The Non Pareil was a wooden boat originally built in Sark more than four decades ago and was the pride and joy of the Guille family.
Morgan Guille said his eighty-year-old father originally commissioned the boat for short trips around Sark’s dock and for fishing charters. It has since been used for sightseeing tours by the family’s business ‘Sark Boat Trips’.
Unfortunately, its mooring broke in September and it sunk near the island’s lighthouse. It’s brass name plate washed up in the Camber Sands the following year.
Pictured: The Non Pareil.
The family had no intention to stop offering people trips around the island however, so a second boat was inevitable.
“We went abroad for a month after and discussed what we wanted to do,” Morgan Guille said,”it was then a case of finding the right boat.”
Pictured: The Dorado has been given a spruce up and is now being used by the Guille family.
Morgan spent the whole winter looking for a boat which could hold 12 people and be narrow enough to pass through the caves he takes visitors to.
Eventually another iconic Sark boat was brought to his attention.
“The ‘Dorado’ was originally built in 1980 for Dominic Wakley to run tours around the island, alongside my father at the time with his first boat. It was the arrival of the Dorado that prompted my dad to build Non Pareil in fact,” said Morgan.
“Dominic ran boat tours for around 15 years, until in the mid 90’s he converted his boat to do lobster and crab fishing. Which he did until he sadly passed away last year.
“I purchased Dorado this spring and along with a local marine engineer, Dom Graziani, we’ve stripped her down to the hull and completely refurbished her. Rebuilding the wheelhouse, removing the potting equipment and overhauling the engine.”
He said they’ve kept the original paintwork and have already started running trips around the island.
“The family are all very happy,” he said. “We continued this for my dad, because he has been doing these trips for more than forty years.”