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MV Yorkshire Belle

As a youngster I spent many holidays in Bridlington. One major attraction was all the pleasure boats. They included the Motor Vessels Britannic, Boys Own, Bridlington Queen, Yorkshire Belle, Thornwick and the Yorkshireman. There were also two sizeable speedboats and numerous Yorkshire Cobles.

Of them all my favourite was the Yorkshire Belle. Its difficult to say why but I suppose she seemed the most sea worthy and workman like vessel. She often went out on 2 hour cruises to view the passing shipping. In those days there were always coasters and colliers passing by.

The National Historic Ships site gives the Yorkshire Belle's length as 24.38m with a beam of 5.79m and a draft of 1.52m. Her gross tonnage is 69.94 tons. She was built in 1947 by Cook, Welton & Gemmell to replace her namesake lost in the second world war. She has two eight cylinder Gardner engines each giving 152hp and can carry up to 206 passengers. Her current owners are Mr Roy Simpson and Mr Peter Richardson.

Below is a sequence of shots showing the Yorkshire Belle leaving Bridlington harbour on a sunny September day in 2003. Here the state of the tide is reasonably low. Imagine in the fifties when the tide was out, six similar sized boats competing to tie up to the harbour wall on the right.

Some additional photographs and a link to a new update for 2006.