Name Blue Linnet

Linnet was originally built in 1938 by J, G Forbes and Sons in Sandhaven, Scotland as a North Sea herring drifter and seine netter. Soon after building she was requisitioned into the Second World War operating between Fraserburgh and Scapa Flow. She continued fishing after the war for herring in the North Sea. In the early 1960s Linnet was sold privately and converted to a cruising motor vessel, she was then used as a family boat cruising the UK and France, she then remained in this same family ownership for over thirty years based in her home port of Salcombe. 

The most recent owners purchased her in 1995 and embarked on a five year no expense spared rebuild and re-conversion. During the rebuild she was stripped to an empty boat with the deck and wheelhouse removed. She was then reframed and re-planked above the waterline, new bulwarks with a solid Iroko capping rail, new deck and wheelhouse. A complete electrical re-wire was carried out using tinned ship’s wiring cable, new steering gear by Wills Ridley and complete fit out for liveaboard and/or charter to MCA small boat code of practice Cat 2, this included the addition of four water-tight bulkheads. The Gardner 6L3 engine was professionally rebuilt by Hubbard Engineering, Brixham. All the work was carried out professionally.

Following the rebuild the owners then lived aboard for over 15 years traveling around the UK and Ireland. They also made plans to convert Linnet to a gaff ketch sailing boat and to that end rig plans were drawn up professionally by Tommy Nielson of Gloucester with stability calculations completed by a naval architect. During the rebuild the mast partners and bowsprit samson posts were installed ready to take the new rig. 

In February 2019 Blue Linnet retrieved almost four tons of plastic from the isolated beaches on the Isles of Scilly by Clean Ocean Sailing, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIfSWe6p7yU. The plastic was stacked on the deck and returned to the mainland for recycling.

Linnet underwent a scheduled three month refit in Falmouth in Spring 2024. 

Update, August 2024: Vessel under new ownership.