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The Restoration & Renaming of Gadfly II
Anderson, Rigden & Perkins were boatbuilders in Whitstable, Kent who built several boats to Harrison Butler designs. Some of these, such as Tramontana, are well known to the Association and we have their complete histories because they were Lloyd's Registered. However, perhaps for tax avoidance reasons, many of the Anderson, Rigden & Perkins boats were not Lloyd's Registered by their new owners. One such was a boat called Gadfly.
After persistent research, Simon Papendick realised that this one boat was in fact two, both with the same name, both built by Anderson, Rigden & Perkins and both built for Harold Doughty. The first is now called Gadfly Jack and is under restoration in Cornwall. The second is Simon's own boat which he is restoring and has renamed Mai Star II.
Anderson, Rigden & Perkins appear to have had quite a cavalier approach to some of their work, often not meticulously following the design too carefully, and often suggesting what they saw as enhancements to the person commissioning the boat. Furthermore, they built 'by eye'. All of this makes it difficult to quickly now identify which of Harrison Butler's designs Mai Star II was actually based upon and raises tricky questions about whether or not the boat can be considered to be authentic Harrison Butler.
Leaving aside these issues for now, we can marvel at the magnitude of the restoration task Simon has taken on, with the aid of a few photographs. Tremendous progress has been made but with much still to do.
Mai Star II Statistics
Built : 1946 by Anderson, Rigden & Perkins Ltd of Whitstable, Kent
LOA : 22' 6"
LWL : 21' 6"
Beam : 7' 0"
Draught : 4' 0"
Displacement : - tons TM
OGA Boat Number : 0631
Mai Star II Custodians & Home Ports
Simon Papendick (2008-2016...) Orwell River, Ipswich
Previous owner in Sunbury (2001-2008) Surrey
Nauticala (?-2001) Shepperton
FG Menden (1968-1973)
EJ Little (1962-1968)
RJ Watts (?-?) Erith Yacht Club
JL Watson (1961-?) The Solent
WD Austin (1959-1961)
RM Parker (1955-1959)
Lt CDR Bawtree (1953-1955)
Harold C Doughty (1946-1953)
Mai Star II Links
• Google Gadfly II to find many more restoration photographs.
Page last updated : October 2017
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