Boats dry docked at Seagull Trust Cruises Ratho

The main cruising season finishes at the end of October. Urgent work is then done before two weeks of Santa Cruises pre Christmas.

Come January, serious work starts with each boat in turn entering the dry dock for hull checks and then painting with special marine paints - about 25 litres per boat. About five different volunteers turn out each day of the week to do the work. It can be cold and on many days temperatures are too low for the paint and condensation is also a problem on 25 tonnes of cold steel! The more skilled engineers see to the engine servising.

Mid February and the two newer boats St John Edinburgh and St John Crusader are ready, apart from final sprucing up, and the oldest boat Mackay Seagull is being worked on.

"Mackay" (named after a Trust founder, Rev Hugh Mackay) is now 37 years old, but after checking is still perfectly sound. She was strongly built as an apprentice project by Cammel Lairds and there is a rumour that warship steel offcuts were used.

Anyone who has done repairs on Mackay suspects there is truth in the rumour because the steel is so tough to work on!

Mackay is shorter than the other boats so less comfortable. The Trust hopes to commission an eco friendly new boat for about three years hence and needs to raise £300,000 for the expected cost. In 1987 Mackay was built for around £20,000 - just the cost of materials.

Free cruises to carry up to 16,000 passengers supported by a team of 90 plus volunteers are planned to start in April.

A campaign for new volunteers is underway. Contact: [email protected] or phone 07847 611398.