A homeowner who sold her property to live on a boat instead says she is "devastated" after it SUNK.
Cathy Roberts' houseboat was moored up at Liverpool's iconic Albert and Canning Docks before it began to sink at the beginning of this year, the ECHO reports.
The France Hayhurst now sits on the floor of Canning Dock near the National Maritime Museum, with the area around it cordoned off in the hopes a search team can resurrect her.
Featuring in many tourists' Instagram snaps of the colourful dock over the years, the boat has served as Cathy's home for nearly two decades after she sold her home to move to the water back in 2005.
Cathy then spent three and a half years fixing her up, and was despondent when she began to sink.
"I was devastated," Cathy told the Liverpool ECHO.
"She was built in 1937. I just fell in love with her and decided then that's what what I would do with my life for the next few years.
"The bottom of the vessel is resting on the bottom of the dock.
"To get her up we need to drain the dock, then after the dock is drained a few metres and we'll get hydraulic pumps and use them to pump the water out.
"I don't think we'll ever know what caused the problem. We know we've got a massive, massive challenge to get her surfaced."
Cathy is now putting together a search operation which will cost thousands to raise the France Hayhurst from the bottom of the dock.
Once surfaced and mended, she wants to use the boat to inspire women and girls to engage in maritime industries.
According to Cathy, who herself comes from a family of boat crew members with her grandfather a captain for 50 years, only 2% of of the maritime workforce are women.
"My family have a background in maritime history. All the men in my family went to sea.
"She means a lot to a lot of people. It's not just me who is invested in the boat."
