We've found Bigger Boat!

And paid a deposit on her so unless something goes wrong it's a done deal :)

And here she is ...

Say hello to "Safe Return", although she won't be keeping the name (for reasons that will become clear shortly). She's a 1980 Westerly Vulcan 34 Deck Saloon yacht, technically a motor sailer but with a respectable if unspectacular sail area to displacement ratio (comparable to Erbas and better than several other boats we've been considering) a decent if steady sailing yacht none the less

She's currently the Estuary Sailing school yacht and therefore MCA coded for 6 people up to sixty miles offshore. As such she is, of course, in tip top condition inside and out. She's been re-engined, the sails are in good condition and all the essentials are in good order.

The technical stuff ...

She's 34' long, 11'9" beam and displaces a tads over 7 tonnes. She's the twin keel version with a draught of 4'3" which is well within the constraints of our mud berth. She carries around 700 square feet of sail (depending on the exact cut of the genoa) and she comes with a cruising chute and a spinnaker, the latter having a snuffer.

On deck, she's got lovely wide side decks, all the deck hatches have been renewed recently and there's a powered anchor windlass although the Bruce anchor may get replaced in due course (mind you, I've been threatening to replace the Bruce on Erbas since we bought her and it hasn't happened yet. However, we'll be doing a lot more anchoring in future so better ground tackle is definitely on the shopping list).

There's also an emergency forestay even though th storm jib hanks on to the baby stay - not that we'll ever use the storm jib - and the main has three reefs in it just like Erbas

The lines aren't led aft to the cockpit from the mast which we'll see how we get on with. There are pros and cons but if we find the current setup works for us we won't be changing it for the sake of it.

The cockpit is not huge. It is as big as it needs to be though. And of course she's a deck saloon so the cockpit is less critical as a social space.

There is a simply vast cave locker under the starboard cockpit seat which you can climb into and stand up in! I'm not so sure about the added wooden storage box at the stern which looks a little odd. If it stays I think it might get a coat of white paint as it looks a bit out of place

The stern gantry carries two solar panels and a Rutlad 913 wind generator. Unfortunately, at some point in her life, the davits that used to extend off the gantry have been cut off. So dinghy davits are another item on our shopping list.

And she doesn't come with a cockpit tent which we'd like to have especially for the liveaboard side of things.
That may have to wait awhile for budgetary reasons

The only other "issue" is that the instrumentation is somewhat dated and basic and there's very little info available at the main helm. As a sailing school boat that would not, of course, matter but for our needs I'd like to have the plotter, instruments and ideally the radar (on a combined display with the plotter) at the sailing helm. However, the budget probably won't stretch to all new instrumentation in the short term so we may simply do a bit of re-arranging of the location of the existing serviceable equipment

So that's the outside. She's chunky rather than pretty, steady rather than exciting and capable, even versatile, too. She may not win races around the cans but she'll sail around Britain, at a respectable pace and go virtually anywhere. She'll handle any amount of rough weather and look after her crew. Just the ticket.

So now for down below...

We seriously considered calling her "Tardis". The amount of accommodation and stowage is astonishing for a 34' boat. She feels more like something well over fourty feet down below. Here's the plan ...

Starting aft and working towards the bow ...

Stepping down from the saloon on the port side aft and through a door by the chart table is the aft single cabin ...


The headroom is a little limited it's true but it's a really nice private space for one at the opposite end of the boat from the rest of the accomodation.

In common with the rest of the boat, there's not only a berth and a small seat, there's acres of stowage and storage too


 Emerging from the aft cabin, in the well by the door, is the chart table

The original swing seat, more of a perch really, is long gone and we'll need to contrive a seating arrangement if this space is to be used as more than just an occasional chart table at sea. I'd like to make it an office space too and I have a notion of how to arrange a fold up seat but that's a "future project"

 The smaller of the two chart plotters on board is here and may well migrate to one of the helm positions as I use the laptop for my passage planning and only need a plotter under way.

