Keeping in touch.....Welcome to our online Blog
From the very start.....
Previous Yachts: "Hirondelle" - Halcyon 23' - "Red Streaker" - Verl 27' - "Beguiler" - Mirage 37' ketch
It now seams a long time ago when we decided to spend part of our lives permanently afloat, looking back now it all happened very fast in a complete blur.
What really kicked it off was a family trip on Beguiler from Brightlingsea to Oostende in May 2016 for the Oostende Anker festival of all things fishing, folklore and sail. Following a very challenging homeward journey in our Mirage 37' ketch which had been trapped for 3 or 4 days by force 6 - 8 onshore winds and thick sea fog all around us in the North Sea Yacht Club basin and my realization afterwards that after 30 years she had shrunk from what had been a large yacht to a relatively small one with a serious shortage of accommodation, mod cons and up to date equipment for our growing families to be expected to endure.
Anyway, whatever the reasons we had decided to downsize our home to help finance the required upgrade to a newer and larger yacht and were soon agreeing the purchase of Pantaleon located in Plymouth, over the phone whilst tied up alongside Thames Sailing Barge Dawn at the quay in Maldon, Essex on a very hot sunny day. It felt terrible to be cheating on the old girl while celebrating the purchase of her replacement but.... We just needed to get on with it and sell her now.
During a pre-purchase survey we discovered that the bearings on the in mast furling had all but ceased and the main could only be rolled out about a third of the way due to lack of use. We had the brokers arrange for a full overhaul of the system with the previous owner footing the bill. Whilst the mast was being taken down the SS turnbuckles proved very difficult / impossible to loosen so we had a full replacement of all stainless steel standing rigging at the same time (for peace of mind).
We took ownership on 27th August 2016 with a trial sail around the Sound the following day to get the feel of things - the headline was "things happen much quicker than we are used to". A delivery trip from Plymouth back to Brightlingsea soon followed and on 10th September 2016 we left MDL's Queen Anne's Battery marina in Plymouth for the home delivery trip stopping at Dartmouth, Weymouth, Yarmouth I.o.W, Brighton and Dover before ariving home to a harbour pontoon berth in Brightlingsea. A lot more time and money subsequently being spent on upgrades, replacements, running repairs, etc. to slowly get her match fit ready for the big day.
NOTE - The more equipment and gear you have - the more there is to go wrong and need attention!!! Whoever advocated keeping it simple was onto a good thing!!!!!