The Jolly Brit

The Jolly Brit isn't just an old boat, she's a genuine piece of royal history. Built in 1953, she was one of two Jolly Boats carried aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia, used to ferry the Queen, Prince Philip and their guests ashore whenever Britannia anchored off some far-flung corner of the world, from the South Pacific to the coast of Africa. The Queen herself later recalled using her on trips to see crocodiles.

After Britannia was decommissioned in 1997, Jolly Brit fell into disrepair, eventually found languishing on a canal near Brentford. She was rescued and lovingly restored over two decades by her owner, taking pride of place in the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Pageant in 2012. Years later, facing the scrapheap once again, she was given a full rebuild, stripped back to her bare ribs and keel, replanked in mahogany, and finished with layer upon layer of varnish to bring back her shine.

Today, fitted with a modern engine and fully seaworthy, Jolly Brit carries passengers on the River Avon in Bath, the same boat that once carried a Queen.