But first, the latest and hopefully anti-penultimate update on the house sale saga
The outcome of the survey of the drainage system was that there was no fault to be found so the finger of blame for the cracks in the walls is now being firmly pointed at the neighbours Leylandii hedge (which was my firm conviction all along). The recommendation being that the hedge should be removed or a root barrier installed and the cracks monitored.
To cut a fairly long story short, we ended up having to agree a reduction in the sale price of the house to keep the buyers on board. Our estate agents weren't happy as they wanted us to go back to the market and find a new buyer but we simply do not have time now. We're losing money every day we delay the move and it would probably take at least another couple of months to go through the whole conveyancing process again with the added prospect of the same stumbling block getting in the way
So now we are just awaiting the buyers receiving a revised mortgage offer from their lenders and everything is in place to exchange contracts. We're hoping that will happen this week so now the hunt is on for a place to rent as a stop gap.
So back to boats at last ...
So what of the hunt for a bigger boat? Well as I posted on the SV Pagan blog (and apologies for duplications but it's tricky deciding which blog to post stuff at the moment) the combination of the reduced net proceeds from the sale of the house, the costs of the abortive house purchase and the attendant extra outlay renting for six months means our Bigger Boat budget is now rather less than we'd hoped. That pretty conclusively rules out "Safe Return", the Vulcan 34, unless there is a minor miracle.
So we now need to look in the £20k to £30k price range and we won't have a huge amount of spare cash for improvements and upgrades so we need to be careful to buy the right boat at the right price to keep the total spend within budget
With nothing to keep us at home this weekend, Jane and I pootled off down to Essex at lunchtime on Friday and headed straight to Burnham Yacht Harbour to have a look at a twin keel centre cockpit Westerly Discus ketch that appeared on my radar the other day
I've had my eye on the Discus for some considerable time, even posting about the marque back in the Brigantia days in a post about future boat possibilities ...
... in a post called That's settled then ... way back in 2011!
However, we'd never had a chance to actually get on board a Discus and have a good look.
Overall it shows promise. We really like the main cabin, heads and v-berth setup. It's near ideal. The settees could bear being an inch or two wider, especially the port settee but that settee pulls out to make up a double which would be a great "chill out" feature as well as extra guest accomodation
However, as we half expected from the photos and the blurb, the "walk" through into the aft cabin is cramped and the aft cabin itself is rather poky and restricted. It would serve as a guest cabin but it wouldn't be very usable as a second living space for us. You do get a plethora of hanging lockers with one in the v-berth, one opposite the heads and two in the walk through though.
However, the price paid is a distinct lack of deck storage. There's just the one cockpit cave locker and it's not huge. Our conclusion about the model in general is that it would meet our needs very well but we might actually be better off with the previous W33 model without the walkthough.
The W33 is the same hull and a nearly identical deck moulding but with the access to the aft cabin through a hatch at the aft end of the cockpit. The aft cabin has two good single berths which will be better for guest accommodation and may serve better as a second living space too. Plus you get a second cockpit locker instead of the walk through which would be a definite help
So what of the specific Discus? Well on our initial visit on Friday we were sufficiently interested to plan to go back on Saturday for a more detailed look on a warmer dryer day.
Meanwhile, we entertained Tony for dinner and a couple of beers once back aboard Erbas but none of us felt like a session so we made it an early night
We met up again for breakfast at the Yacht Club on Saturday morning and then, after stopping off for a brief chat with Carol (owner of 'Safe Return') to update her on the latest developments, Jane and I headed off to Burnham once again
This time aboard the Discus it was about details and I'd benefited greatly from following Toby around whilst he surveyed "Safe Return" for us a couple of weeks ago. I'd got a much better idea of what to look at and what to look for and it wasn't all good
There's a list of good points - the sails are all less than five years old, indeed the genoa is totally unused, she's got a cockpit tent, she's well set up (in theory at least) and there's no indication inside or out of any significant keel problems. The headlinings are recent, the deck soles have been protected by carpet and are undamaged and the woodwork, excepting the trim around a couple of deck hatches, is in very good order
You'll have figured out by now that there is a but. Actually, there's quite a few buts ...
The main and mizzen many only be five years old but the stack packs are starting to disintegrate. There's holes and splits in quite a few places. Worse still, a cursory examination of the sails by unzipping the stack packs showed, after I'd avoided half a dozen or so hibernating wasps (!) that the sails are grubby. They'd probably come up OK with a valet but the stack pack fabric would need replacing and that would be a good few hundred quid
The cooker is the original Flavel Vanessa and whilst it looks clean it has no flame failure devices and would have to go.
Unsurprisingly, the instrumentation, such as it is, would need totally updating - the VHF is non-DSC, there is only a basic elderly GPS, and there's no system integration at all.
The upholstery in the saloon is nearing the end of its life although it's in better nick elsewhere.
On deck, the deck itself needs repainting and the 16 year old standing rigging would have to be replaced in its entirety. There's significant visible surface rust on all the rigging and guardwires and I could feel distortion in the rigging wires in a number of places just running my fingers up it from deck level (which means strands have kinked or parted within the wires).The running rigging is all virtually life expired too.
There were other problems besides - unsecured batteries, a leak under the helmsman's seat, ratty wiring all over the place and so on and whilst the engine is claimed to be reliable and in good order, it is a raw water cooled Volvo Penta which is getting on towards 30 years old and we'd have to buy the boat on the basis of having to re-engine at some point if not immediately
After due consideration, we walked away from that particular boat at least for the time being. The asking price somewhat below top dollar for a Discus but nowhere near low enough!
We've decided to keep looking and only go back to that particular Discus if we're not finding anything better in a few months time.
Boat viewing over, we headed down to have dinner, drinks and chat with our good friends aboard the good ship Laurin. As always, a great evening and good Scotch having been consumed we stopped over and after breakfast this morning headed straight for home
The focus now for the next two or three weeks is (hopefully) on getting moved. Meanwhile, we'll keep our eyes on the boat sales websites and await developments
Oh and the outside temperature readout in the car reckoned it was 14 degrees today! In January! Winter? What winter?
