Name Speedwell

SPEEDWELL is an oyster smack designed and built in 1901 by William King at Burnham on Couch. She was a gaff cutter fitted with one foresail rig and an 18 hp Dan marine spirit engine. Her construction is of pitch pine planking on grown oak frames with a new 2 inch composite deck of iroko planks on marine ply. 

In 1908 she was registered as CK 314 by Smith Brothers of Burnham, and sold in 1919 to Albert Cross in Burnham. The following year she was sold to The Whitstable Seasalter and Ham Oyster Co, converted to a ketch, and re-engined with a 4-cylinder Kelvin petrol/paraffin engine. She was reregistered as F107. A new 44 hp petrol/diesel Kelvin engine was installed in 1938. She worked as an oyster smack until 1967 when she was sold into the private ownership of Colin Smith and Des Addison and converted to a yacht, without changing her fundamental character. 

In 1974 she was sold to Simon and David Knight and Frank Wilson, and in 1986 a new 75hp 5-litre 4-cylinder diesel engine was installed. Major refurbishment was carried out between 1988 and 1991, during which new masts and spars, sails, rigging and fittings, deck and fittings, keel shoe, rudder, skin fittings, fastenings were installed, along with interior furniture including galley, toilet, and soft furnishings. 

In 1993 she was reregistered as an historic fishing vessel with her earlier fishing number of F107, and in 1995 a major engine overhaul was carried out, with new fuel tanks installed. She was registered with National Historic Ships in 1996, and she celebrated her 100th birthday in 2001 by winning the Festival of the Sea Race at Portsmouth. She was sold by Simon and Ruth Knight to her present owner in 2004. 

SPEEDWELL was the first motorised vessel on the east coast, and possibly the first in the United Kingdom. She is believed to be the only surviving east coast deep sea oyster smack.  

Update, July 2024: Vessel for sale.