Or not as we'll discover
We decided to snatch a couple of days on board as a break from finally making progress on sorting out the house to get it on the market
Oh, an update on that might be in order. ..
I'd had a chat with the agent selling our sadly departed neighbours house, which began with a query from somebody viewing the place about the shared path between the drives. That led to their valuer popping round and giving our place the once over
Upshot of that was some excellent advice on what is and what isn't worth doing before we sell and further advice to get the place on the market pronto. Best of all, the advice was not to do a great deal beyond a quick tidy up and a lick of paint here and there
Oh and the good news is that he reckoned we should have no great difficulty getting somewhat more than the minimum we need to move on with our plans.
So having spent the week making progress with de-junking and getting the roof repaired, we made haste to Fambridge on Saturday morning straight after picking Jane up from the big shed.
Jane made a nose dive for the v-berth on arrival having expressed herself not unhappy with the mooring. I pottered about and dozed and didn't do a lot really! Thus the day passed.
We and the crew of Pleinair headed up to the Ferry Boat for a not my birthday meal (another year older on Friday, the Grim Reaper will have to wait a while yet though I hope) and we had a nightcap aboard their Sadler before retiring
Jane had a deserved lie in yesterday whilst I dug the as yet unused Aldi £7,50 waders out of the locker, the spade out of the car and connected up the hose with the spray head on it for washing down
My intention was to try and dig the starboard keel in a bit to correct the four or five degree list to port when we dry out. The list isn't enough to make life uncomfortable, in fact it's barely noticeable, but it does mean that one or two things are a bit of a nuisance such as the galley sink not draining properly.
My plans were thwarted by the discovery that we are sitting down onto a slab of solid concrete! I haven't yet found the full extent of it but it ends almost exactly at the aft end of our keels.
It's either a large concrete block or a cast pad that probably once formed the base of the old timber causeway that was replaced by the modern hammerhead pontoon. You can still see the start of the causeway between the hammerhead and the NFYC clubhouse.
There may even have been a concrete hard all the way down onto which the timber causeway was built.
However big it is or isn't, it explains why we're not sitting down into the mud (the hull is barely touching). The list can no doubt be corrected by the simple expedient of chucking a few paving slabs into the hole the port keel has dug.
However, it puts a massive question mark over the suitability of this berth for Bigger Boat. The problem is twofold.
Firstly, Bigger Boat will almost certainly be deeper boat and what can't go down must stay up. Because the pontoons go down a lot further than we do, there's already about fifteen inches difference in our height relative to the pontoon between when we're floating and when we're dried out
That's just about ok with some careful adjustment of the mooring lines but add another foot to the draught and the same again to the topsides and we could end up looking at a yard or more which will be difficult to take up even with rubber snubbers
And then there's the potential problem of Bigger Boat being longer boat and the possibly inherent therein of getting the keel or keels half on and half off the concrete. That would not be good!
The question then may be whether the concrete under the berth is a similar thin slab cast over shingle, such as can be seen at the top of the old causeway, or whether it's something more substantial. If it is just an inch or two of concrete then breaking it up may be an option
Otherwise, we may have to think again about this berth and either move back to the other side of the hammerhead, when the different set of problems that entails, or take the financial hit of moving into the marina. Sufficient unto the day. ..
Having hosed down, cleaned up and sorted out, Jane made us some scrambled egg on toast after which we popped down to Burnham to buy a new bucket and boat hook. Whilst there, we took a wander round the boats for sale.
By chance, the owner of a Southerly 95 which has been up for sale for a while was giving the boat a clean so we had a chat and took the opportunity to have a look on board. As I already suspected, the lack of a permanent double pretty well rules out the 95.
However, there is a Southerly 105 which has also been on the market for some time and that has the aft cabin with a double (although it may be too narrow). The asking price is somewhat over our probable budget but never say never. Mildly irritating that the brokers office isn't open on a Sunday but we're going to call in this morning on our way home and see if we can have a proper look. There's a but though, which I'll come to in a minute. ..
