Name S/V Kess

KESS was built in 1937, by the East Fife Boatbuilding Company as a ring net fishing boat at Cellardyke, Scotland, and originally named MANX FAIRY. She was commissioned by the Isle of Man government, along with three sister ships, to help revive the local fishing industry.

In 1940 she and her sister ships were requisitioned for the war effort and served as port inspection vessels. One of these, MANX LAD, was destroyed by a sea mine. In 1944 MANX FAIRY was a base ship at HMS Pleiades, the trawler base at Scapa Flow, Orkney.

After the war she fished commercially until the late 1950s, when she was sold into private use and rebuilt with mahogany rails and a 75 kg bronze stem cap. She suffered serious fires in 1964 and 1970, was written off on both occasions, and was rebuilt each time. In 1971 her Kelvin diesel was replaced with a Gardner 6LXB.

She was later bought by an owner in Södertälje, Sweden, who fitted a new Gardner diesel and moved her to Stockholm, where she sank at the dock. She was raised, towed to Södertälje, taken ashore and left in a shed.

In 1980 a new owner found her and rebuilt her entirely. Work included adding 2.4 tons of plastic to the hull and a 3 ton keel extension, rigging her as a Bermudan cutter, and painting her red. She was renamed KESS and brought to Stockholm, where she remained for the next three decades.

In 2022 she was sold to two brothers from the United States. She was dismasted on her first sailing trip in spring 2023 and was then re-rigged as a traditionally rigged centre cockpit gaff cutter. KESS is now a member of the Swedish Traditional Sailing Ship Association and regularly takes part in tall ship events around the Baltic.