Jabberwocky to GTR :- The Beginning.

In our every increasing throw away society and the modern world of fibreglass, fabrication and now 3D printing it will not be long before the ability to make something from scratch and by hand will be a thing of the past. Sadly the skills to work with your hands and the people who produce amazing products from raw materials will head to towards extinction.

This is a story of a boat which should not have been allowed to get old and team who came together to rebuild from the bottom up ! 

My love of sailing came from a young age, it was a passion passed on from my dad. As a baby I spent my first Sunday out of hospital at the sailing club. In the 40+ years since then not much has changed with most of my weekends in the summer spent on the water in one way or another. Some of my earliest memories at home where watching and helping my dad work on his boats, it was these days which helped me see what it was possible to do with the neglected Mumm 36 we found high and not so dry on a farm just outside of Belfast.

Click the play button below to see what we achieved !

The Boats History

Originally built 1994 and raced on the med circuit under the name Zzenzero "ITA 12732"(the Italian name for Ginger), the boat first moved to the UK in 1998 and was renamed Jabberwocky GBR 2732R.

She was raced in Scotland for 3 years before being sold to an owner in Ireland in late 2001 and moved to Dublin Bay to continue here racing career. With the Global Financial Crisis things took a turn for the worst, the boat was left to slowly decay, being left idle in Dublin bay for the last few years of her life in southern Ireland. 

She was purchased and moved to Northern Ireland in late 2011 where she lived on a farm above Strangford Lough for further two years. The new owner did not have time to complete the work to get her back on the water so once again she was put up for sale.

After talking about it for for several months I decided to acquire the boat in 2013 with the promise from Team GTR that we could make her new again. This is when the long hours of work started as we stripped her down removing every fitting and wire before rebuilding and then rebranding her as :- 

Go To Red "GBR 8689R"