As you may have seen on our social media (we’ve been shouting about this a lot!) OC has been working closely with Practical Boat Owner magazine on ‘Project Boat’, the completion of a Secret 20 kit in our workshop in Gosport. Now the boat is nearing completion, we’re really excited that the Secret 20 is being prepared for display at the Southampton Boat Show (13- 22 Sept, Stand E030A) where it will be sold to the highest bidder in a charity auction to be run online.
Fondly remembered
The boat will be officially named at the Southampton Boat Show in honour of Oarsome Chance volunteer Tony Harvey, who provided valuable help to the boat building team, but who unfortunately recently passed away – the boat will be named Harvey in his honour.
Online auction
Harvey is a unique, classic-style racing gaff cutter which, thanks to the skilled boat building team at Oarsome Chance and the generosity of project partners, is being built to a high specification. You can register to bid on Harvey and a host of other auction lots at www.jumblebee.co.uk/pbo-project-boat. There are many exciting auction lots up for grabs to the highest bidder, including ATR merchandise, a week in a luxury cotage in Cornwall, an inflatable paddleboard, a day’s yacht charter, RYA training courses… the list goes on! Keep your eyes peeled for a very special lot donated by our Patron Alex Thomson…..
PBO and Project Boat
Work on the Secret 20 boat began back in 2016 when Practical Boat Owner magazine was situated in Poole. A relocation and some changes in personnel the following year stopped construction until October 2018 when the completed hull was donated to Oarsome Chance.
Oarsome Chance proved the ideal recipient of Harvey as we are equipped with covered workshops and a team of professional boatbuilders and volunteers to see the project through. And of course, it was also an opportunity for some of our students to get some fantastic boat building experience, under the close supervision of our boat building lead, Jon Carver.
PBO magazine has been closely following the progress of Harvey’s build with more than 20 Project Boat articles documenting the entire build, all of which can be read for free online at https://www.pbo.co.uk/project-boat-secret-20.
With thanks
It was only with the genrosity of Project Boat’s in-kind partners that the completion of the build was possible – we’d like to thank:
- Torqeedo
- B&G
- Contender Sails
- Solar Technology International
- Tecsew
- Harken
- EP Barrus
And special thanks to project supporters:
- MAA
- Haslar Marina
- Scruffie Marine
