You may have noticed on the Deeper Dorset website there is a link to famous racing yacht Dolly Varden built 1872. With Deeper Dorset being all about maritime history when the opportunity arose to rescue her from a Dorset field after forty years literally in the wilderness rather than see her burnt I took it. At great expense she was moved undercover and initially I did a deal with The IBTC (International Boatbuilding Training College) to restore her and she was moved again to Boathouse 4 Portsmouth Dockyard. Sadly due to a change of management and a change of direction the IBTC let me down badly and we had to bring Dolly back to Weymouth where she is now incurring storage costs. All efforts to raise funds and bring this important piece of National Heritage back to life have so far failed and I am now at a crossroads. I have three choices, firstly just keep plugging away and hope that something happens, restore her myself something I am capable of doing but at my age not without help and finally scrap the vessel salvaging what we can. Obviously I am exploring the middle option however in order to even have a chance Dolly needs to be closer to Weymouth and preferably as close to the quay as is possible. All efforts to find a suitable building to rent have failed and at this time I am exploring the option of finding a space in a yard somewhere and putting up a temporary building. So if anyone in the Weymouth area knows of a yard I could rent or a big enough space anywhere local that won’t be an issue with residents please do get in touch. I took this picture of Dolly this morning which is not her best side and there is plenty going on around her but not on her, l hope that will be changing sometime soon.
