Excelsior was restored in 1989 and operates as a sail training vessel based out of Lowestoft, able to accommodate up to 17 people, including 12 trainees or passengers.

[2] Various smack owners decided to base their vessels in Lowestoft to take advantage of high prices being paid for fresh fish.

Lowestoft’s first fleet was therefore a disparate mixture of craft that were large enough to reach the plentiful trawling grounds of the southern North Sea and withstand the conditions that could be met a day’s sail from any shelter.

As one of the last smacks built in Lowestoft, Excelsior had the benefit of their empirical development over the preceding half-century and she is absolutely representative of the local design.

A typical action was that which took place on 15 August 1917 between HMAT Nelson (ex G.& E. LT649) and SM UC-63 (a newly commissioned UC61-class coastal minelaying U-Boat).

Nelson's fisherman skipper, Tom Crisp, went down with his smack fighting till the end, for which he was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.

Good timber was in short supply following the Admiralty's extensive programme of wooden steam drifter construction – John Chambers & Co being selected as the lead contractor.

In the Second World War Excelsior's Norwegian owner, Bjorn Stensland, did what he could for his country in the circumstances, which turned out to be a great help to the people of Bodo in North Norway.

Having unloaded, the town was bombed and as the houses were largely built of wood, there was a conflagration so Excelsior was able to ferry the townsfolk to safety on nearby islands until she herself was dive-bombed while alongside a jetty.

By that stage in her life Excelsior, then called Svinør of Mandal, had extensive rot in her topsides and bulwarks, and needed rebuilding.

John Wylson and a new partner, Mark Trevitt of Beccles, set about the necessary reconstruction, removing virtually all trace of her life as a motor coaster in the process.

Inadvertently the decision had been taken not to preserve the bastardised remains of a Lowestoft smack in order to retain the entire history of the vessel through its fabric.

Extensive research was undertaken into contemporary models and photographs, and by interviewing surviving shipwrights, smacksmen, and crew members, so that Excelsior could be reconstructed back to as-built condition.

This approach was necessary because it was abundantly clear by the 1970s that the income generated as a museum ship would barely pay the cost of collecting the money, let alone for any maintenance.

This has included taking part in great maritime events such as the Tall Ships Races, and visits to places as far apart Bergen, Oporto, and St Petersburg.

Excelsior has been an extra in films including Disney's Alice Through the Looking Glass and Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk; and in productions specifically featuring her, such as ITV's Anglia Afloat, BBC's Coast, and Channel 4's Homes by the Sea.