Chairman’s Response

Rotary Service in 2023

A response from Scott Snowling to comments made on Facebook by Lisa Perkins regarding the current situation with Rotary Service.

First and foremost, whilst I do not know you, I would like to thank you for your input. I have never claimed to be an expert, most definitely a well-meaning amateur I rarely ‘solely’ made decisions and always worked with my other trustees and volunteers in the organisation. Has this therefore meant that I/we have done things that didn’t work out as we’d hoped, absolutely. I am I sorry this has come about, absolutely, I am heartbroken. I am truly sorry that we have come to this end, I have tried absolutely everything possible to carry out the project to its original end goal. I have then worked tirelessly to try and rehome the vessel to someone who would sympathetically take care of her.

Every step of the way, every decision I, and the other trustees made was always made with both the vessels end specification in sight, and the planned impact in the local community in Lowestoft. We never let go of our dream of making Rotary Service into a top-class youth training vessel.

Your statement that the lack of coordinated and qualified manpower was the only real obstacle in her making a passage back to Lowestoft, is unfortunately incorrect. She was not fully operational or seaworthy, one of the Detroit’s 8V71s had suffered a catastrophic ‘runaway’, and the previous owners had dismantled the top end and bottom end to investigate, determined that the engine needed replacement and due to pressures of commercial work purchased a new vessel in the interim.

Whilst it is perhaps only hearsay and conjecture, we were told at the time of purchase by someone who knew the seller, that if we had not bought her I.e. by your statement if we had left her alone, she would not still be floating to this day, as she would have been scrapped back in 2014/2015.

When we first got involved, I was assured at the time by a former trustee who claimed amongst other things to be a qualified surveyor, that the vessel was in suitable condition to go to sea under her own power running on a single engine. In 2014 following this assurance that the vessel was seaworthy enough the trust hired a commercial crew including a skipper and an engineer also on this crew was Mark Waltham the former owner of Laura Moncur and a marine engineer from Lowestoft. They were tasked by us to bring the vessel under her single engine power back to Milford Haven where work would begin.

Mark will confirm, he was there when I was informed by the independent Marine Engineer how much was wrong with that engine. I was chastised by him for even having taken her on the previous trials as he promptly demonstrated by snapping a highly corroded fuel line off with minimal pressure. All the crew were of the same opinion that the vessel was not safe or fit to put to sea and I was advised at that point if I continued with the misty-eyed notion of returning her to Lowestoft under her own power, the vessel would likely have been lost, and life would be at risk.

The other trustees and I, at the time made the decision to change our plans and have the vessel towed to England with a commercial tow. During the planning stages instead of carrying out initial works in Milford haven, it was decided to bring the vessel direct by road to Lowestoft and carry out the works ‘at home’ and therefore the destination evolved, from Milford, to Portishead, to Falmouth and finally Portland.

You cannot make an omelette without breaking eggs. Once in Lowestoft, work began It was always the intention that the vessel would be converted internally for her new use as a youth training vessel. As such all the original fit out needed to be removed to make way for this. The removal was carried out sympathetically and majority of the internal panelling and upholstery was kept for several years in our storage locker, until the trustees decided as it would never be refitted the the ply panelling should be disposed of, despite that decision much of it has still been retained.

All light fittings, switches, RNLI bracketry and kit, where salvageable was retained, some items from the engine room had suffered damage from an engine room fire, and some items from the wheelhouse had suffered from water ingress (intercom parts etc) and it is only in the last few months that any of this usable RNLI equipment has started to be disposed of to the owners of other ex-lifeboats to preserve the rare parts, even if the whole vessel cannot be saved.

The Detroit (GM) Parts you have noted on my personal eBay account are actually a batch of Tyne Class 6v92 spares parts I acquired in 2022 and are not from Rotary Service’s 8v71’s and are not her spares/ancillaries. The trust did actually try to set up a separate eBay account to try and prevent any confusion between my own listings and those of the trusts, however unfortunately the account kept getting rejected by eBay without explanation.

