MFV BF494 'Pansy', an old Motor Fifie Conversion

a couple more oldies. First the original Pansy, now lying at the bottom of loch ness:

Built for an owned by the same family as original owned our pansy. A big Zulu under full sail

and another whitehills one, Pansy lying inside lupin in the middle... There may be a lot more to say about Lupin in the coming months

Sometime in the 60's at a guess, Pansy against the wall and another Fifie, Lupin along side. Lupin is currently lying in an industrial estate in lancaster, in very good shape, although bare bones hull and engine, and for sale at a very very low price......

Pansy lying against the wall outside whitehills in the exact same spot we tied up on the trip back to the tyne

and finally, a wee PDF, that might be of interest, history of the Zulu, Fifie, scaffie and the moray firth herring fishery in general

The Zulu Herring Drifter

Sorting through some old pics to try summon up the will to keep going, loads I haven't posted so thought I'd lash a few up, got one from every decade almost apart from the 70's and 80's. Must be some somewhere I reckon. Interesting to see the changes

not sure the age of this one, guess late 30's maybe 40's, can't even remember where I found it or who sent it!, Wheelhouse Mk1 maybe? Sorta fits as the original paraffin engine was replaced with the K3, which would have probably meant shifting the wheelhouse so maybe thats when Mk2 wheelhouse arrived

up on the stocks, sporting wheelhouse mkII

May 1962, lying in Aberdeen, nets drying. Wheelhouse mk2 still

Another courtesy of Billy Milne, Lying Whitehills, one of my favourite pics, managed to carve new name boards based on this pic,not sure of the date, late 50's maybe? maybe 60's? Nice example of a beccles coiler on deck for all you trawler model makers out there!

big jump forward to the early 90's. I've yet to find any pics from the 70's or 80's, but this time she's in Grimsby sporting wheelhouse MkIII. I quite like the green and white

Couple of years later, lying in Seahouses. Out with the green and in with the red!

1999 on a visit back to her old home in whitehills

Last 3 pics courtesy of dave-d at Trawler pictures

'twas a year ago this week when we signed on the dotted line, been quite a lot of water under the boat since then (and in, and on and through and possibly up as well), hard to believe, but there ya go, so thought it might be nice to throw up a few photographic gems from the last 12 months, and in particular the wee jaunt back down

A macduff(ish) single malt seemed a fitting way to spend the night before the off

A chicken curry pie and a mug of tea. Its very possible that there's an alternative universe somewhere in which this is the peak of sophistication for breakfast. Hi tech navigation and low tech scran, what more do you need

where I could be found for most of the first day at sea. fixing stuff in the henjin room as it fell off. how I didn't bowk down there still puzzles me, it was dark, hot, filled with diesel and exhaust fumes and bouncing all over the place. Happy days

Pansy does deadliest catch. No 2, desperate to try out his new flotation suit re-positions the fire guard whilst pretending its a lobster pot. If any one is curious as to why and old fishing boat needs a fire guard the answer is fairly obvious - to put around the vinyl seat that caught fire on account of leaning against a hot exhaust

So after the euphoria of gassing most of inverness (see 'what smoking ban' - below) we settled down (and up and sideways) to several hours of Rattray Head's finest weather conditions

the post Rattray head effect part 1 - No 1 goes a bit 'Blakie'

the post Rattray head effect part 2 - No 2 goes a bit dennis hopper and does some more lying down practice

A good omen by all accounts, a wee swallow hitched a ride as we crossed the Firth of Forth. Didn't have the heart to tell him we were going the opposite direction he wanted to be in

as documented elsewhere, after a total hydraulics failure this is what was cobbled together and passed for steering for the last 30 hours of the trip back

No 2 at the, err... helm? well sort of anyway. 2 hour shifts betwixt no 1, no 2 and no3 got us home though

So that was that, a little over a year ago, we brought the old girl down to the Tyne. We've had a few we trips out, but mostly just pulled her to bits, patched things up, burnt loads of bits and pieces, pondered planned and generally plotted what to do next. If all goes to plan (it won't) she should be coming out the water for some major TLC to her fragile wooden bits very soon, and then maybe, possibly even, she might get out there and do her stuff again. Will stick a few more little nuggets up in a day or 2

*No. 2's*

Best thing I've ever done in me life - hang on, apart from that time when ......, Oh yeah and that thing, and OOOOoooooooo I'd forgotten about that and - ouch it hurt but I'll never forget, you get me drift (sic)

Cheers for that skippo.

OK - so now I know, there are brushes inside of starter motors and soneloids make sparks. It's a funny old world. I have finally committed totally to our lovely Pansy, no going back, went and bought what's known in working circles as a "Boiler Suit". I already had some wellies as my mam makes me put them on if there's any danger of me going round jumping in puddles. Also got some "Knee Pads" just in case we go through another Rattray head moment, they will allow me to pray properly without running the risk of getting a run in my BS (Boiler Suit). It's now covered in John Innes no.5 after removing 14 firkins of SOIL from the engine room. I know she's called Pansy but having an 'erbaceous border in the bilges smacks of silliness. We managed to wake Bob the milkman (he is a milkman, well he sells the stuff, he's not actually made of milk), who lives on the Yot next to us, at 5:00pm last Saturday with the sound of an air-hammer going off in the bilges of an old wooden boat. He must have thought - yup they've had enough and got up to watch the boat sink and observe us sprinting along the pontoon of life, laughing like Banshees (Eh!) and back to normality.

Another pic found on the internet, shows here in her heyday, when she was fishing out of Whitehills:
If we can get her back to looking something like, then we'll be happy

She was clearly well thought of in her home port of Whitehills, the local paper ran this story last time she visited:

many thanks to Billy Milne for the pics