INSPIRATION II

Type:  Motor Yacht
Length:  30 ft
Beam:  9 ft
Draft:  2 ft 6 ins
Displacement:  Not known
Engine:  2 x BMC Commodore Diesels
Construction:  Pitch pine on oak
Builder:  Osbourne, Littlehampton
Year:  1931

William Osborne's long established yard in Littlehampton had been famous for strongly built and well designed motor cruisers in the 1920s and '30s and it still exists today.

Inspiration II was built there in 1931 and at 30ft was one of the smallest of the Little Ships to set out across the English Channel during the first days of the evacuation.

Like so many of the smaller craft, she was towed across to save fuel, and to increase her speed. No one knows quite what happened on the way. Perhaps she broke her tow or had her lines severed in an aerial attack, but she was found drifting on the tide by the tug Kenia who picked her up and as with many other damaged vessels, helped her back to the port of Dover.

In 1988, Inspiration II was sold to Dennis Wells who also owns Warrior.

Inspiration II is a pretty boat, who’s brightly painted red hull has now been painted in the original white to be preserved just as she was built nearly sixty years ago.