It’s been 12 years… TWELVE WHOLE FREAKIN YEARS. Thats a long old haul, even by the standards of the most ropey Grand Designs project. But, importantly, we are STILL GOING. Admittedly there is less blog content and generally fewer posts (less time to do anything tbf). There is however now a crew for the boat – four boys who are spectacularly unhelpful but probably quite buoyant and definitely up for pirate life.
Importantly, 2026 is the centenary of Beta III. The old girl’s (don’t ever call me that on pain of massive wedgie) big birthday calls for another push on work. Time to get her finished (i know, i know… more finished) enough for a party!
THE ORIGINAL INTRO…
I am Helen. Or rather, Captain Symonds.
On Friday 13 September 2013 (how ominous) I became the proud owner of the Beta III, a former Thames fire boat. She is past her best and in need of some serious TLC. I am looking to lift her out of the water and refurbish her, hopefully to provide a great home and to keep a piece of London history afloat.
I hold my hands up to having no experience of boats, or boat refurbishment, but I am keen to learn. Its basically just a big, moveable flat with potentially huge plumbing problems, right?
Have a look around…
I hope that this blog will provide a record of the process as well as a scrapbook for all the things I learn about the boat’s history. A recap of the work suggests we have come quite some way; to read from the very beginning click here.
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betaiiifireboat 
Great start to the blog. Can’t wait to see how it all develops.
We hate you. You ruined our tender dreams as future thinking university students. We just found this boat on a website and fell in love with it. We just sent an email to enquire visiting the boat.. and after doing a quick google search to find out more about this wonderful boat we found your blog alerting us to the fact is has already been snatched from our hands. Me and my girlfriend were incredibly excited and fantasising about all we could do with the BETA III. Kevin McCloud would like us more. Your dogs are average. We had better ideas. Hope it sinks… (No we don’t).
Resentful Regards,
Matthew & Martha-Mabel
My first bit of trolling!
What can I say? You snooze, you lose. Bad luck.
Helen
PS: Gizzi is far from average.
My grand dad use to own her and I took my first steps on her look after her
Don’t worry, she is in good hands! Tell me more, who was your granddad and when did he own her?
My grand dad was bob balcomb and he had her for a long time if you have face book add me as a friend and I can send you some pictures of what she looked like when our family had her and more information about her
Excellent – will do! Thanks!
Hi Helen, Tom from Massey Shaw Education Trust, we own sister ship Massey Shaw. Great to see the original outline still in tact. Good luck with the project!
Thank you!! 😊