From the nav table we step up into the saloon, or step down into the saloon from the cockpit of course ...

The saloon is fabulous. Spacious, light and airy without feeling like you're in a goldfish bowl (something we've previously noted with dislike in other deck saloon yachts)

And as the eagle eyed will have noticed already, there's an inside helm position for those horrible days when you have to make progress but really wish you didn't. No more hours of misery getting cold and wet at the helm for us!

The starboard settee extends back under the side deck and can be made up as a big double bed. There's another huge storage space below it, more storage below the sole aft and forward and yet more capacious locker space under the port berth. And shelves above too!

Stepping down from the saloon and turning to port brings us to the galley ...

An almost brand new gas cooker, twin sinks, plenty of worktop space and once again unbelievable stowage. The original under counter cool box is still in situ in the far corner but it's currently redundant as there is an Isotherm fridge at the aft end of the galley in a cubby hole under the saloon sole

The original cool box might be suitable to be repurposed as a small freezer but that's another item for the long term to don't list!

Turning to starboard is the second guest cabin ...

Entering the cabin there's a small seat, a hanging locker forwards, cupboards and shelves above and a narrow double berth extending aft under the inside helm and forward end of the saloon ..



 A couple would have to be of modest girth and very much in love :) but it's usable and or a single guest it's superb.

There is, of course, yet more stowage under the bed

On the port side forward of the galley is the heads ...

A good old basic hand pumped and ultra-reliable Lavac toilet, sink, shower and once again storage to die for!

Hot running water is, by the way, provided by a 35l calorifier in the cavernous locker below the aft end of the saloon.

There is a holding tank although it's currently being used as a fresh water toilet flush tank. It can easily be changed back and I reckon we can probably squeeze a flush water tank in somewhere!!!

And finally we come to the v-berth...

It's a decent sized berth with the usual infill, a hanging locker to starboard and, you won't be surprised to learn, loads of storage both visible and invisible.

This will be our master cabin, it's more spacious than the v-berth on Erbas and we're more than happy with that space so this will be luxury

We may convert the upper set of shelves into lockers at some point but it's the to don't list again!

Mechanically, the engine is under the centre section of the saloon sole ...

It's a 55hp Yanmar installed new in 2008 with about 1400 hours on it. The engine is so clean you could eat your dinner off it!

Carole, the sailing school proprietor and owner, reckons she'll use around 2.2l an hour at 5 and a half knots which is around double our current consumption albeit with an extra knot of speed.

That said, I've found that if we wind Erbas up to over 5 knots rather than 4.5, the consumption rises from around 1.2l an hour to nearer 2l an hour

There's quite an inventory of kit to come with her - another inflatable dinghy, a Mariner 2.5hp outboard and the 8 man liferaft is going to be swapped for the 4 man raft that's on the boat Estuary Sailing are buying to replace "Safe Return" as an 8 man is too large for our needs (not only too heavy but also quite dangerous with only a couple of people in it. There's a spinnaker with a snuffer, a cruising chute, spare main and genoa and so on.

So there she is, our new home

We're not talking about what we're paying for her! More than we can afford but we've decided to stretch the budget as she's so ideally suited to our future plans. And to sweeten the deal Carole has offered to throw in a couple of days own boat tuition and showing us where everything is when we take her over

On that front, we've shaken hands, paid a deposit and agreed the deal but we won't be taking ownership until around February or perhaps early March as we've got to complete on the house move and Carole needs to complete the purchase of the replacement yacht for the sailing school.

We've got a shopping list of improvements and modifications we'd like to make when we can afford it (if ever!) but none of it is vital.

Oh and the name ... we've offered to relinquish the name "Safe Return" as the sailing school website is www.safereturnsailing.co.uk and the name doesn't do anything much for us anyway. As to what she will be called in our ownership, that's a secret for now. You'll have to wait and see