Lobo II

I was under no illusions; building a boat of this size was going to take a big chunk of my life; I estimated an absolute minimum of two years and I wasn’t far out.
After hunting around I got the plans from Samson Marine, a yacht building company from the West coast of Canada who specialised in designing and building concrete boats of all sizes. Although concrete boats (particularly barges) had been built in the UK before, I was one of the first to resurrect the technique and build a yacht using this technique.
The construction basically consisted of wire rods in the shape of the hull being covered in chicken wire and impregnated with cement then rendered with epoxy resin to make it waterproof. The resulting hull is very strong though to be honest, designers don’t use this technique for rcing yachts because it is far too heavy.

Of course, all this work had to happen between jobs on the canal, where it wasn’t unusual for trips to last 12 hours, and that’s without the travelling time. The next stage of construction was to attach twisted reinforcing bars to form the longitudal lines of the boat.
	The plastered hull

I had already noticed a wonderfully placed concrete base near to my home in Warrington and next to the River Mersey. I obtained permission from the Canal Company to use it and set to work ordering materials. The only drawback was that it lacked electrical power but with no alternatives I made the best of it with the result that all the work was done without any power tools whatsoever. I made a wooden frame on which I hung the first layer of ½” black iron waterpiping formed into the shape of cross sections of the hull. Lacking any specialist bending equipment, I simply trapped the pipework between my house and the cast iron down spouts and heaved on it until each one matched the plans.
Once completed, I set to work attaching eight layers of ½” chicken wire to the structure. That involved tying short lengths of wire every couple of inches to secure the chicken wire to the frame and was a mammoth task. Occasionally, I did get help from colleagues, friends and even my wife but I did the bulk of the work myself.

I won’t bore you with the rest of the construction. Work proceeded constructing the coachroof, fitting a Morriss Vedette engine (bought brand new for £60), installing a cockpit, and generally fitting her out with the hundreds of things necessary to go to sea. I had a mast and boom made by a firm called Procters on the south coast and ordered a set of sails from a local firm near Liverpool.
It was a great day when a crane turned up to load El Lobo II onto the back of a trailer and tow her to the launch site about 500 yards upstream on the River Mersey. A large crowd and the local press turned out, many of whom didn’t believe that a concrete yacht would float. My wife christened her El Lobo, smashing a bottle of home made wine across the bows in the time honoured tradition.
The next day, we stepped the mast and having generally tidied up and finishing a myriad of jobs we went down the MSC, out into the Mersey, past Liverpool and out to sea to hear the sound of proper waves breaking on her bows for the first time. It was a golden moment and I was proud of my achievement. I was sailing her single handed but unfortuantely the weather  detirorated to a force 8 gale and I was forced to turn back to eastham. Good job really, because the weather deteriorated further to a force 10 and I had forgotted all my sea charts!
In the event, El Lobo proved to be a wonderful sea boat. Although she wasn’t the fastest thing afloat, when a bit of heavy weather descended there was no better boat in the world to handle the conditions.

I based her on my moorings in the Menai Straits in Anglesey and from there I made numerous trips to many places. We regularly sailed around North Wales, the Isle of Man and Ireland but my favourite cruising grounds were amongst the islands off the west coast of Scotland. When it stopped raining, they are, in my opinion, the best yacht cruising grounds in the world.

I also made several longer trips including; circumnavigating Ireland, a nine week exploration of Scandinavia as well as trips to France and Northern Spain. I also spent a winter out in the Med, exploring the many ports and generally adapting to a slower and hotter pace of life.

There is a shortened version of one of my journals on this site; our trip to Scandinavia in the Summer of 1976. You can follow the links (Scandinavia) on the side menu or click here to go straight to the journal.

Eventually my wife tired of sailing. Understandable really. Although Lobo was a fine sea boat, she was relatively narrow in the beam and lacked the space to make the accommodation really comfortable for long term cruising.
Having retired from the canal in 1985, and after much deliberation, we decided to uproot and move to south west coast of Scotland. We bought a house called “Cluny” on the outskirts of Stranraer. It had magnificent views overlooking Loch Ryan and I never tired of watching the changing weather and the various boats and ferries plying up and down its grey waters.

It was close enough for family to come and visit for the weekend but most importantly, I could sail from there and be in my favourite cruising grounds in a day or so. Ireland was another favourite destination – you could see the coast from the headlands round the corner from our house. I kept Lobo in Stranraer harbour for the princely sum of £1.20 a week and every winter I hauled her out so that I could work on her, doing all the jobs required after a season at sea.

Sailing under genny

I continued to sail Lobo until I was 76 years old but eventually I found maintaining her increasingly difficult. It was with great reluctance that I decided to sell her and after advertising her in the yachting press I sold her to a couple who lived in the NE of England.
They sailed her round to the east coast and completely refitted her, replacing her sloop rig with twin masted junk sails. They eventually headed off south to explore France and Spain and the last I heard they had coaxed the old lady across the Atlantic and were cruising amongst the Caribbean Islands.
I did very little sailing after that. I did accompany friends on day sails out of Stranraer but eventually we decided to move back to Cheshire to be nearer family. We sold up and moved to a small semi-detached cottage in Weaverham, Cheshire and so ended my life long association with the sea, boats and ships.

EXCEPT for one further trip. My son, Mitch managed to arrange a trip on an Arklow coaster, one of the few ships making the passage up the Manchester Ship Canal to Manchester. He filmed the occasion and had me doing pieces to camera, describing various points of interest. He edited the footage into a 30 minute film and gave me a copy as a memento of my years ploughing up and down “the big ditch”. If you’re interested, contact him and he’ll happily give you a copy.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my adventures at sea as much as I did living them. below you will se a link to a shortened version of my journal describing my trip to Scandinavia (and back).

Looking back, I wouldn’t change a thing, except perhaps, with hindsight, I should have built a BIGGER boat!

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