Kidlington Sea Scout troop are undertaking the restoration of a 1970’s home counties gig named Silverton. One of only 4 left in the county this 20’ vessel was an active part of the Sea Scouts weekly boating season activities until it was deemed unusable around 15 years ago.
It has always been our goal to fully restore Silverton as our flagship but the timings and finances have never been right, until now. Our only obstacle however is where to house the boat while we are restoring. We are in need of a local outbuilding or workshop space around 30’ x 30’ (10M x 10M) with access to power to house Silverton for an estimated 6-8 months. If you can help with a suitable building, please let us know.
Silverton’s hull is Glass-reinforced plastic construction with wood trim, it is heavy in comparison with other dinghies, which provides a stable boat in all weathers which is ideal for beginners – especially juniors. She was inherited by the group in the 80’s when the Sea Scout troop that was located in Wolvercote closed. Although it was a hybrid pulling (rowing) and sailing gig, we will be restoring it to be a dedicated pulling gig and flagship. The original mast from Silverston was converted into a flag pole that is still used at our Boat Base which is located at King’s Lock, upriver from Wolvercote. Our Boating season runs from May to September each year and we provide a variety of water activities for our scouts that include pulling, canoeing, kayaking, stand up paddleboarding, power boating and raft building. We are excited with the prospect of reintroduce Silverton to our fleet.
At the beginning of October our volunteer leaders carried out our annual end of season wintering of boating equipment we also took the opportunity of moving Silverton back to our Scout Centre in Kidlington where it sits waiting for a suitable restoration home. The process of getting it back to Kidlington required us to put her into the water and get her down river to a slipway where we could put her onto a trailer. Because she is not quite watertight it meant we had to be quick. The wind made her challenging to navigate down river with just SUP paddles, but we managed to hitch a tow from an accommodating passing barge boat that made the journey that much easier for us.
If you want to know more about Kidlington Scouts or are able to help house our restoration project please contact us: info@kidlingtonscoutgroup.org.uk
