A ‘PUDDLE DUCK’ amphibious bus has gone from sailing to Elizabeth Castle all the way to Germany.
It is being sold on the German website ebay-kleinanzeigen.de by a car salesman an hour away from Hamburg, in the north of Germany, who is hoping to find it a new home soon.
The Vanguard was one of three similar craft that were used to transport passengers to the castle.
Ingo Sillus, who normally sells American cars and school buses, said that the amphibious bus had been in his yard since 2013.
He said: ‘I actually dug up my old photos and in the photos from 2013 – there is the vehicle.
‘It must have come directly from the Island to here, via Berlin.’
He first saw the bus when a customer asked him to test the vehicle for the TÜV – the German equivalent of the MOT – so he could take tourists in Berlin onto the river.
‘That’s completely impossible,’ he said.
‘But the vehicle was then parked in Berlin and it was just stored there, in a car park, until it couldn’t stay there any longer.
‘So I said OK, bring it to me and then we’ll think about what we’re going to do. I then told him there was no chance of approving this vehicle for this purpose.’
He had the Vanguard transported on a specialised lorry and delivered to his shop, an hour from Hamburg.
‘Then another customer came along, but he never picked it up either.’
‘And then at some point I said, what should we do with it now?
‘Well, it’s a bit older now and he said he wasn’t getting anywhere.
‘So I took it over and had the idea of maybe making a fish restaurant out of it. So as a food truck, that you use the side, that you never use it again as a boat or as a vehicle, but that it is somehow placed somewhere as a food truck, on the beach or something.’
Mr Sillus eventually placed an ad online, asking for €15,555. He says he has already spoken to ‘four or five’ prospective buyers.
He said the vehicle would probably never pass another MOT but could be used on private land, and that he liked the idea that the Puddle duck could return to Jersey.
Mr Sillus said the Vanguard needed some repair work, particularly when it comes to the steering – but that if a buyer wanted, he would be able to repair it himself and help arrange transport to the Island.
‘I have respect for it, that’s why I think you don’t need to scrap something like this.
‘I only need one buyer, that’s why I’m not giving up and I’m trying to find someone who’ll really appreciate it.’
