Campaign Launched to Keep Bridlington's Yorkshire Belle Afloat

Thursday, 3 December 2020 08:01

The historic vessel needs £30,000 of work and inspections.

The owners of Bridlington's Yorkshire Belle Pleasure Cruiser are appealing for help to keep the vessel afloat.

The COVID restrictions have meant the boat has not been running this year.

Now it needs and expensive dry dock inspection before it can be made ready for next year.

Peter Richardson has owned the Belle since 1982 he's now launched a crowd funding campaign.

Peter says the COVID situation has meant they have been unable to carry passengers this year which has had an obvious impact on income.

"When the season was about two weeks from beginning, COVID-19 struck. All plans halted as a national lockdown meant we couldn’t ply our trade and no one was allowed to visit anyway. As most of you will know, traditionally, our certificate to sail is only valid from April 1st to October 31st (no amount of lobbying has been able to change that) so we’d had no income since September 2019 and the prospect of income in 2020 looking increasingly remote.

By the time more was known about the virus, it became clear keeping ourselves and our passengers safe would be impossible. The social distancing rules meant we couldn’t carry enough passengers (we measured and checked many times over!) to cover the crew wages and fuel costs, never mind insurance, harbour dues and shipyard costs for the 2020-2021 dry-dock visit. "

The Yorkshire Belle was built in the East Riding in 1947 and now has special historical significance as Peter explains...

The team behind the Belle have now launched a crowd funding appeal to help pay for the maintenance and dry-dock inspection that is needed before the vessel can carry passengers next season. There is more about their appeal here https://www.yorkshire-belle.co.uk/appeal/

Their Go Fund Me appeal is here https://uk.gofundme.com/f/save-our-belle

Want to See More from This is the Coast?

Click here to set This is the Coast as a preferred source on Google search.

Love living on the Yorkshire Coast? So do we.

This is the Coast is 100% locally owned and operated. We don’t rely on public funding or government grants—we rely on our community.

Producing trusted, fact-checked local news takes time and resources. If you value having a dedicated team of professional journalists fighting for our region, please consider supporting us.

Help keep the Yorkshire Coast informed for the price of a coffee a month.

Support Local Journalism Today