Trawlers with a Story

I first met Ken Harris when mooring alongside “Vigilance” when she was on the piles some way up the Medina.The first thing to catch my eye before the majestic size and structure was a 40 inch (1 metre approx.) diameter cast iron table saw on the foredeck – not the sort of thing you expect on the average boat, especially when it was powered by a 4-cylinder BMC petrol engine out of a Morris Minor which also powered the anchor windlass. Ken shirked no apparently impossible challenge when restoring this magnificent chunk of Britain’s coastal fishing fleet. Tales of changing planks in the bottom of “Vigilance” between tides in Dartmouth is just a small example of his tenacity. Manoeuvring huge logs of timber recovered from Arundel Castle and towing them down river with a 12 foot rowing dinghy to Littlehampton where “Vigilance “was berthed at the time. She is now in the care of the Brixham Trawler Trust.