The Baden Powell Project
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About the Baden Powell Project
The 'Baden Powell Project' is the restoration of a unique and marvelous fishing smack. It is unique as it is the only double-ended vessel of its type in existence.
The plan is to make her seaworthy, move her into the new marina at Boal Quay and use her for sail training and fund raising activities. This is a wonderful opportunity to save an important part of our fishing and maritime heritage.
This is a major project, as she is now in a sad state of repair. The project will require a great deal of money to complete the restoration and to finance the subsequent maintenance programme required to then keep her in good condition.
Do you have any personal interest in boats and fishing, or any friends that may be able to help? If so contact us and offer your support.
The History of the Baden Powell
The Baden Powell was built in 1900 in a boatyard on the River Nar by Walter Worfolk. He had arrived from Stainforth in Yorkshire with his young family the previous year, staying at The Hulk, in Bridge Street, with his wife's uncle, William Lancaster.
Walter already knew that Lynn had no boatbuilding company to service the fishing fleet, and he put the skills he learned in Stainforth to immediate use by building the 33ft Baden Powell for Harry and William Cook, for £50.
It is a double-ended cockling boat. The Cooks were so pleased with the workmanship that they gave Walter an extra fiver, and presented his wife Lily with a cruet set for the table.
Walter's sons Gerald (10) and William (8) were apprenticed to their father and continued building wooden boats in Lynn until 1981, when Gerald died. William lived to just past his 100th birthday in 1994.
The Baden Powell Project thus far...
When the Baden Powell got too difficult to maintain for fishing, in 1997, she was bought by a benefactor and given anonymously to True's Yard Museum.
There was no space for her at the museum, which already had a boat. So she was lifted out on to the Boal Quay to await developments.
In 2003, after considerable deterioration and vandalism, the Baden Powell was removed to a farm in Terrington St John by Tim Clayton, the Lynn jeweller, who gradually brought people together to form a team to see whether she could be saved from ruin, thus the "Baden Powell Project" started.
She needed moving again earlier this year (2008), when the ground on which she rested proved unstable. Once again she took to the skies...
She is now on firm ground under scaffolding, with a sheltering roof.
Her poor condition is sadly quite evident.
