Admiral Dingley

24/08/2025

And sold

23/08/2025

We now have an interested buyer, someone wanting to take it around to southern Ireland.

31/07/2025

Coming up, coming up, coming up, coming up, almost there.. dum dum "Admiral Dingley".... dum dum "sea shanty, baby ooooh yeaaahhhh".
Dum Dum "coming baby", dum dum, "won't be long before we're there, and it is in our head yeah".

27/11/2024

This is was the bow cabin before we started work on it.

28/08/2024

Managed to get the junction box fitted.
I just need a good rainstorm now.

21/08/2024

So today I spent the morning travelling back to the mooring .
Set off about 6:30am, landed about 7:00am.

Then spent the rest of the morning fabricating my junction box for giving access into and out of the boat for all the wiring.

I went for a commercial 2" sized water tank hose nozzle adapter, chopped the hose connector end off and sanded it off.
Chopped the junction box to size and joined them with plumblers epoxy, I'll go over it again with wet resin.
And it'll get sealed to the boat using a ton of clear sillicone & the water butt nozzle screwed from the inside.

https://www.diy.com/departments/2-barb-water-butt-rain-barrel-water-storage-tank-barbed-hosetail-for-overflow-outlet-2-bsp-thread-requires-a-60mm-hole-/5056596122782_BQ.prd

20/08/2024

04/08/2024

04/08/2024

The original name at launch & manufacturing number has been lost to time.

From launch to being purchased in 1985 she had spent her time travelling the river systems around Portsmouth.

In 1985 she was purchased and coastal hopped around from Portsmouth to Lowestoft, and onto the Norfolk Broads where she has lived since.
She'd been purchased by the "Whispering Reeds" boatyard and used as a hire boat for a whopping 24 years, until the humongous bath tubs made her obsolete.
She was first registered with the Broads Authority under the name of "Snowgoose 2".
And was later re-registered under the name of "Snowgoose".

In 2009 she was retired from hire boating, and sold on to a private buyer "Mick" who renamed her "Towanda".

In 2018 she was again sold on to "Chris", the old boy that owned her before me, he lived in her through the season, spending his retirement taking her up and down the broads until he couldn't get in and out of her any more.
After buying her he'd named her "Babushka" (which is Russian for "Grandmother", he just liked the word).
He renamed her again after the Russian polonium poisonings to "Cormorant".

In 2023 we purchased the "Cormorant", I wasn't too keen on the name with it being a breed of S**g.
So to make it a little easier to recognise as a Seamaster 25 Admiral, we named it "Admiral".
And in honour of my Grandad "Charles Albert Leslie Dingley", who first introduced me to boating it was given the surname Dingley.
So now the old gal is known as "Admiral Dingley".

04/08/2024

The Seamaster 25 was designed for river, estuary and inshore use,
but not for rough sea work or winds greater than force 5 to 6.

Specification:
The Admiral was introduced with significant re-design of the engine arrangement. It was manufactured between 1964 and 1967. It had the following specification:
Length 24'8"; Beam 9'2", Draft 1'8" Air draught 5'10" Weight 2¼ tonnes.

Engine options:
Diesel engines were supplied to order but necessitated a raised engine box in the cockpit.

It can be difficult to tell these two models apart. The basic differences are that the Cadet Mk 2 normally had twin bilge keels whilst the Admiral also had a centre keel and a stern tunnel.

Date Built: 1966
Designer: Dick Sparrow
Builder: Seamaster Boats, Great Dunmow, Essex