An FMB trip down memory lane
21 Jul 10 @ 06:47am by SAM WORRAD

Peter Scutts waves from the restored boat launched at Cockatoo Island today. Picture: BRENT McGILVARY

GLADESVILLE’S Peter Scutts returned to his old stomping ground at Cockatoo Island to help restore a historic 10m boat from the aircraft carrier HMAS Sydney.

The 1945 fast motor boat (FMB) was launched in the harbour today.

The retired shipwright first spent time on Cockatoo Island in the mid 1950s when he worked on the HMAS Vampire.

“I suppose I’ve come back to the start,” he said. “And when I started working at the Maritime Museum in the 1990s I looked after the Vampire, so I suppose that’s the way things happen.”

The 1945 FMB has been restored over the past 18 months by a team of volunteer engineers and fitters and turners on Cockatoo Island, and Mr Scutts was on hand to lend his considerable experience.

Mr Scutts was inspired to work with boats by his grandfather, who migrated to Australia in 1912 after serving as an apprentice yacht builder on the Isle of Wight.

“Within a year of getting here, he’d gotten a job as a boat builder on Garden Island, and he worked there until 1946,” Mr Scutts said.

Five years later, Mr Scutts had a boat building apprenticeship on Garden Island, where he worked until 1960, apart from his exchange to Cockatoo Island.

The wooden FMB is the only remaining cabined example of this type of vessel in Australia.

“It’s not a very large boat, so I suspect it will be a VIP launch for the Harbour Trust on special occasions,” Mr Scutts said.

Courtesy of Northern District Times