Ok Rosie, but as we have been moved to off topic chat I guess this will do. First a bit about Lone Gerd. We are always being asked what a Gerd is. It is actually a name, so she carries on the fishing boat tradition of 2 girls names for a fishing vessel, Lone also being a name in Danish. Correct pronunciation is we believe "Lona Geart".
Lone Gerd was built in 1954 in Esbjerg. She is 54ft long, 15.5 ft beam and 6.5ft draught. Construction is of oak on oak with 3 inch thick planking and doubled framing, built for operating in ice conditions. Total gross weight in current format is 56 tons. As built she had a Hundestedt hot bulb ignition engine with no gearbox and astern via a feathering propeller. over her fishing life this engine was replaced at least twice. Finally in 1986 a 12 litre Volvo turbo diesel was fitted which remains with her today. By the time she was sold this engine had clocked up about 6,000 hours (in 2 years). Today it has just under 12,000. The original 5ft diameter hundested propeller is still in with us, although the feathering mechanism has been removed from the bridge and can only be adjusted with a spanner when stationary. She fished under various names out of Esbjerg until 1988 when she was sold out of fishing, brought to the Uk and converted to a dive charter vessel by her previous owners who kept her untill we purchased her in 2007.
The conversion involved removing the original wheelhouse, fitting a new aluminium deckhouse containing the Bridge, Saloon and Galley. Accommodation is in the old fish hold and forward crews quarters.