LINWOOD BOAT ON BLOCKS ENTERS FOURTH YEAR OF 'HERITAGE' DEFENCE, NEIGHBOURS UNCONVINCED

A 4.2-metre clinker dinghy propped on breeze blocks in a Buckleys Road front yard has split the street. Its owner insists the boat is a heritage item. Everyone else insists it is a boat on some bricks.

Owner Roger Timmins, 71, has had the dinghy in the same spot since 2021. He began what he called a "light restoration". The tarp has since become one with the hull. A cabbage tree is growing through the transom. Roger says this is character.

"She's a piece of Canterbury history," Timmins told The Daily Yarn, leaning on the trailer, which no longer has wheels. "Took her out on Lyttelton Harbour in '74. Beautiful day. You wouldn't chuck your nana out just because she'd stopped moving."

Neighbour Deanne Rakete, three doors down, disagrees. "It's not heritage, it's a shit boat in a yard. My kids think it's a shipwreck. One of them asked if anyone died on it. I said not yet." Another resident has begun photographing the boat weekly to document the moss.

Christchurch City Council said the vessel did not meet the criteria for a listed heritage item, nor for a nuisance notice, because it was "stationary, private property, and not our problem". A spokesperson added that if the boat were to move, council would be very interested. It has not moved.

Timmins has now applied for a plaque.