Taymara launches new river boat

A CHARITY which provides seafaring experiences for sick children and people with learning difficulties has launched a new boat, named after a late Broughty Ferry artist.

Taymara, a maritime organisation based at the North Carr lightship in City Quay, operates river experiences for children suffering from cancer and other serious illnesses at Ninewells Hospital.

Their newest acquisition, a 7.5-metre rigid inflatable boat (rib), will be used to take groups of children and their families on to the river to take their minds off the “traumatic” illness they are suffering.

The boat has been named the Bushe Craft, after late artist and Taymara member Ken Bushe. Mr Bushe, who also ran the organisation’s website, was a landscape painter who passed away early last year.

David Kitt, development officer at Taymara, said the Bushe Craft would be used as an educational tool for the ill youngsters, providing them with something to look forward to during a difficult time in their lives.

He said: “We work with children with cancer and other serious illnesses and take them out in the boat for about an hour at a time to teach them various things about maritime life. It is always a delight to be able to take the children out on these excursions on to the Tay. It takes them away, for a short time anyway, from the trauma they are experiencing.

“We teach kids maritime skills, such as driving a boat, navigating at sea and about the wildlife which lives in the water and on the land. We also talk about the history of the river and port of Dundee and, of course, are always on the lookout for Tay dolphins.”