Mark Chew/Southern Wooden Boat Sailing
The 56′ MARGARET PEARL, a commercial crayfishing vessel designed and built in the Australian island state of Tasmania, was restored between 2015 and 2020 and in the process converted for adventure-cruising.
When Tim Phillips called Jim Woods one day in 2015 to alert him to the plight of an old crayfishing boat, Jim’s interest was piqued: “Tim told me that he wanted to save the boat, but what he really meant was that he wanted me to do so!” The boat in question was MARGARET PEARL, designed by R.H. (Dick) Thompson and built by Jack Behrens at Battery Point in Hobart, capital of the Australian island state of Tasmania, in 1958. She had a small gasoline engine and a single mast on which to set auxiliary and steadying sails. And she was a mess.