Royal Australian Navy Standard Launch Restoration

This photo is of the RAN Standard Launch alongside Snapper Island in Sydney Harbour many years ago. This launch was one of the ships boats on the 1st HMAS Parramatta. It was built by shipwrights at garden island dockyard for issue to HMAS Parramatta in October 1913. It is now part of the Naval Heritage Collection and the following series of photos shows her restoration which is being undertaken by a dedicated team of volunteers under their guidance of David Glasson. The plan was to have her completed for the Royal Australian Navy International Fleet Review in October 2013. When completed she will be placed on permanent display at the Naval Heritage Center at Garden Island, Sydney. Unfortunately it took longer than anticipated to complete. The project came to fruition in late 2015.
To convince the Naval Heritage Collection curator to spend the money necessary to restore the RAN Standard Launch David Glasson built a detailed scaled model of the launch with precision detail. I am amazed at the accuracy and David even makes his own roves to size! Take a look at the model here
Below is a pictorial overview of the restoration progress. It is an absolute credit to David and his team to have completed the resurrection of such an important naval artifact.
Come and see the RAN Standard Launch in its immaculate condition at the Sydney Wooden Boat Festival on 16-18 April 2016.
WBA Awards
The Wooden Boat Association of NSW administers the HAL HARPUR Award and it is offered to all people who are building or restoring wooden boat. For further information about the award visit wbansw
In 2015 David GLasson was nominated for the Hal Harpur award for the historical and authentic restoration of the historic RAN Standard Launch. The team of volunteers spent years faithfully restoring the launch for public exhibition at the RAN Heritage Centre at Garden Island Dockyard Sydney. http://www.navy.gov.au/history/museums/ran-heritage-centre