Previously known as Seedy, this scruffy looking clinker-built launch is the first of the boats to be renovated. Lots of things are rotten and need replacing, including the transom, gunwales, inwales, sheerstrakes and stringers. A new foredeck of iroko veneers laid in a bed of graphite-coloured epoxy is also planned, along with a small afterdeck and enginebox top to match.
‘Willow’ came to Roland as a name, in a flash of William Morris, when biking back from Waldringfield to Cromarty by full moon. Green and cream she will be, with her name carved Arts and Crafts style on the aft deck beam…
Beside the Deben Cruising Club and the model boat pond, willows grow.
Timber cockle shells
Sprout man-trees of waving wood and wire.
Old Willow bends at the water’s edge
Laughing in whispers.
