The Leila Sailing Trust Leila,  a 120 year old, 15 ton gaff cutter of 42 foot on deck, 10 foot beam and 8 foot draught, is being restored for sail training for young people of Lowestoft, Great Yarmouth and Southwold.  An appeal has been launched  to finish repairing hull damage and fit her out to Marine Coastguard Agency Standards.	NEWS CHRISTMAS 2011 - We raise £25,000 and start a £40,000 yard programme to get Leila in the water next spring. Another £15000 would finish the job.   ...In the water and sailing on her 120th birthday?
'Cycle the East Coast rivers to save Leila' raises £8,000 in May     Donate: http://www.justgiving.com/leilasailing/donate

January 2012

	A big day for us as the ply under deck goes on Chris knocks off. We are planning a launch party for June.

Christmas 2011 Restoration diary

Chris, from the yard, is now working full time with Rodge on the deck. It has been decided to lay ply underneath the deck to improve water proofing, so the deck has been stripped, the ply has been dry fitted and the stanchions set in place. Meanwhile the bulkheads and beams are primed and undercoated. If we can afford to keep going, we are looking for a March launch.

We decided to start the engine before we re-installed it, but found that it had completely seized after three years out of use. Roly supervised the stripping down and renewal of liners, pistons, rings and gaskets - watch it fire up with a burning diesel rag on youtube: http://youtu.be/59eaw6KvyZc

An East Coast Yacht

Leila is a rare example of a Victorian racing cutter, built in 1892 in Charlton, London for a businessman who sailed with the Royal Temple Yacht Club at Ramsgate, and is on the National Historic Ships Register.  She won the Round Britain race in 1904. Since 1961, she has been owned by the Alison family and moored on Fisher's Quay, Great Yarmouth. She was found by Rob Bull and David Beavan of Southwold in the  summer of 2008, when they set up the trust.  She will mainly operate from the historic berth in Lowestoft.

First Steps

Initial funding for lifting out and a survey was obtained from the National Historic Ships Register at Greenwich, and a private donation. She was moved from Yarmouth to Southwold on a quiet sunny day in September 2008. It took three hours to motor out of Yarmouth harbour as the fan belt broke halfway and there were so many barnacles and mussels clinging to the hull after lying for six years alongside. The main and a sort of staysail were set as we cleared the Stanford channel off Lowestoft and a pair of porpoise played her wake as she neared Southwold. The entry to Southwold, just before the spring tide high water, was perfectly timed and she tied alongside to shift  5 ton of internal ballast and de-rig ready for lift out. She was lifted out on September 30th by Harbour Marine Services, when a strong NW’ly wind over Scotland gave us a good spring high water. As a local fisherman said when she came out on the cradle, ‘She just kept coming’ – although she looks like a smack above the water line, her eight foot draught shows her racing yacht pedigree.

Next Steps

She was surveyed and a budget of £125,000 plus volunteer labour set to restore her. The Heritage Lottery fund donated £50,000 in 2009 and a further £40,000 was raised from private individuals and trusts, however the money ran out in 2010. The trust restarted the restoration in 2011 with a £15,000 donation from a local charity, aiming for a launch in the spring of 2012.

 Links

The following individuals and businesses have helped in Leila's restoration:

Harbour Marine Services, Southwold - http://www.southwoldharbour.co.uk/

Ben Sutton has supplied oak for beams and frames - http://www.suttontimber.co.uk/

Hugh Lamb, yacht surveyor of Shotley, Suffolk

Blakes Paints

Mobile welding  of Southwold, Nick Curtis.

The National Historic Ships Register - www.nationalhistoricships.org.uk/

Waveney District Council - www.waveney.gov.uk/

Yarmouth College.

Kirkley High School, Lowestoft - www.kirkleyhigh.com

The Alison's of Great Yarmouth

Donations from Dick, Geoff, Mathew, Jack, Nick and Michelle of Southwold, and Rick and Jill who sailed on to Holland her fifty years ago.

The PD James Trust

Yarmouth college

The Miles Trust run by Bob Nicholson.

Lowestoft Tool Company

Anglia Press Agency

National Heritage Lottery Fund

Time and Tide Museum of Great Yarmouth

Maritime Heritage East

T. Knipe and Arthur Smith, timber merchants of Cumbria and Worksop.

WH Smith