Steaming ahead with projects but no passengers
Canal breaks and river cruising in the UK, Ireland and Europe
SADLY VIC 32, the 1943 steam-powered Clyde Puffer, will not be operating holiday cruises this summer.
Social distancing on a small vessel would have proved difficult, and the majority of passengers are in the vulnerable age group.
The Puffer Preservation Trust enjoys taking its passengers to visit the unique but small and fragile communities in the Clyde, West Coast and Great Glen areas but did not feel it appropriate to take holiday passengers from all over the UK and Europe to these communities at this time.
Not to be wholly confined to its home port of Crinan, VIC 32 took part in #twittersteamrally, a virtual vintage event which took place on May 9 across Facebook and Twitter.
VIC 32 made several online appearances during the event, as did fellow steamship, the Daniel Adamson.
Work on VIC 32 is continuing. When the vessel was built in 1943 she had no wheelhouse – the Admiralty puffers quickly had sturdy but basic wheelhouses added in Naval dockyards. VIC 32’s wheelhouse had survived 77 years, but by last winter needed urgent repairs. These repairs are being undertaken by a skilled local boat builder, faithfully copying every discernible detail of the original structure, utilising appropriate marine timbers.
Another heritage project currently under way is reinstating the original coal-fired stove into the fo’c’sle – the original crew quarters for the vessel. Here, along with a built-in coal bunker and rivetted water tank, the crew would cook, wash and warm themselves.
The stove was removed six years ago to allow renewal of the concrete floor. Now professionally restored, the stove has been reinstated to help educate visitors how a Puffer crew would have lived and worked.
Like so many other marine and heritage projects, VIC 32 has suffered the effects of Covid-19, and it has only been through the generosity of the Friends of VIC 32 that the project will be able to (literally) rekindle the flame next year.
If you would like to support the vessel, or would like to learn more about a unique steamboat holiday in Scottish waters, visit savethepuffer.co.uk, from where enthusiasts can purchase the Puffer Cookbook, packed full of tried and trusted recipes from VIC 32’s galley, David Hawson’s illustrations and anecdotes from the skipper.