HMS Victory

Aft foot print..

Victory..

Last December whilst I was working the silly Santa season a rather inebriated customer feathered his dismay at me regarding any changes to be made to the boat in the near future. ''Steel all the character '' he said, ''rip out its soul'' he spluttered, wobbling from side to side as if we were crossing the channel in a force ten. I assured him that it was just a gentle lick of paint with some slight modifications and thought I would win him round by explaining the new Aft, with opening riverside doors, panoramic views, conditioned glass as opposed to scratched perspecs, ''you what?'' he said ''a glass box on a boat, your gonna turn it into a f****** New York office on water?'' If your reading this you know who you are.. Now bottle of wine, Cognac and port aside I could rather see his point, this is a fabulous old boat in historically fabulous old surroundings and any unsympathetic design would look very much out of place. If were not care full, these pricey floor to ceiling glass windows and the sliding doors in a square shape could look very much as a modern day add on that didn't quite fit. From inside the room would be vastly improved and aesthetically much better to dine in, not to mention the attraction of this area for private parties, weddings, meetings,etc but could we pull it off from the outside? I voiced concerns. After deliberation and lots of sketches the idea of a classic historic naval ship stern was an obvious answer, in fact it was screaming out to us. What we would do is to fix in the stern elevation on an outward slant as designed and used in the old English naval battle ships. This will give a fantastic classic visual appearance as its one of those designs that every one sort of knows about, like the HMS Victory, the pride of the English navy with one of our best commanders ever, Nelson. Plus with the docks being so historical it will fit in great, with the Mathew a real touch of nostalgia. Having seen the Aft footprints I'm now wholly convinced and very excited at this new feature and also very confident that the character will not be stolen and the soul ripped out. Bring it on.