A 99-year-old motor yacht that earnt her place in the annals of music history, is set to take her first sea voyage in 34 years as part of the next steps towards her restoration.
The classic 32.73m (107ft) ‘Llys Helig’ was built in 1922 by J.I. Thornycroft & Co. of Southampton, England and was salvaged in her home country after laying capsized since 2017. She has had a long and interesting history that saw her change hands on a number of occasions, including playing a significant part in the music scene in the 1970s when she was the floating HQ of pirate radio station Radio Caroline.
She was initially commissioned for William Ernest Corlett, a wealthy solicitor and property owner from Liverpool. The boat was built using some of the latest technology including, for the first time, experimental electric welding along many joints. She was equipped with 360 horsepower engines and had a top speed of 15 knots.
The yacht was owned by the Corlett family for 40 years, and spent much of her time moored in Conway, Wales where William Corlett had gone to school. Her size and stature make her visible in many postcards of the Conway harbour and estuary at this time. William Corlett died in 1960 with the boat passing out of ownership of the family two years later.
Llys Helig then changed hands a number of times over the next two decades, including a stint in the Mediterranean when she was owned by the Pedro Marine Corporation. In the mid-1970s Peter Moore, who ran the famous Radio Caroline pirate radio station, took ownership of her and she became the station’s base for a number of years.
By the late 1970s she had been sold to a local couple where she spent many years as a houseboat, until she capsized on her starboard side in March 2017. The owner was unable to right her and she was listed for sale on eBay, when a new owner bought her.
Significant permissions needed to be obtained to get the relevant equipment in to lift Llys Helig out. Eventually after two years preparations were in place to raise her, when she capsized further. She was finally lifted from the water in July 2020.
Over the course of the ensuing months a series of work has been done to strengthen her hull, replace a number of wooden patches with metal patches and give her a completely new paint job.
She is now set to move from her current home in Burnham-On-Crouch, down the Medway for the next phase of her restoration which will see further significant work on her hull before she eventually settles in the Mediterranean.
Whilst refurbishments and refits of modern-day superyachts are common, it is extremely rare to see an almost 100-year-old vessel being put back on the water after years of inactivity.
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