Our featured boat for October is a well-known member of the East Coast OGA fleet, the fine Zulu pilot vessel and fishing boat, ‘Rely’
‘Rely’ was built in 1911 by Nobles of Fraserburgh commissioned as a ‘Zulu’ pilot vessel without an engine and two lug sails. Her life as a pilot boat was short lived and she was purchased by three ladies in Aberdeen who fished her out of the Orkneys. The boat fished off the beach in the Orkneys and was fitted with an auxillary engine in 1915. Her ‘Zulu’ stern was adapted to allow for a shaft and rudder. The original auxiliary was a TVO engine, which is now in the Science Museum, London. ‘Rely’ fished successfully from Shetland and Kirkwall all year round through the first world war and up to the start of the second world war. There are many sketches of her and she is fondly remembered. ‘Rely’ disappears from the fishing registry at the start of the second world war. We believe that she was taken into service and there are stories of her being at both Dunkirk and D-Day. There is confirmation that the fisherman from Shetland came to the South Coast to pick her up in 1946. She rejoined the fishing register until 1955, fishing out of Shetland.
In 1955 she changed to Part 1 Lloyds registration having been purchased by Commander Ru Ru O’Brian, a highly decorated British Officer. He cruised her widely with his family around the UK coast and Southern Europe from Heybridge Basin until 1965. He made many improvements to the boat to make it more comfortable. She had a wheelhouse on her. The late Brian Hammet and his wife Lorna both remembered her at Heybridge Basin. From the mid 1960s to 1997 her ownership is less clear. She was owned by a senior executive at Shell and cruised in the Netherlands; owned by an Artist where she was painted red and laid up on huge oak legs in Falmouth. She went through a rebuild and refit at the Falmouth boatbuilding college ready for a trip to the Caribbean and owned by a boatyard in Plymouth where she was sailed regularly in Northern France and the English West Country.
Purchased by her current owners in 1998 as a family boat, she has been slowly restored over the years. ‘Rely’ is a well-known member of the East Coast OGA fleet and is cruised with family and friends on the East Coast, South Coast and the occasional trip to Northern France, Belgium and Holland.
Words: Sophie Blackburn
Watch this excellent video footage by Kevin Jay from the East Coast August Cruise, 2017. ‘Rely’, based at Titchmarsh, is seen from the air followed by ‘Sotra’, a Dutch member of the OGA who crossed the North Sea to join the Cruise.
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