Burntisland Heritage Trust have been given a collection of five model boats, which we hope to display in Burntisland Heritage Centre during our summer exhibitions. One is a clipper, three are fishing boats, and the fifth is a yacht. They were made by a Burntisland man, George Aitken, who died recently.
I've got the job of putting together brief descriptions of the boats. I've done four of them, and I'm looking for help with the fifth, which is a fishing boat. Below are photos of the boat. She appears to be a Scottish ring net fishing boat, perhaps from about the 1930s. One thing that puzzles me is the small sail at the stern. I've got lots of photos of west coast ring net boats, but none with that sail.
George appears to have used proper plans for the boats he modelled, so maybe someone will be familiar with the plans for this boat.
For interest, the other models are the clipper 'Ariel'; fishing boats 'Muirneag' and 'True Vine'; and a wishbone schooner, the 'Argus'. We identified the wishbone schooner with the help of members of the 'Yachts and Sail' forum here!
Any assistance will be much appreciated!
Just while I'm here, some of you might be interested in photos of an exhibition we arranged last year. 'Burntisland 1883' featured models of ships of the period, including the world's first roll-on-roll-off ferry, a passenger ferry and a dredger. Please use the icon on the left hand panel here to visit the Burntisland.Net website, and then select the top link on the right hand side of the home page.