Work on historic schooner may be finished in Cayman

In a shipyard located at Britain’s most inland port, at the Gloucester Docks in Gloucestershire, a piece of Cayman’s maritime history sits waiting to make its way home.

The 75-year-old Fair Weather, thought to be the last seaworthy wooden schooner built by Cayman Boats Ltd., has been undergoing an extensive overhaul at T. Nielsen & Company’s yard in Gloucester.

Much of the work on the 72-foot-long boat – whose storied past includes tales involving Hollywood legend Errol Flynn, James Bond author Ian Fleming and author Ernest Hemingway, and an adventurous round-the-world voyage – is already done, but some important finishing touches still need to be done.

Paul Deegan, one of the people behind the efforts to bring the boat to Cayman, says he has been liaising with government officials here to find a location and apprentices that could mean the boat renovation is completed on island.

He said, “All the major work has been carried out, but what’s left to do is the interior basically.”

Bearing in mind the schooner’s links to Cayman, Deegan says an ideal bookend to the story of boat’s resurrection would be to complete the project here on island.

The yacht was built in a Jamaican shipyard, by Caymanian shipwrights, and was registered in George Town in 1950. It was constructed by Cayman Boats Ltd., owned by renowned Caymanian ship builder Arnold ‘Cappy’ Foster of Cayman Brac, along with Sir Anthony Jenkinson and Leicester Hemingway, Ernest Hemingway’s brother. Initially, the boat was Jenkinson’s private yacht.

Deegan tracked down the vessel, in Spain in 2022, and bought the schooner. He set up the Fair Weather Foundation, a non-profit established with the aim of repairing the boat and bringing it to Cayman to promote maritime history and reignite a passion for local shipwrighting and sailing.

Deegan says the foundation has already raised nearly $2 million, and needs $1 million more to bring the boat to Cayman and finish the work.

Three of the team working on the Fair Weather in Gloucester – T. Nielsen & Company founders Tommi Nielsen and Sarah White, and project manager Nigel Patrick – will visit Cayman this month to help scout suitable locations and talk to people about the renovation.

The trio will be on island on 17-25 Feb., and will be present at the Cayman Islands Seafarers Association’s stall at the Agriculture Show on Ash Wednesday, 18 Feb.

T. Nielsen & Company has worked on some of the world’s most famous old ships, including HMS Victory, which was launched in 1765 and was Lord Nelson’s flagship during the Battle of Trafalgar, and the RRS Discovery, launched in 1901, which was carried Ernest Shackleton and Robert Falcon Scott on their first, successful journey to the Antarctic.

Deegan says it is hoped that apprentices will come forward to gain experience working under the professional shipwrights and learn first hand about Cayman’s long-held tradition of shipbuilding and sailing.

Caymanian apprentices have already worked on the Fair Weather. Four young men from Cayman, all from families with seafaring background, spent several months at the Gloucester Docks joined the team rebuilding the boat in 2024.

If all goes according to plan, and there is support from both the government and private sector, it’s possible the Fair Weather could be shipped to Cayman in mid-April, Deegan said, “and then the plan is to have it sailing for Pirates Week” in November.