He sold her about 2 years ago. He couldn't remember the name of the person to whom he had sold the boat, but he said that this name would be in one of the boxes that hadn't been opened yet since he moved to his new house . He would however look it up for me and let me know.
As far as he knows Runagate is still on the river Tyne, in the north of England. Two years ago she wasn't in a very good state.
Mr. Henderson said that he would give me all the info that he can get.
I told him about CC2005, and that it would be very nice if we could show something there. He said that he made some photos of Runagate, just before she was sold.
In the meantime he would send me some photo's that he had made of Runagate, about 3 years ago, when she was out of the water. I sent him an email right away, so that he would have my email-address and the next day the first email with photo's came. He had to send me the photo's in several emails, as he had about 30 photo's for me, and that was too much for him to send at one time. You may have seen these photo's, as I made them into a booklet which was on display in Cape Cod in 2005. After my talk today I will put it on display again. After this I lost contact with Mr. Henderson. He never sent me the address of the person to whom he sold Runagate.
 Runagate ashore |
 Inside Runagate's cabin |
In May 2006 we had a Shute weekend in Oxford in the UK, which was organised by John Anderson and Mike Meehan. I informed Mr. Henderson about this by email, and invited him to join us, but I had no reaction. So that was the end of the Henderson route.I didn't know what to do next. Runagate had been tracked up to about 2003, she was probably somewhere in the north of England, but that was all.
Then Mike Meehan stepped in. He works as a volunteer at the aircraft museum on the airport of Bournemouth, in the south of the UK. He told another volunteer, Mr. Graham Bolger of our search. Graham isn't only a pilot, and aircraft enthusiast but also a keen sailor. Graham used to own a wooden sailing yacht, sold it, bought it back 25 years later, when she was in a very bad state, and restored her to her former glory. Although Graham knew the name Nevil Shute, and thought that he had read something by him, he wasn't really familiar with Nevil Shute. So Mike gave him a copy of Trustee from the Toolroom, as this is both about sailing and flying. Graham commented to Mike, that Nevil Shute must have been a sailor, to be able to write about it the way he did, and that he must have seen heavy weather, while sailing.
Graham works part-time for a yacht-broker in the UK, and he promised Mike to have a look around. Mike reported all of this to me by email. I really hoped that Graham would find something, as I didn't know where to look next.
Within two weeks Graham came with a message. He had found Runagate. She was still around and afloat in Newcastle-on-Tyne, in the north of England. The bad news was that the owner was living on Runagate. BUT WE HAD FOUND HER.