Gelyce a 50ft tender

The history of the 50ft vessel and Tim Walker Restorations involvement

Gelyce was built by celebrated boat builders Camper & Nicholson (C&N) of Gosport, UK in 1930. C&N are the oldest leisure marine company in the world. The name Gelyce is an amalgamation of the Nicholson’s brothers wives names – Gertie, Lucy, and Constance.

The elegant vessel, Gelyce, was delivered to Sir Thomas Lipton (of Lipton tea fame) as a tender to the legendary J-class racing yacht ‘Shamrock V’. After Liptons death in 1931, both Gelyce and Shamrock V were taken on by Sir Thomas Sopwith. Sopwith used Gelyce as a tender for Americas cup challenger Endeavour, transporting guests to and from the ‘big boat’! This example of the Gelyce class (official no 160934) is one of only nine 50ft boats that C&N built between 1912 – 1930.

It is amazing to think of the royalty and fame that has been watching the yacht racing from Gelyce’s spacious cabin!

“It’s had some fantastic bums on the seats as these boats were used for spectator duties”

The engine that powers Gelyce

Tim Walker Restorations were responsible for sourcing and rebuilding an engine for this stunning vessel. The customer desired a 1960s 4ltr Aluminium Rolls-Royce engine to be styled like a V12 Spitfire engine.

We managed to find a running example in a 60’s Vanden Plas Princess that had been poorly converted into a pickup! Nevertheless, we began work to convert this neglected engine into a show standard power plant worthy of fitting to Gelyce.

As you can see from the photos, many hours went into this project to ensure it matched the quality of the boat’s restoration. A huge amount of effort was put into polishing and perfecting each component to reach this high standard, and in fact, every gold component you see is gold plated! We gold plated the engine not only for show, but to prevent tarnishing and degradation. The photos speak for themselves!