Classic boat review: Tern LH 53

Launched as Sweet Promise A 746 in 1965, this Noble’s-built stalwart, Tern LH 53, has clocked up almost 60 years’ service

The 33ft Tern, which today is based at Port Seton, was built in 1965 by Jimmy Noble as Sweet Promise A 746 for Robbie Cormack and Ian Balgowan of Stonehaven, at a cost of £6,000. At the time she was unique, said Ian, as she had a wheelhouse amidships with a winch behind. According to the Noble build lists, she was built for ‘Mr Cormack’ – but she was originally registered to Ian.

“It was down to Robbie Cormack, really,” Ian explained. “I was born on a farm, and we left the farm when I was eight years old to emigrate to Australia. But we weren’t able to go at the very last minute, as my mother had had TB.

“So we stayed in Stonehaven, and after school I worked ashore, and then got a job trawling out of Aberdeen. Robbie ran the ironmonger’s in Stonehaven. He took me under his wing, so to speak, and took me on as crew on his 25ft yawl.

“We spent hours discussing the pros and cons of a new boat, and eventually he commissioned the new boat to a design we’d both finally agreed on. He ordered and paid for the boat, but when he went to register it in Aberdeen, he put my name on the registration document. I remember asking him why. ‘It just seemed right,’ was his reply.”

Sweet Promise just visible in the Noble’s shed as Incentive PD 349 is being manhandled prior to her 1965 launch.

So Ian and Robbie worked the boat together. She was built for the inshore seine-net, but by 1970, Robbie had retired and Ian Shearer started working with Ian Balgowan. In 1971, when the fishing was poor, they briefly went to the mussel lines.

They decided they’d be better off with a bigger vessel, so Sweet Promise was sold to Methil in 1972, where she was re-registered as KY 26. The two Ians bought a 1943-built vessel by Tyrrell’s of Arklow, just under the 50ft mark to fish inside the three-mile limit, which they renamed Geallachd Milis (‘sweet promise’ in Gaelic) A 206.

Amongst the fleet at Looe with scallop gear aboard.

In 1975, Sweet Promise was sold to England. Although details are somewhat shaky, it appears she went to Torpoint, Plymouth, keeping the same name but re-registered as PH 30. There she was owned by two brothers who worked in the dockyard and did not have much time to fish her.

From there she was purchased by Gordon Cairns, who had just sold his North Star and was intending to go up to Oban to buy a 50ft to 60ft vessel, but was instantly attracted to this smaller vessel when he spotted her at Torpoint.

At Lantic Bay, having a day off!

Gordon now lives in Australia, but I managed to catch up with him online. He told me: “She looked lovely. My thoughts were to use her for trawling. She had a Ford engine, which was a bit low on power but OK to begin with. The winch was a converted geared seine-net winch, and I had a new aft gantry fitted.

“Then soon after I had a Morris trawl winch fitted, as the converted winch was belt-driven and caused lots of problems. Then I had a Gardner 6LXB installed, and soon after that I had a new wheelhouse built, as the original was so small there was no room for the electronics.”

Gordon told me he imagined she had been built for the boatbuilder’s son, as ‘she was built like a brick shithouse, larch on oak’. The frames were so close together, he said, that back aft on the return you could not see the planks. But we know she wasn’t built for Jimmy Noble’s son, so Robbie must have been clear about what he wanted. Ian Balgowan still has the original specifications signed by Jimmy Noble.

Gordon continued: “She was tough as they come, so I rigged her for scallops with three dredges each side and worked mainly in Falmouth Bay, away from the Looe fleet, close inshore. Best catch was just over 800 dozen for a trip.

“Then at one stage we were silly enough to join with the rest of the Looe fleet to dash up to Fishguard to join in the bonanza fishing there. Because of the mega tides, that turned out to be a very dangerous episode for such small vessels, so we soon returned to Cornwall.

“After that it was pair- trawling, so I tried to pair up with Bonzo (Lewis Butters) who owned the Forbes-built Prosperity FY 189, but with no luck – so I purchased the Ros Alither FY 518, hence had my own pair team, so spent a couple years working pairing.”

Alongside at Looe, showing the deck gear.

On one occasion he was coming home from a trip on Sweet Promise in a gale. “We were in a following sea when we were hit by a huge wave. The vessel broached and sent me totally underwater on the starboard side. I was thinking: ‘This is it’ – but being as she was such a beautifully built vessel, she came back upright, and on she went under autopilot.”

Gordon then sold Sweet Promise to Paul ‘Brumble’ Bird and replaced her with Maxine’s Pride FY 38 – which he says turned out to be no improvement. At some point under Paul, Sweet Promise underwent a refit and her wheelhouse was again replaced, this time with one forward.

At the same time she was re-registered as FY 144. There’s a rumour that she was renamed Sarah of Looe at some stage, but I don’t think this is correct – there appears to be no record of such a vessel.

Paul also cut the stern away to form the ‘square round’ stern. I heard the story that this was done to get an under-10m licence – but Paul had found some gribble in the stop water and surrounding stern post that was causing more and more leakage. In addition, the original gantry that had been previously adapted was causing the whole of the back end of the boat to loosen up. The resulting work put her under 10m.

About 2000, Sweet Promise moved back north again, when Archie Ritchie of Kirkcaldy bought her, basing her in Pittenweem. He kept the FY registration but renamed her Tern. She was skippered, I believe, by Brian Hughes. They tried the clams, somewhat unsuccessfully, as well as trawling for prawns. Archie Ritchie went on to have the steel Quantas KY 996 built.

Now at Pittenweem and renamed Tern FY 144, with a new (third) wheelhouse.

From there Tern went to Andrew Mack of Cockenzie, who bought her around Christmas 2001. He used her for trawling for prawns, re-registered as LH 53, until he sold her to George Reid of Port Seton in 2018 on his retirement.

George ‘Dod’ Reid continues to fish the prawns with her, and says she’s still in a good state. “No, none,” he replied, when I asked him if he’d had to do much work to her. “Still got the Volvo engine that was put in after she left Looe.”

I’d first talked with Ian Balgowan when writing about Harvester A 865, which he and Ian Shearer bought in 1995. Ian had mentioned Tern as being over 50 years old, and I’d taken note.

Tern after her move to Port Seton.

Ian said he’d met George by chance a few years earlier.

“I asked him if there was still a two-bob bit fixed to the stern. Yes, he said, there was. We’d put it there because we’d taken her away from Fraserburgh on a Friday, and it was unlucky to do so. So this was to counter the bad luck. Being born on farm, I wasn’t attuned with seamen’s taboos, and we broke them all.

Tern as she is today.

“Talk about coincidences, too,” he added. “I volunteer in the Stonehaven Museum, and the other day I was chatting to a fellow from Port Seton and mentioned the Tern. He had a photo of her on his phone which had been taken on 16 September [2023].

“I suddenly realised that was the day in 1965 that Robbie and I had left Fraserburgh with the brand new boat to bring her home. 16 September, exactly 58 years to the day! It cost him £6,000 for the boat back then, and I think she sold for 10 times that now.”

This story was taken from the January 2024 issue of Fishing News. For more like this, subscribe to Fishing News here or buy the latest single issue for just £3.50 here.

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