A NEW CHAPTER FOR COMPACT TRAWLER BESSIE FLORENCE 

A NEW CHAPTER FOR COMPACT TRAWLER BESSIE FLORENCE 

As I have mooched around the bottom end of Waiheke Island over the years, ono of the craft I have spotted most frequently is the 26’ BESSIE FLORENCE, link here to a Jan 2016 WW story. https://waitematawoodys.com/2018/01/16/bessie-florence/

BESSIE FLORENCE  is a ‘mini’ trawler designed by Jay Benford and built in 2006 by Paul Jessop of Waikawa, Picton for Cook Strait fishing and Sounds use. With her build year and construction method (glassed ply) she sits outside of what we would label a classic wooden boat , but probably slides into the spirit of tradition family.

Forward motion is via a 30hp Yanmar 3GM30 diesel engine that which averages approx. 3 litres per hour when cruising at 5-6 knots.

Recently her owner made the call to move the craft on and I can report that her new owner will be relocated BESSIE FLORENCE to the Coromandel area and changing her name to TOBY.

Bessie Florence

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Bessie Florence

Bessie Florence featured on Mondays amongst the gallery of photos I posted from my cruising around Waiheke Island, I was subsequently contacted by her owner Tim Jackson who advised that she is a Jay Benford dead rise trawler design. See the  sheet below for Jays’s words about this design.

Bessie Florence was built for fishing out of Waikawa in Picton in 2006 by Paul Jessop for fishing in Cook Strait and the outer Sounds. Tim purchased her in Waikawa and is now  the second owner. She arrived in Auckland in December 2017. Slowly and steady is the order of the day with BF.

Tim is planning a ‘make-over’ this coming autumn, her build year might be 2006 but she is a classic woody in my eyes J

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