Whitby crowd sees new boat launched for Fish Town’s John Clark

The 200 ton Reliance III is a twin rig trawler that will be put to work netting prawn and whitefish in the North Sea by its Scottish owner, John Clark.

It is the second boat built for him at Whitby by Parkol Marine, which was established in the 1970s initially as a boat repair company. It now employs around 70 people in Whitby and at its second yard in Middlesbrough and is one of only a handful of traditional boatbuilders left in Britain.

Jim Morrison, the firm’s managing director, said Reliance III had taken a year to construct and was one of five vessels at different stages of building.

“After lifting it in the water it will have its engines commissioned and if all goes according to plan it will leave Whitby in three to four weeks,” he said.

Its 11-year-old predecessor, Reliance II will return there to be refitted for the whelks trade in Brixham, Devon.

Mr Clarke, who is based in Aberdeenshire, was one of the stars of last year’s BBC reality series, Fish Town, and was seen out in Storm Hector as a huge wave ripped a two-ton metal bar from Reliance II.

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