Price Details

Price: £38,000 GBP
Location: Pin Mill nr Ipswich, Suffolk GB
Make: Gostelow’s of Lincolnshire
Year: 1932
Condition: very good, continually well maintained
Category:  Traditional Sail
Class: Antique and Classics
Keel Type: Full Keel

Description

A Boston Smack Yacht built by the renowned Gostelow’s Shipyard in 1932. SSR registered Part III, Official Number: 194890
A Traditional Gaff Cutter rig, her lines based on the sailing Fishing/ working vessels of the day. similarities to the East Coast Smacks or the Nobbies of the North west…

Originally commissioned and built as a pleasure yacht.  An all wooden construction using top quality materials.
She has been very well maintained. In her lifetime she has made several trips backwards and forwards to the Continent.
Axillary power. Offers accommodation for 4 persons.

Measurements

Length Overall: 12.19m    Length Of Deck: 9.75m
Length At Water Line: 8.84m   Beam: 2.90m   Draft: 1.42m

Displacement: 10 tonnes
Cruising Speed: 5knots
Engine Power: 20hp
Berths: 4
Cabins: 1
Heads: 1
Passenger Capacity: 6

Builder: A.M.Gostelow of Boston, Lincolnshire
Designer: A.M.Gostelow
Boat Name: Lillibullero

Construction:

Spring 2024

Hull Material: Wood
Hull Design: Displacement
Hull Speed: 7: knots

   

 

A robust carvel planked hull with a straight stem and a rounded counter stern, long straight keel. Wide side decks with an open deep aft cockpit. Solid wood furniture and fittings throughout the vessel.
Solid Burr hardwood wood coach roof over the accommodation. Laid Afromosia decks. All built to a very high standard. High bulwarks and solid capping all round the decks.

Accommodation:

Headroom:5ft 3ins    Berth Lengths: 6ft 6ins
Layout and domestic services:  Down the main companionway steps,  a galley to starboard with sink,  3 burner gas hob and utensil’s drawers.

A Galley stool, a bronze pump supplies freshwater, manual pump.  Whale manual pump out a seacock above the waterline for sink waste water, a stainless steel water tank.

To port  a chart table, a bookshelf built into the chart table area with lifting desk for paper charts and instruments.

In the saloon there is a double berth to port and starboard which also act as seating,  upholstered berth cushions, 4 large pillow cushions.  Loads of storage below the berths.

Bronze port holes, a skylight above. Brass oil lamps and  12v Brass bulkhead cabin lighting . In the foc’sle, there’s a “head’s a Jabsco sea toilet, mounted to starboard and extensive storage for sails, fenders and lines.

Against the mast deck bulkhead area there is a Faversham solid fuel heater with a double lined flue, to port shelving for storage.

Anchor locker is located in the forepeak with a two speed manual windlass feeds the anchor chain.

Engine

Engine Description: Bukh, twin cylinder 20hp diesel engine. Single lever Morse control, forward and reverse gear box.
Engine sited beneath the cockpit sole. Electric or manual start, Raw water cooled.
Last serviced April 2024. Shaft driven, centrally fixed triple bladed bronze propeller.

Equipment:

Ground Tackle: 35lb CQR Anchor

35lb Danforth Anchor with 150ft calibrated chain

A Bronze two speed manual windlass.

Fenders, Spare lines and mooring warps

Overall Winter cover.

Sails:

Mast and Spars: All varnished Spruce,  keel stepped Mast, Boom, Gaff and Bowsprit,  which can be raised from the bitts.

The mast had two very large and  heavy rigging clamps for the standing rigging, both were removed and cut down by over a half in size.

The mast was completely refurbished,  the  mast hoops have been replaced with lacing.

Rig Type:  A Gaff Cutter

Mainsail Reefing: 3 Points Slab Reefing, Dutch style pennants
Headsail Reefing: 4 sizes of jib set from two Wykeham Martin furlers

Standing Rigging Material: Stainless Steel, 7×7 wires with bronze turnbuckles
Running Rigging Material: Pre-Stretched buff Marlow braid with traditional wooden blocks
Sheet Winches: 4 x Bronze Winches

Sail Wardrobe

Mainsails x3 James Lawrence, Tan, VGC
Oversize Jib, White, VGC
No1 Jib, White, VGC
No2 Jib, White, VGC
No3 Jib, White, VGC
Staysail x3, White, VGC

Navigation Equipment:

There is an autopilot, tricolour, navigation lights, steaming light, cabin lights, GPS, VHF, AIS transmitter / receiver, Autopilot, navigation instruments (tack tick wind, speed and depth + forward looking sonar),

Garmin chart plotter and FM radio. Instruments are connected via NMEA 0183 and NMEA 2000, where applicable.
She has sailed for over 24 hours with the Garmin chart plotter, driving the Raymarine auto helm, the AIS,  watch alarms and the Sestral More Compass.

