We are a small local family business offering trips from Whitstable harbour on the vintage lifeboat The Chieftain.
12/02/2025
We’ve had some great news this week. National Historic Ships UK have awarded Chieftain a grant towards the cost of replacing both of her propellers which have now reached the end of their useful life.
Maintaining any historic vessel is a costly business and any help such as this is very welcome indeed.
We will be posting some pictures soon of our progress with this years overhaul in preparation for starting this years trips again at Easter.
📢 National Historic Ships UK Small Grants Scheme 2025 awardees announced
NHS-UK's Small Grants Scheme gives grants of up to £1,000 to vessels on the National Registers for Conservation management planning; Surveys; and Remedial works demanding specialist and/ or expensive materials.
The Small Grants Scheme is funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, as well as from our Historic Ships Insurance scheme with Winter & Co Marine. The Historic Vessel Policies are specially designed, and exclusively for, vessels on the Registers. For each new policy bought or renewed, a percentage will be donated to our Small Grants Scheme, so that money goes back into helping historic vessel owners like you.
The Small Grants Scheme is always oversubscribed, and the Panel has to make some difficult decisions about what we can fund with the money available. This year, we received 27 applications and awarded ten grants.
The following vessels were supported by Winter & Co (Marine) Ltd:
BRISTOL (1936 Narrowboat, Braunston)
HAPPY RETURN (1904 Mounts Bay Pilchard Driver, Penzance)
KERNE (1912 Steam Tug, Liverpool - National Historic Fleet)
ONE (1830 Oyster Smack, Gweek)
OUR DADDY (1921 Looe Lugger, Brixham)
PILGRIM (1895 Brixham Trawler, Brixham - National Historic Fleet)
SATURN (1906 Shropshire Union Fly-Boat, Shropshire Union Canal)
THE CHIEFTAIN (1948 Liverpool Class Lifeboat, Whitstable)
TID 164 (1945 Steam Tug, Chatham - National Historic Fleet)
The following vessel was supported by National Historic Ships UK:
HARDY (1940 Motor Canal Boat Tanker, Banbury)
Full story:
www.nationalhistoricships.org.uk/news/nhs/nhs-uk-small-grants-scheme-2025-awardees-announced
