Members of the Skylark IX Recovery Project travelled to Irvine to visit the little ship as they prepare to begin fundraising to give her a purpose-built home in Dumbarton.
Skylark saved the lives of hundreds of allied soldiers during evacuation at Dunkirk in World War II, before returning to Scotland and operating as a pleasure cruiser on Loch Lomond.
She sank in the River Leven in 2010, before being hauled from the water and taken to the Scottish Maritime Museum in Irvine for restoration works.
The Skylark IX Recovery Trust work to restore her and is now working with rehabilitation charities Alternatives and Dumbarton Area Council on Alcohol (DACA) to help recovering addicts learn new skills through boatbuilding.
Key to the project are plans for a £3m Spirit of Skylark Centre – published in May – that would ensure a permanent home for Skylark IX, which is listed on the National Historic Ships Register and believed to be one of only two Dunkirk little ships surviving in Scotland.
Hopes are high that the centre, which would sit in the grounds of the Scottish Maritime Museum in Castle Street, would also link with the regeneration of Dumbarton’s waterfront and town centre.
And there would be further benefits for those working with the trust, with a new boat building shed having access to Dumbarton’s waterfront, allowing Alternatives clients and community members to learn new skills on the waterfront.
A spokeswoman for the project said: “The Dumbarton-based Skylark IX Recovery Project cares for the former pleasure boat, which served in Operation Dynamo, and uses Skylark’s story of hope and resilience to help people recovering from addictions through boatbuilding training.
“The project hopes to begin fundraising to build the Spirit of Skylark Centre in Dumbarton soon.
“The new heritage experience, community hub and boatbuilding workshop will give Skylark IX a permanent home and enable the project to support a growing number of people across West Dunbartonshire.
“Over the last two years alone, the Skylark IX Recovery Project has supported over 20 people recovering from addictions through boatbuilding training and engaged over 170 people facing social isolation through heritage and arts-related projects thanks to funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.”
