Shelter enables work on the Swan

VISITORS to Scalloway Harbour might have expected a crop of tomatoes to be growing beneath the “polycrub” type structure on the deck of the historic Fifie the Swan – but it is merely a makeshift canopy intended to provide shelter for deck work.

Swan Trust secretary Peter Campbell said that the temporary structure was providing cover for re-caulking of the ex-fishing boat, which is the largest ever built in Shetland.

Several Swan Trust volunteers have been busy under plastic ripping out the old caulking, hammering in the new rope and tarring it over to help keep the deck watertight.

Campbell said that the re-caulking work had begun last year when the canopy had proved its worth, even if it was a little warm to work under when the sun was shining.

He said that various new strands of activity were being looked at for the Swan, which needs to find other sources of funding since Shetland Charitable Trust withdrew its support on 1 April, and these ought to undertaken later this year or next year.