How a North Wales couple bought a D-Day boat and spent five years fixing her

On Heswall foreshore near the River Dee in North Wales, Gemma and Simon Robins are restoring Sarinda, a former D-Day navigation leader that today sits as a rare, 72-foot-class survivor of the Normandy landings. The couple found the vessel on eBay in January 2021 after it was rescued by Heswall boat yard manager Steve Ashton. Originally known as Motor Launch 1392, Sarinda marked safe passage at Gold Beach and later captured a German midget submarine. Refurbished in the 1970s into a luxury motor yacht, she was renamed Sarinda—then left to deteriorate before the Robins’ five-year project.