Last Resort
Page updated 7 November 2005
This picture of Last Resort was the one that appeared on the web site on which she was offered for sale in November 2004. Her location was listed as "Dorset" but with no more detail given, it might be assumed it was somewhere around Poole Harbour.
When requested, owner Mike Gordon, sent the pictures below together with some others saying, "Good to see someones putting together more info on these brilliant boats, I will miss mine dearly when I sell her. If it wasn't for the particularly dire circumstances I find myself in at present, believe me I would not sell her at all."
From the stern it can be seen that the boat has been subject to some customisation. A lifting rudder has been fitted to a reinforced transom. This suggests that she may have been on a semi-dry tidal mooring at one time. (The standard, fixed, rudder takes less draft than the keel even when raised, but on anything other than a smooth beach there must be a risk that the rudder grounds first with the consequent risk of damage to the rudder mounting pins.)
A non-standard, three piece, wooden hatch to the cabin is also immediately noticable, as is the decking in the cockpit. Inside Mike reports, "She has been fitted with a sea toilet, unfortunately no pic, but it works well."
However, the most striking thing about Last Resort is the standing rigging. There are additional shrouds, forward of the conventional ones, and a second stay taken to a point just aft of the forehatch.
Further pictures, not on the site, show that the sails are not of Jeckells manufacture. Neither is the boom one that would have been supplied as original equipment, so perhaps the mast too has been replaced at some point. This may account for the halyard cleats not being mounted in the normal place, where the roof rises to accommodate the cabin door.
