Readers of this ECYU website may like to know that in the latest number of the Danish Classic Yacht Club (DFÆL) magazine, there was a message to members to try and save a few more boats from the ultimate funeral pyre. In the corners of boatyards and marinas throughout Denmark, and the same probably applies to the other Scandinavian and northern European countries, these unfortunate wrecks lie there waiting for a helping hand.

On another continent 10 years or so back in time, Elizabeth Meyer, the well-known restorer of ENDEAVOUR, had the brilliant idea of setting up an International Yacht Restoration School. The idea was to train young, or for that matter old, enthusiasts who might become shipwrights, preferably with wooden boats. There was a big yard on the waterfront of Newport, Rhode Island, and owners who could no longer keep up maintenance of their wooden boats or yachts were encouraged to donate these vessels to the IYRS. Outside Oslo, at Sollerudstranda School, a similar project was started by my son Peter Ennals. The local authority contributed to the running costs of a large former sewage plant (Elizabeth Meyer's building had been an electricity station as far as I remember) now turned into a school for apprentices. Two large historic metre boats have been rebuilt at Sollerudstranda over the last 8 years, and the winner of the first Færder race, CARMEN IV, a Christian Jensen cruising 8 metre from 1914, was the first finished product from the school, and is still the school's flagship. The apprentices sail CARMEN in local regattas each summer.

There is always the danger that these idealistic projects will run out of steam after the initial first flush of enthusiasm. Sollerudstranda Yacht Restoration Centre is going through a turbulent period, but will hopefully survive in some shape or form, even if local authority funding gradually trickles to a halt.

To return to the wrecks, only very few potential enthusiasts have the stamina to carry out a worthy restoration financed out of their own pockets. But there are a few success stories and amazing tales of self-sacrifice to save a boat. Unfortunately the demands of modern working life, and indeed the greater commitment necessary to keep family life on an even keel, mean that teenagers and pensioners are perhaps the best recruiting grounds for wooden boat restoration work.

In our Oslo experience, there are a number of specimens whose owners are willing to hand over for one crown (Norwegian krone, or Danish and Swedish, even "one euro" would be cheap enough! But even such an offer does not entice a buyer, because the costs of having a place on land to keep such a boat under restoration are quite prohibitive. Likewise the costs of cranes and lorries to transport the boat to a possible garden or barn in the country are enormous. My family has tried to do its bit by taking on a few "one crown" projects in this way, and may I conclude with the hope that DFÆL does manage to inspire a few private individuals and possibly public bodies, such as museums, to save a few more old wooden boats. To pay tribute to two of our ECYU members, Fredrikstad Maritime Museum has helped to save a Bjarne Aas 6 metre and IOD by financing their restoration and later upkeep as exhibits for the public. Likewise the Danish Historic Yacht Museum at Valdemar Slot, Svendborg has done most valuable work.