Name Tahilla

TAHILLA was built as SKYLARK by Thornycrofts at Hampton-on-Thames in 1922. She was commissioned by D Melville Wills of the Bristol tobacco family, to travel from there to his estates in Scotland. One of the Dunkirk Little Ships, she belonged at that time to W Egerton Wilson of Colwyn Bay in Wales, but was kept on the Thames.

After the war, she remained in Admiralty ownership until 1948 and then became a widely travelled and comfortable cruising ship. Eleanor Samuelson owned her throughout the 1960s when she came to know the French canals well and the current owner, who had business interests in the South of France, found TAHILLA there in the mid-sixties and used her as a floating office. He had to rebuild the coach roof over the engine compartment and the after-deck and, fifteen years later, bought her back home where she is now used as a family cruiser in the Solent.

The current owners purchased her in 2015 and have engaged a careful ongoing restoration programme. She has nearly completed this restoration process and is ashore for the winter in Southampton where she winters most years and has a little more done every winter.