LBT members may have noticed a very nice Welsford Penguin hanging off the pontoon and wondered who does that belong to?
The answer to that question is US. The boat has been donated to the Living Boat Trust. When you get a chance have a look – it is a beautiful little trailerable cruising boat. Matt Conboy refurbished her a couple of years ago and made a video about her >>here<<. If you just want to get a tour of the boat see >>here<<.
But it was Gary Dukes, a former LBT member and Tawe Nunnugah participant who made the donation. Thank you Gary – ‘Little Wing’ is an wonderful addition to our fleet.
As an added bonus ‘Little Wing’ has local provenance. Nell Tyson explains..
The beautiful Welsford Penguin that has been given to the LBT by Gary, was built by my friend Greg Pullen, in about 2000. She was launched exactly east of our club on the Cradoc boat ramp. He had her in the AWBF in 2001 and 2003. The plaques on board tell us that she has been in many subsequent Boat festivals with other owners. Little Wing was one of the first Penguins to be built. In fact, Greg apparently helped John Welsford tweaking the design because as things didn’t quite work according to instructions, Greg would take photographs and make suggestions about her how it could go and John took those on board …..many of the photos on the penguin instruction document are Greg’s. Unfortunately, Greg died very recently but his son Daniel (who helped build her) has said he would be happy to come and talk to us on a Monday evening over dinner. Here is a picture of Greg with John Welsford’.
Thanks also to Piet Lundstedt for organising this.
