STAR QUALITY

When Martin Hughes lost his wife he found solace in restoring a rare 1957 Bates Star Craft 40 that he’d bought sight unseen for £15,000

- Mike Taylor and Martin Hughes

I was born in Ramsgate, Kent in 1945. There was still commercial shipping coming in to the port at the time and as a school boy, the sight of all those big ships made me want to join the Merchant Navy. I’ve loved the sea ever since but it wasn’t until my wife and I sold our newsagents business in Ramsgate and Clintonville that we bought our first boat. It was a 36ft ex-Broad’s cruiser built by Broom and for around 12 months we lived on her in Rochester until the opportunity arose to buy the dock at Conyer on the River Swale. Five of us put up the money to buy it and we’ve lived here ever since.

Sadly, my wife died in October 2011 and in the middle of 2012 I began looking around for a suitable restoration project to keep me busy. After a bit of searching I stumbled across a classic six berth cabin cruiser called Kay’s Venture moored at Bray on the River Thames. Kay was my wife’s name so it seemed destined to be. I didn’t even look her over, I simply bought her sight unseen and paid £15,000.

Kay’s Venture is a Star Craft 40 built in 1957 by William Bates & Sons of Chertsey. She is built of double diagonal mahogany planks on oak frames with teak decks and cabin sides. Star Craft had a reputation for quality and Kay’s Venture was one of the very few to have a full flybridge, added by a previous owner. Normally they just have an enclosed saloon with a raised outside helm station. When I finally got to see her, it was immediately apparent that she was in a terrible state. As I walked around her, I started to add up all the money I’d need to put aside for each aspect of the rebuild.