At the end of October you may recall a story in these pages entitled ‘War Boats Ahoy’, which was about how Milford on Sea’s own Phil Clabburn had restored two historical war boats, which were subsequently purchased by Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. Well, Phil is on BBC Breakfast on Tuesday morning. The news clip will be repeated throughout the day. The BBC came down to Portsmouth and interviewed him on how he had restored the boats & then filmed him driving them on the water. For anyone who gets National Geographic on Sky, there will be an hour long programme on Phil and the boats he restored called 'Great British Machines' at 9pm on 15th February. Phil has one last remaining boat RAF 206, which was originally Lawrence of Arabia's boat and the first boat Phil ever restored, this has now been purchased by Hendon RAF museum in London. It will make its last voyage by sea around the south coast and up through the Thames in stages, taking in Newhaven, Dover and St. Catherine’s Dock before being placed under the wing of a flying boat in the Museum. A true and fitting end has been achieved for all Phil’s hard work over the years.
On a more sombre note, Phil’s faithful black Labrador ‘Guinness’, who stayed by his side whilst he worked on the boats all those years, died aged 12 on Wednesday. He'll be sadly missed by Phil, and anyone who met him on his regular trips to the Red Lion in the village. When you see his picture you can imagine it was a fun 12 years. Rest in peace old friend.
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