We'd been hailed by our friend Lisa as we walked past the Swallowtail where she was having a coffee whilst showing somebody around and they later stopped by for a cuppa and a chat once we were back aboard Erbas. Oh yes, we procured the needed bucket and boat hook by the way!
Dinner on board was followed by a couple of pints up the pub during which we chatted about Bigger Boat. Jane hadn't much liked the modern style of the Southerly with its extensive areas of GRP moulding and I guess what you'd have to call a general lack of character.
Putting it succinctly, she wants a bigger Erbas! Happily, so do I. The difficulty being that the beast doesn't exist that has both character and the accommodation we've said we want. After much discussion and a second pint, we agreed that we may have to sacrifice the three cabin layout to get the character. Keel configuration is the other potential compromise. Boats with character tend to be long keelers and whilst I don't have a problem with that per se, it could make a mud berth tricky and limit our ability to sneak up creeks and backwaters.
Another aspect of the conversation ruled out any thoughts of a barge type craft (sailing barge I hasten to add). We are in accord about wanting to explore further afield with our long term plans still including a sail around Britain including or as well as visits to the Northern Isles, Western Isles, Ireland, the Scillies and the near continent.
So Bigger Boat has to be a decent sea boat capable of offshore passage making and able to cope with a bit of weather.
We're still going to look at the Southerly though. It ticks, or probably ticks, all of the practical boxes. If nothing else it will give us a benchmark against which to compare other boats and who knows, we may actually decide we like it!
There's no rush anyway, we are agreed that Bigger Boat will happen when it happens. Whether that's in two months or two years isn't terribly important as long as Bigger Boat is also Right Boat
We decided to snatch a couple of days on board as a break from finally making progress on sorting out the house to get it on the market
Oh, an update on that might be in order. ..
I'd had a chat with the agent selling our sadly departed neighbours house, which began with a query from somebody viewing the place about the shared path between the drives. That led to their valuer popping round and giving our place the once over
Upshot of that was some excellent advice on what is and what isn't worth doing before we sell and further advice to get the place on the market pronto. Best of all, the advice was not to do a great deal beyond a quick tidy up and a lick of paint here and there
Oh and the good news is that he reckoned we should have no great difficulty getting somewhat more than the minimum we need to move on with our plans.
So having spent the week making progress with de-junking and getting the roof repaired, we made haste to Fambridge on Saturday morning straight after picking Jane up from the big shed.
Jane made a nose dive for the v-berth on arrival having expressed herself not unhappy with the mooring. I pottered about and dozed and didn't do a lot really! Thus the day passed.
We and the crew of Pleinair headed up to the Ferry Boat for a not my birthday meal (another year older on Friday, the Grim Reaper will have to wait a while yet though I hope) and we had a nightcap aboard their Sadler before retiring
Jane had a deserved lie in yesterday whilst I dug the as yet unused Aldi £7,50 waders out of the locker, the spade out of the car and connected up the hose with the spray head on it for washing down
My intention was to try and dig the starboard keel in a bit to correct the four or five degree list to port when we dry out. The list isn't enough to make life uncomfortable, in fact it's barely noticeable, but it does mean that one or two things are a bit of a nuisance such as the galley sink not draining properly.
My plans were thwarted by the discovery that we are sitting down onto a slab of solid concrete! I haven't yet found the full extent of it but it ends almost exactly at the aft end of our keels.
It's either a large concrete block or a cast pad that probably once formed the base of the old timber causeway that was replaced by the modern hammerhead pontoon. You can still see the start of the causeway between the hammerhead and the NFYC clubhouse.
There may even have been a concrete hard all the way down onto which the timber causeway was built.
However big it is or isn't, it explains why we're not sitting down into the mud (the hull is barely touching). The list can no doubt be corrected by the simple expedient of chucking a few paving slabs into the hole the port keel has dug.
However, it puts a massive question mark over the suitability of this berth for Bigger Boat. The problem is twofold.