Raymarine Autopilot
Forward Looking Sonar
Tack Tick Wind / Depth / Speed
Comar AIS Transmitter / Receiver
DSC VHF, FM radio
Clock

The main electrical switch panel located behind the companionway steps and a washboard that slides in with Garmin chart plotter, connected via NMEA to the AIS, VHF and custom engineered Raymarine autopilot system.

2x 12v auxiliary batteries charged with a Victron Energy charging and monitoring system. Charging diode manages electrical charge from the engine alternator, Victron Energy shore power charger and 100w coach roof solar panel.

The engine has a separate battery bank. Both banks have power isolators.

Safety Equipment:

Automatic bilge pump with twin float switches is powered directly from the auxiliary batter bank.

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Lillibullero was built in 1932 for a solicitor in Ipswich by A.M Gostelow in Boston Lincolnshire. Her build is well documented in the book “Building a Little Ship” of which an original print copy is to remain on board with Lillibullero at all times.

The original owner bough 6 port holes from a local boat jumble sale and asked AM Gostelow to build him a ship for the price of a small family car, including his newly acquired port holes. These bronze port holes remain installed today.

Lillibullero was build alongside two sisters ships, one of which is still in commission today, “Privateer”. Lillibullero is one of few remaining boats built by Gostelow’s yard and while she was built as a pleasure yacht commission, she is built on the lines of a Boston working smack and therefore a very strong and safe boat.

Lillibullero passed through several owners before Dutch couple Peter and Gosine bought her in the 1990’s and moved her to The Netherlands. During this time Lillibullero was maintained and restored where needed to the highest standard with no expense spared. Attending many classic yacht festivals in the Netherlands Lillibullero is well known among the Dutch classic yacht owners as a truly beautiful, highly varnished smack yacht from the UK.

Lillibullero  appeared in the Classic Boat Top 50 Classics  2007/8 (in previous ownership.)

In 2012, Lillibullero was brought back to the UK  sold to Michael and Sandra Robertson,  she has been maintained to the highest standard with small repairs carried out here and there along with a brand-new set of sails, new halyards and sheets and a new chart plotter. Lillibullero has been annually cruised on the East Coast of the UK and across the North Sea through the Dutch canals and back.

Full professional surveys in 2011, 2015 and 2020 draw the following conclusions:

(2015) This vessel is in very good condition as she was re-built to a very high standard when it was done (some twenty years ago) and she would appear to have been well looked after since then. She would appear to have been kept very much like a yacht, which she was built as rather than a converted or re-built fishing boat which most of them are, which means her hull has not been stressed to the same extent.

(2020) Lillibullero was strongly built from high quality materials and very little deterioration has taken place since she was built. This is due to the high standard of the original build and to the high standard of maintenance. Her rig has been continually updated and remains in good order.

   

Present Owner’s Comments:   September 2024

I have really grown to love her. She is sailing beautifully and looks very lovely. This season 2024, I have sailed her a lot, only coastal journeys but going away for three or four nights,

up and down the coast and she has been a wonderful boat. Right now she is on her mooring at Pin Mill. I will still sail her until she is lifted ashore. Once lifted  her engine will be winterised,

batteries disconnected, cleaned inside thoroughly, and the  Overall covers put on.  The plan this coming winter 2024/5, will be to oil the deck, as has always been done with  Deks Olje D1 oil.

The top sides,  black will be given another coat and the Antifoul will be re done. There is a small part of the capping rail on the port side to be mended,  a small carpentry job, and the cabin needs to be revarnished.

Over the last two  years I have stripped and refurbished the mast and bowsprit, back to bare wood and varnished.  Some of her  rigging has been renewed and changed.  The hull has been taken back to bare wood,

repainted and colours changed to Black with green antifouling.  When I first purchased her the survey recommended 3 planks in her topside to be looked at,  they were seen by Tom Curtis at the Boatyard.  Part of

one plank  was replaced, last winter  2023 with the help of Gus Curtis at the Boatyard, otherwise the hull seems very good.

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Disclaimer: Disclaimer: The Company offers the details of this vessel in good faith but cannot guarantee or warrant the accuracy of this information nor warrant the condition of the vessel. A buyer should instruct his agents, or his surveyors, to investigate such details as the buyer desires validated. This vessel is offered subject to prior sale, price change, or withdrawal without notice.