A Deeside estate has teamed up with a north-east boating festival, which attracts thousands of visitors to the area, to help restore a historic wooden vessel.
Michael Bruce of Glen Tanar estate was involved in a fundraising event for Portsoy’s Scottish Traditional Boat Festival in April this year when he saw first-hand the scale of the restoration projects.
Keith Muir, manager of the Boat Shed, revealed he was short of larch boards for decking planks and was struggling to source the wood.
Mr Bruce offered enough larch to complete the project, with the remainder donated to the boat-building scheme at nearby Banff Academy.
The deal reignites a historic timber trade association from when the Glen Tanar estate supplied Buckie shipyards with boatskin larch.
Mr Bruce said: “Roger Goodyear, co-chairman of the festival, gave us a tour of the fantastic new hostel, the converted Sail Loft heritage building, and introduced us to Keith.
“The Boat Shed is a charity that works with disadvantaged children to build and restore boats. Their major restoration project at the moment – all they had left were bits of the wooden keel – is the re-building of Sea Spray, a traditional in-shore sail fishing boat.”
Mr Bruce said he knew he could help Mr Muir source the necessary timber he had been struggling to find.
He added: “When I first came back to Glen Tanar in the mid-1980’s, we still carefully selected and supplied top quality boatskin larch.
“It was a product that attracted the highest prices and was supplied to Buckie and other traditional boatbuilding yards that used larch as a ships timber. Sadly, these yards have closed down.”
The donation comes after Portsoy and the Scottish Traditional Boat Festival was struck by a flash flood which threatened to overshadow festivities.
Only a fortnight before Prince Charles was due to open the Sail Loft bunkhouse – a sister venture to the boat shed project – a flash flood washed away a nearby bridge.
Local volunteers raced against time to erect a temporary footbridge and ensure the festival and official opening by the Duke of Rothesay could go ahead as planned.
