Unfinished boat finds new home after owner's death

Jonathan Allen was keen to take the boat on after hearing about it from mum Anna Kaye

An unfinished handmade boat which has been left since its owner's death 11 years ago has now been taken on by someone else.

Les Holmes, of Pershore, Worcestershire, built the boat on and off over a 35-year period until he died in 2013.

After friends and relatives appealed for someone to take the 22ft (6.6m) Hirondelle on, their plea was answered by Jonathan Allen from Tewkesbury.

Friends and relatives of Mr Holmes and wife Gillian were thankful they had found someone who could take the project on and said it was a happy ending to the story,

Les Holmes began working on the boat in 1978 in his back garden in Headless Cross, Redditch

Amateur boat builder Mr Holmes started work on the boat in his back garden in 1978 saying he wanted to sail it across the Channel with his wife.

When the couple moved near to Pershore in the 1980s the boat came too, and was pictured in a local paper as it was craned over the house.

He enlisted the help of sailing club friend Phil Boocock, who carried on the work until a year after Mr Holmes' death before getting "out of his depth".

"It was just his obsession, he loved it," Mr Boocock said. "He'd be thrilled that somebody was going to have it and it wasn't going to go to waste."

Mr Holmes' brother-in-law Nigel Haslock, 61, had been fearful he could not keep the promise he made to his sister Gillian, who had not found a new owner before she died in 2022.

"This can be the happy ending to this story. And hopefully at some point in the future we will see the boat get launched and the dream is fully concluded," he added.

New owner Mr Allen said his mum Anna Kaye found out it was available when watching BBC News.

He had been living on a small sailing boat and was searching for something roomier.

"It's nearly 4 tonnes of boat, so it's pretty serious," he said.

"The fact that it’s not finished, that’s a nice thing."

His mum said the project meant a lot to the former Microsoft engineer, after a period of ill-health.

"I wanted something that you could really traverse oceans and seas with," said Mr Allen, 51.

Gillian and Les Holmes dreamed of sailing in the boat to France