Community / ‘It’s a project’ – Crazy Chris offers vintage lifeboat free to good home
EVER DREAMED of owning a vintage lifeboat?
Well – courtesy of Skerries’ most famous resident, ‘Crazy Chris’ Harris – that unique opportunity has just presented itself.
And the cost? Nothing at all.
Crazy Chris, who took on the lifeboat in the hope of turning her into a truly one-of-a-kind B&B on one of Shetland’s most remote islands, hopes to pass her on to the right person as a personal project.
Chris – who has recently recovered from a health scare – has decided to give up the lifeboat after running into repeated roadblocks.
His initial plans were to paint her like The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine, which could then be rented out to Shetlanders and visitors alike.
He then pivoted to plans to make her into a far from mundane home office.
But a four-day stint in hospital with appendicitis has led Chris to decide to offer up the lifeboat, which is believed to have been built in 1981, to anyone willing to take her on.
“It was a great idea at the time,” Chris said, when speaking to Shetland News.
“You can’t just sail away with her – she’s not a yacht, it’s a project, it’s an opportunity.
“Whoever has it next, she will be a great tourist attraction. Hopefully she will go to a good home, hopefully it will live another day in Shetland.
“There’s not another one that I know of in Shetland.”
Despite spending “around £2,000” on the lifeboat, which he then had to have delivered to Skerries, Chris has decided to give her away for free.
He freely admits that is because he is “Crazy Chris” – but also because he wants her to go to someone who can make use of the boat, without worrying about the cost.
“It’s a bargain,” he said.
“I’m giving her away for free so people don’t need to have that worry about not having money.
“When I had the schoolhouse in Skerries, everything was free – the drinks, the tickets, everything, because that’s just how I am – I want to give.”
The only catch is that whoever takes her on will have to arrange to get her moved from Skerries to its new home.
Chris said he had no initial plans to get rid of the lifeboat, until a recent stint in hospital.
“I was getting a lot of pain in my stomach and my friend said it sounded like appendicitis, but I said it was just trapped wind.
“They said they were going to take me to A&E but me being a man, I said it would be alright.
“But it started getting worse and worse, and so I had to spend a few hours on the operating table.”
Chris said that after four days in the Gilbert Bain Hospital he was “taking away a souvenir” in the form of his appendix – which he joked he would also be trying to sell on eBay.
While he said he was “feeling good on the outside” after the operation, he also acknowledged he needed to “take it easier”.
“I have so many things on my bucket list that I want to do, and this was one of them, but you do have to reevaluate your life,” he said.
Chris said he has had “lots of complications” since first taking on the lifeboat, with the Shetland Islands Council telling him he had to move the boat.
He said he had been “having problems” with the council throughout the project.
“I know they are following policies and laws, that’s fine,” he said.
“I was maybe a bit naïve thinking that I would be able to come and do X, Y and Z.
“I thought it would be a great thing for Shetland, and for the people of Shetland. And I know it’s not just me having these problems.”
He pointed to the council’s refusal for solar panels on the roof of the historic Papa Stour kirk as one example.
And he added: “The day I read that I drove over to Vidlin and saw all those wind turbines, which weren’t considered an eyesore.”
Within hours of posting the lifeboat, Chris said he had already received three messages from folk interested in taking her on.
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