Masts removed from historic Glenlee Tall Ship in next stage of £1.8m restoration
Rigging to be replaced as latest stage of major overhaul of 130-year-old vessel
Historic tall ship Glenlee’s masts are being removed for refurbishment for the first time since the sailing vessel returned to Glasgow 33 years ago.
Two of the 130-year-old ship’s masts will be taken to a workshop at Maldon in Essex before being returned in May and restored to the ship by July.
They will undergo detailed analysis of the strength and condition of their steel by specialist firm TS Rigging before any repairs are carried out as part of the £1.8 million project.
The mizzen and main mast are being removed this week with the lower mast sections to be coming out on Thursday to be loaded onto a lorry next Tuesday.
The first mast has been dismantled with a second to follow in the next two days.
The third - foremast - mast will be removed for refurbishment in April when the firm has capacity to handle it.
The masts, installed when the vessel was built in 1896, originally had wooden sections at the top to reduce its overall weight but these were later replaced with steel in the 1920s and refurbished in the 1950s.
A new set of running rigging will also be installed and Glenlee’s standard rigging serviced - also the first major overhaul in 30 years - with the work paid for by the National Heritage Memorial Fund.
Spectators keen to see the work taking place are advised to watch it from the adjacent Govan-Partick bridge or the Govan side of the Clyde rather than beside the ship because of the proximity of cranes.
The work on the Port Glasgow-built ship follows the first stage of its refurbishment, on the inside of the hull and steelwork, which was completed in spring last year.
Glenlee returned to Glasgow in 1993 after being rescued from dereliction and open to the public on the Clyde beside the Riverside Museum in the West End.
The three-masted barque operated as a British cargo vessel before being sold to the Spanish navy, which used it as a sail training ship from 1922 to 1982.
It is one of only four Clyde-built sailing vessels ships afloat and has been Scotland’s second most visited historic ship after the Royal Yacht Britannia in Leith.
The other three are Pommern in the Aland Islands in Finland, Balclutha in San Francisco and Moshulu in Philadelphia.
The Tall Ship Glenlee Trust, which owns the vessel, was forced to reintroduce admission charges in 2024 after more than a decade of free access “to guarantee a more certain and hopeful future” for the ship.
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Chris Wood, a rigger with TS Rigging, said: “Vessels such as Glenlee were once commonplace, but have now become a rarity largely consigned to history.
“The skills required to maintain these types of heritage vessels are as rare as the ships themselves.
“This unusual project gives a much needed opportunity to keep these skills alive both for old hands and new trainees, having recently been added to the endangered crafts list.”
The Tall Ship Glenlee development director Fiona Greer said: “Maintaining an historic vessel is an expensive but essential business - we want to ensure Glenlee remains in the best possible condition.”
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