Tim, having been to visit me last week and heard probably more than he really wanted to about the auction, kindly phoned tonight to wish me well and I remarked that his post about the more-or-less abandoned car in his road reminded me of a boat called Yellowtail and that I should blog about it.

Now I come to think about it, there really isn’t much to say.  It just passed for entertainment in Oulton Broad in the early 1970s.  Possibly the late ’70s too, come to that, it was certainly there for a few years.

It was a nice yacht with a cabin, as I remember – or it had been nice, but it looked a little shabby.  It was moored on the other side of the bridge from Mutford Lock, in Lake Lothing, and one night, in a storm, it sank.  Not far, it was in shallow water, it just keeled over lightly and settled in the mud, and there it stayed.  People remarked on it every time they went past, it was a local landmark, I don’t know if mooring fees were paid but I suppose it wasn’t insured, because months and a few years went by and it just sat there, looking more decrepit.

But then things changed.  It was floated and mended and painted – not all in a few days, this took months, but finally Yellowtails started to look as if she would sail again and we were quite excited.

Then there was another storm.  Yellowtail sank again.  I don’t remember what happened after that.  I suppose she was finally scrapped.

As I said, there really wasn’t much to say.

Goodnight, darlings.