Firstly, Bigger Boat will almost certainly be deeper boat and what can't go down must stay up. Because the pontoons go down a lot further than we do, there's already about fifteen inches difference in our height relative to the pontoon between when we're floating and when we're dried out
That's just about ok with some careful adjustment of the mooring lines but add another foot to the draught and the same again to the topsides and we could end up looking at a yard or more which will be difficult to take up even with rubber snubbers
And then there's the potential problem of Bigger Boat being longer boat and the possibly inherent therein of getting the keel or keels half on and half off the concrete. That would not be good!
The question then may be whether the concrete under the berth is a similar thin slab cast over shingle, such as can be seen at the top of the old causeway, or whether it's something more substantial. If it is just an inch or two of concrete then breaking it up may be an option
Otherwise, we may have to think again about this berth and either move back to the other side of the hammerhead, when the different set of problems that entails, or take the financial hit of moving into the marina. Sufficient unto the day. ..
Having hosed down, cleaned up and sorted out, Jane made us some scrambled egg on toast after which we popped down to Burnham to buy a new bucket and boat hook. Whilst there, we took a wander round the boats for sale.
By chance, the owner of a Southerly 95 which has been up for sale for a while was giving the boat a clean so we had a chat and took the opportunity to have a look on board. As I already suspected, the lack of a permanent double pretty well rules out the 95.
However, there is a Southerly 105 which has also been on the market for some time and that has the aft cabin with a double (although it may be too narrow). The asking price is somewhat over our probable budget but never say never. Mildly irritating that the brokers office isn't open on a Sunday but we're going to call in this morning on our way home and see if we can have a proper look. There's a but though, which I'll come to in a minute. ..
We'd been hailed by our friend Lisa as we walked past the Swallowtail where she was having a coffee whilst showing somebody around and they later stopped by for a cuppa and a chat once we were back aboard Erbas. Oh yes, we procured the needed bucket and boat hook by the way!
Dinner on board was followed by a couple of pints up the pub during which we chatted about Bigger Boat. Jane hadn't much liked the modern style of the Southerly with its extensive areas of GRP moulding and I guess what you'd have to call a general lack of character.
Putting it succinctly, she wants a bigger Erbas! Happily, so do I. The difficulty being that the beast doesn't exist that has both character and the accommodation we've said we want. After much discussion and a second pint, we agreed that we may have to sacrifice the three cabin layout to get the character. Keel configuration is the other potential compromise. Boats with character tend to be long keelers and whilst I don't have a problem with that per se, it could make a mud berth tricky and limit our ability to sneak up creeks and backwaters.
Another aspect of the conversation ruled out any thoughts of a barge type craft (sailing barge I hasten to add). We are in accord about wanting to explore further afield with our long term plans still including a sail around Britain including or as well as visits to the Northern Isles, Western Isles, Ireland, the Scillies and the near continent.
So Bigger Boat has to be a decent sea boat capable of offshore passage making and able to cope with a bit of weather.
We're still going to look at the Southerly though. It ticks, or probably ticks, all of the practical boxes. If nothing else it will give us a benchmark against which to compare other boats and who knows, we may actually decide we like it!
There's no rush anyway, we are agreed that Bigger Boat will happen when it happens. Whether that's in two months or two years isn't terribly important as long as Bigger Boat is also Right Boat
Westerly's are also worth looking at (Westerly Conway might suit you). It ticks a load of your boxes and there is room to stow loads of buckets !
ReplyDeleteThe Westerlys are definitely on our radar. The Conway though only comes in a fin keel variant which isn't a total show stopper but I'd prefer twin if we're sticking with AWBs or MABs (I'd go for a long keel if we find something traditional that works below decks - that's the ultimate but probably unrealistic dream). We're more likely to be looking at something like a Seahawk 34 or a Discus 33 (centre cockpit rather than bridge deck). I'd like to get on board the latter in particular as on paper it appeals and the price is more within our reach (it'd leave money over for improvements whereas the Seahawk etc. would be stretching the budget). Some say the walk through and aft cabin on the Discus are too cramped but I'd like to see for myself.
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