Peninsula Hotel has plans to put former lifeboat on display
A 1949 LIFEBOAT is going to be renovated and will be placed in front of the Peninsula Hotel, if planning permission is granted.
The Etoile du Nord – Star of the North – was built in Glasgow in 1949 and was a relief lifeboat.
But Peninsula Hotel owner Ian Walker said it had been ‘festering away in Grand Havre Bay for the last 40 years’.
Mr Walker, who also owns and has invested in Les Douvres and the Fleur du Jardin Hotel, said he was keen to see the boat back where people could see it.
‘[The boat] was taken into dry storage some time ago and we have trying to find her for the past eight months,’ he said.
‘We eventually found her, in a very sorry state.
‘She has a history in the bay and many have photographed her at various states of the tide.
‘She was much loved by all the locals and they were saddened when she disappeared.’
The lifeboat was known as the JB Coupe of Glasgow and from 1949 to 1953 served at St Abbs Lifeboat Station [now a privately run station] in Berwickshire in Scotland, then moved to Kirkcudbright, also in Scotland, until 1965, Youghal, County Cork, Ireland, until 1971 and was part of the relief fleet until 1972.
‘We wanted to put something back to the area and preserve a piece of Guernsey history.
‘We are renovating the Peninsula and the Etoile du Nord will play an important part of the re-theming of the hotel,’ Mr Walker said.
All the boat renovations will be carried out by the Peninsula’s maintenance staff and Mr Walker hopes special details will be provided by the local RNLI.
‘We are keen to find out as much about her history as possible and would welcome any information that anybody may have,’ he said.
n In 2014, entrepreneur Quinten Hubbard, who lived near Grand Havre Bay, where the lifeboat was, said he saw it falling apart and planned to restore it when the weather cooled and it could be taken out of the water.
