can see the sense of 'continuation' to be had from restoring it.  

Perhaps they can build a new sham-butty and sink that at the Braunston Puddle Bank in its place. 

Sham wrecks would be a charming addition to the canals.  The 'sham ruin' was already an established feature of Georgian landscapes when James Brindley was building the first generation of British canals.   He would have been familiar with Mow Cop, the most visible sham ruin to be seen from the waterways.  Built to resemble a mediaeval castle, it was less than 20 years old when he died in 1772.

[Thanks to Andrew Read of Syncopation for pointing me to the Lucy site]

Comments

[Pete Boyce]

LUCY is on the bank at Tess Wharf after successful raising on May 4th and lift out on May 7th. See www.phobox.com/lucy for photos and newsletter. Pete Boyce

[carlt]

Lucy was refloated and moved today, not before January.

[Halfie]

I have posted two recent (five days old) photos of NB Lucy on my blog:

http://jhalfie.blogspot.com/2009/01/old-yearnew-year-trip-day-4-newbold-to.html