THE campaign to get the beloved PS Waverley "paddling again by summer" has reached a milestone with donations.
But despite raising more than £220,000 for maintenance of the pleasure boat, its owners need more money to cover the large costs of keeping the ship.
Much of the expensive maintenance work carried out over the winter focused on repairs to the steam engine which powers the Waverley and more must be spent to cover the cost of dry docking the boat in Greenock this April.
READ MORE: WATCH: Waverley paddle steamer funding appeal launched amid survival fears
So far, more than £50,000 has been spent on the main engine alone.
The 1947 paddle steamer has been out of action for much of its commercial season, due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has dried up its income.
It is the last seagoing boat of its kind in the world and its owners want to raise another £130,000 to keep the Waverley in action.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here