With regards to finances, you mention a lot of very kind people donated various sums of money from beginning to end, yes, they did. And I will always be truly thankful to them, and I am truly sorry that we have not completed the task that we set out to do, with the funds they so kindly made available to us. Before the trust made the announcement that we were aiming to wind up and dispose of Rotary Service, I personally spoke to our 3 principal donors to inform them of the decision prior to posting the announcement on our social media pages. I have since then personally kept them updated throughout the process of trying to find her a new home, every little up and down on what has been a roller coaster ride during the last 3 years I kept them and a number of our other supporters informed.

You mention money vanishing into thin air, in a very accusational manner, however our Annual Reports and P&L are always published on the Charities Commission website where you can see it cost the trust £2640 to store Rotary Service. £220 a month, unfortunately this has increased to £225 per month. We received donations in total of £317.80 during our 2022/23 financial year and have not received a single donation since.

It has never been a secret that when the Detroit 8V71s were removed they were sold to East Coast Diesels, who came and removed them on our behalf. They in turn assessed if they were suitable to rebuild as recon units, condemned them as beyond repair and sold them as spares parts.

The twin disc gearboxes were returned, and it had always been our intention to reuse them with the Scania DS11s we intended to fit, however when it was decided to wind up the trust, to ensure the funds were available for long term storage whilst seeking a home for the vessel, it was agreed to dispose of all the engines/gearboxes that we had in storage and these went to Engen for refurb and resale.

Likewise, the propellers and shafts, have been retained with the vessel to this day. But the props have suffered significant damage from electrolysis and the shafts have significant damage caused in the bearings, they were independently assessed by Clements Engineering and deemed not fit for use. Whilst the trust still aimed to complete the vessel as a youth training vessel they did very kindly offer to replace them free of charge.

When it came to the time to get the quotations for the skilled work of putting the vessel back together in order for us to seek grant funding, we were shocked and dismayed to find most boatyards wouldn’t even entertain coming to quote, and those that would come were unwilling to actually quote to do the work. All would turn up tell us it was a lot of work, make various excuses like the size of their order book or not wanting to undertake ‘lottery work’ and politely decline to quote.

A project like this relies on an army of volunteers, and for the first few years we were quite lucky to have a great motivated team, including several young lads (and one young lass) who came to us doing their DoE award, and stayed because they loved the project and the vessel. But as the years went on and particularly during COVID, the younger ones went to university or got jobs, and the older ones including two who had worked on the vessel during build started to suffer from poor health issues and were not able to continue. This included both my parents who have been by my side at every step of the way for the last 10 years. Twice my mother has suffered from heart attacks whilst helping with the project, and during 2018 we nearly lost my dad to pneumonia and he’s struggled with mobility and thus helping with the project since.

Unfortunately, around COVID this included our most dedicated volunteer who was always the heart and soul of every work party and was as committed to the cause as me. Losing him, was a significant blow to the trust as whenever I found it tough, he always managed to keep me going. However, he had to take a step back due to his mental health, but remained as a trustee, and to this day is still helping with regards to the winding up of the trust.

Even until very recently, we were still in discussions about the potential of the vessel going to new homes, some including to be a static exhibition and as such all the parts (at least those which were there when we bought her) to have externally put her back to full RNLI condition were always retained. As our intent whilst having a grey superstructure was for her external specification to very closely match her in service appearance.

You ask what is next, we are being charged £5000 by external contractors to cut the hull up, hopefully the vessel does not contain asbestos, and hopefully contains enough metal to recoup that cost. Regards to parts. Most usable parts removed have been retained and are in storage, some have been sold over the last few months to other lifeboat owners who are preserving Watsons, Tynes or Oakley’s.

We have been requested to send a few parts to both Falmouth and Dover stations to be preserved and displayed, and if we are lucky that the scrapping is self-funding, any funds left over will be donated to the Lydia Eva & Mincarlo Charitable Trust here in Lowestoft towards the preservation of the last Lowestoft Built & Engined sidewinder trawler, another Brooke Marine built vessel.

After that, Would I do anything like this again, No. Have I advised others against it. Yes.