Name Wild Goose

WILD GOOSE is thought to have been built in 1944 as an Admiralty MFV and is a vessel of timber carvel construction, powered by a Foden FD6 Mk 1 diesel engine. Although the present owner has no evidence, it is believed that she was sent to Malta on completion, and was rebuilt at Toughs yard in 1971.

Additional history provided (January 2021) by former owner Penny Bartlett: We bought the vessel from the Bursledon Boatyard on the Hamble on January 29th 1989. She was already named TRACEY LEE. We were not able to have the log book or other details of her history, because they had been destroyed in a fire at the Teddington Boatyard where she had been rebuilt after her years as an Admiralty Fleet Tender.  We sailed her to Cobbs Quay Marina in Poole on April 8th 1989 where we were moored alongside the end of one of the pontoons overlooking Poole Harbour.  My partner Keith and I lived on board TRACEY LEE at Cobbs Quay until the circumstances of the recession compelled us to put her up for sale.  In December 1993 we sold her to a couple who had a TV company and bought her to sail around the British Isles to make children's TV programmes. The sale was completed on December 12th and TRACEY LEE was sailed to Plymouth in January 1994. Several years later she was sold to a man in Dartmouth. My partner Keith went to meet him there and stayed the weekend with him on board Tracey Lee. When she was sold again, she was unfortunately left to rot for some years until a new owner took over her restoration and reconstruction, renaming her WILD GOOSE.

The vessel is undergoing substantial repair/replacement of rotted timber frames/planks/bulwarks, updating electrical wiring and making good poor quality below-deck accommodation. There is currently in progress a general overhaul of her mechanical parts, which includes the installation of a small marine generator. A new deckhouse roof and mizzenmast is underway and, on completion, she will be recaulked and repainted.

Update, January 2021:  For the past 5 years, WILD GOOSE has been based in Brixham.  The owner plans to return to MDL Galmpton once COVID restrictions allow, to attend to a few issues and for a general tidy up for the return to water. After that, the plan is to move WILD GOOSE to a new base.