Fintry is one of about 64 fleet tenders built by the British
Royal Navy from 1963 through 1982. In their original configuration, they could
carry 110 passengers or 25 tons of cargo in two holds and on deck. They had a
Lloyds 100A1
classification (the highest possible) for operations from the Elbe
to Brest, which includes the North Sea and the English Channel, some of the
nastiest waters in the world.
Most of them were used to carry crew and supplies out to
naval vessels at anchor or on moorings. Later versions were used for training
and five were set up as diving vessels. Almost all of them were operated by the
Royal Maritime Auxiliary Service, which in the
Eighties operated more than 500 mostly smaller, unarmed craft.
Fintry was built by John Lewis in Aberdeen, begun in 1970
and commissioned in 1972. Lewis also built Cromarty, Dornoch, and Grasmere at
the same time; their drawings and specifications show that they were close to identical. As originally built,
the deckhouse was entirely aft of the
center, with a Captain's cabin forward, a bunk room for four seamen aft, a good
sized galley and dining area in the middle, and one head. There was a separate head,
accessible only from the side deck, for the passengers. There was a large hatch in the main deck
into the main (#2) hold and a smaller hatch into the forward hold.
In the late nineties, the Navy decided that it would adopt the MCA safety regulations, so that carrying
110 passengers below decks on a vessel this size was no longer possible.
Serco-Denholm, which was operating Fintry for the
Navy, rebuilt her in 1998-9 to carry 60 passengers in a new deckhouse forward. As part of this change,
the hatches into the holds were blanked off, and the cabins turned into passenger seating, so that she now
has no berths. She was renamed Eilidh M.
She was sold out of Navy service in 2001 and spent a year at a berth in Plymouth due to a change
in her new owner's plans. She was sold again to us, Dee and Jim Woodward, in December of 2002.
We have returned her to her original name and are in the process of converting her into an expedition yacht which will be
based in Boston. When finished, she will be able to go anywhere in the world, although not at any
time of year. Many more details on the conversion are on another page.
We arrived in Boston July 8, 2005 after an uneventful passage, having stopped for two nights in Falmouth for better weather and three nights in Horta for a break. Fintry's new home is Boston Harbor Shipyard and Marina. We kept Sweetwater there for her refit before our circumnavigation
and it's a great place -- good people, good facilities, and a wonderful view of the Boston Skyline.
To a naive visitor, not much has happened in the last three years. We've made fair progress on the interior of the number one hold, but otherwise, the interior looks very much the same as when we left England. Those who look with an eye for detail, however, will see that a lot of infra-structure work has been done -- a diesel fired marine boiler for heat, its control panel, which includes the ability to take heat from the Cat and the gensets when they're running, all the copper pipe for distribution of HVAC, potable water, non-potable water, and compressed air throughout the boat, conduit and wire trough for all the new electric equipment, a new electric panel, a 12 person sewage treatment plant and the plumbing (all Scd 80 PVC) for four toilets, and so forth.
In 2007 we spent part of over forty days cruising Boston Harbor and Massachusetts Bay, partly to get to know Fintry better, but mostly to build our tally of recent sea time for our Masters' licenses, both of which were issued in the last three months. The photo of Boston Light,
the oldest lighthouse in the Americas, was taken on one of those trips.
On this site we are maintaining a list of contact information for owners. If you own a Fleet Tender, please get in touch.