19 Feb 24:
Green Dolphin was a 47ft German built yacht, deep keel, low freeboard, beautiful graceful lines, Oak on steel frames with a heavy lead keel.She was hit by a shop in Torbay UK and sank instantly.
John Watkinson, the owner of Kelly and Halls Boatyard at Newton Ferrers heard about the boat and decided to attempt a salvage operation. The 18ft open yard launch was powered by a twin cylinder air cooled Lister diesel, this was connected to a salvage pump driven via a pulley system from the crankshaft. They motored around the coast to Torbay with a crew of 2 plus a scuba diver. Arriving at the wreck site, the diver established that Green Dolphin was lying on a sandy bottom, intact, but with a severely damaged bow. The diver used a handsaw to remove some of the jagged edged, then attached a thick canvas tarpaulin over the gaping hole as well as possible, after which, several airbags were attached to lifting strops around the hull and slowly inflated. As the boat came to the surface, the salvage pump was put to work, fortunately, it had the capacity to exceed the water entering the hull whilst the canvas tarpaulin was made more secure and a closer fit, nailing battens over the edges and to the hull. The salvage pump was now capable of easily removing water from the hull to keep it afloat. The next task was to remove all the sails, rigging and damaged masts etc, lightening the boat and greatly improving the stability, essential for the long slow tow back to Newton Ferrer's.
The salvage pump worked continuously for the whole journey, arrival at the Boatyard coincided as planned with the high tide, which made it easier to get Green Dolphin into a cradle waiting at the bottom of the slipway.
It had been a long and tiring day, so the boat and cradle were well secured in position, ready to be looked at the following day, when a plan of the action would be decided upon.
The morning arrived, everyone at the Boatyard was out to work clearing the debris and detritus from inside the hull and the deck, this took a few days. The next stage was to hose the inside of the hull to clean the mud and sand, after which everything was left open to allow it to dry out.
Initially, a chainsaw was taken to the bow to make a nice clean straight cut, to remove all the damaged planking. A plywood sheet was attached to firm a dirt of Praam bow, very idd looking on such a beautiful design, but it would make it watertight. Reinforcing was put in on all the steel frames, keel bolts checked and replaced, everywhere was thoroughly cleaned and painted, because Green Dolphin was going to be used as a houseboat until an extension for accommodation was added to the boatyard. When the extension was completed, Green Dolphin was used as a floating fuel station in the River Yealm, fuel was stored in deck in jerry cans and suspended when boats came alongside to refuel. However, the Harbour Authorities decided that was too dangerous and put a stop to it.
Green Dolphins future was now in need of another rethink.
John Watkinson asked my brother John if he thought it was possible to put a new bow on the boat to restore the original lines. It was a big task, but John said he could do it, about 6 feet of planking, a new stem, deck beams, decking etc would have to be grafted onto the hull, but Green Dolphin was well worth restoring. The work was carried out with great success, including a complete re-rig to a Bermudan sail plan. The whole boat was restored to a very good standard and she proved to be fast and very capable, a delight sail.
I recall the day when at the age of 12, John Watkinson invited me to go for a day sailing on Green Dolphin, it was an exciting prospect, a day that I'll always remember.
On board Green Dolphin were John Watkinson, my brother John, another friend of John Watkinson (I think he was also a John) and myself. We set off from the River Yealm and headed out to sea, the wind and sea conditions perfect, the sun shining in a blue sky. In the distance, we saw a Folkboat we knew and gave chase, easily showing a clean pair of heels as we passed by at around 15 knots, the defeat acknowledged gracefully by the owner of the Folkboat.
Green Dolphin was a joy to sail, responsive to the helm, a fast and comfortable ride, but the day out had to end at some point, so we eventually headed back to the River Yealm.
As we approach the mouth of the Yealm, the wind increased, we decided to have just one last exciting burst of speed, but that turned out to be something of a mistake.
The entrance to the River Yealm is obstructed by a sandbar, there are two sets of leading marks on the hillside that have to be followed by all, except quite small boats, the sandbar is above the surface at low tide and easily seen.
It was a spring tide and ebbing fast, almost low water as we lined up on the first set of leading marks, we were sailing at around 11 knots and decided to start the small Petter diesel engine in readiness for reducing sail, the engine could just about push the boat along at 6 knots, unfortunately, it had been left in reverse gear, the sudden pressure against the propeller trying to make the boat go astern, whilst going ahead at 11 knots was a recipe for disaster. There was a very loud noise caused by the propeller shaft shearing, followed by the shaft sliding aft and fouling the rudder. This all happened in a matter of seconds, still sailing at speed and heading directly for the sandbar. My brother John dove into the engine compartment and with considerable effort managed to pull the shaft forward to clear the rudder, he grabbed a length of cod line, tied it around the shaft to keep it clear of the rudder, a difficult task in a very confined space. John Watkinson was a superb sailor and quick thinking, he decided that the only option to prevent running around on the sandbar was to sheet the sails in hard and heel over as much as possible, which we did. We crossed the sandbar with the scuppers well under water, the topsides white paint was scuffed as they touched the sandbar, with the keel bouncing across it.
As soon as we cleared the sandbar, we had to change tack, but keep full sail to heel as much again, myself and the other crewman hung onto the clew of the Genoa as we went about, someone yelled "Whatever you do, don't let go!" we were both lifted off our feet and carried across the deck in a wide arc over the water, before the Genoa was sheeted in to return us from our flight back to the deck. Emergency over, the sails were eased as we casually made our way to the mooring. An exciting day, with a more exciting end and a great story to tell.
Doug (Cap' Bilge Rat)
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