Friday 18 March 2016

Bigger Boat!

Subject, of course, to survey and sea trial

Yesterday, Jane and I drove down to the South Coast to look at two possible boats. Both were Westerly 33 ketches.

The first boat at Eastbourne was a little too tired. We might still have put in an offer on her but we had a second example to look at on the Hamble

This one was much better albeit still on need of some cosmetic work and improvements. The asking price was rather high given what we'd want and need to spend on her but the broker was encouraging about the possibility of the owner being amenable to an offer

So an offer was duly made and accepted!
And here she is..



She's currently called "Sandpiper of Beaulieu" but not for much longer! She will be renamed "Pagan"

I'm on the mobile to post this so detail pics will have to wait (she's on the Internet, Google the boat name)

She is in need of new cushion covers in the saloon and aft cabin (the v-berth covers are fine though) and a bit of routine woodwork maintenance as you'd expect.

The headlining in the saloon and aft cabin is good, less so in the heads and forward cabin but it can be lived with for now and sorted out at leisure

She has a perfectly serviceable set of instruments, chart plotter, radar etc  although the ancient autohelm might be a bit suspect

The sails look pretty good although the genoa desperately needs a new UV strip. The sprayhood and full cockpit tent look very recent which makes it a shame that the sprayhood windows need replacing. It looks like the clear plastic has UV degraded rather more quickly than it should.

She has the original Mercedes 42hp engine which is reckoned to be in good working order. That will be confirmed on the sea trial. I'm happy with the Merc provided it's a good'un, had it been an older Volvo it would have been a different matter.

She lacks two major requirements - heating and hot water. In many ways though I'm quite happy to install new systems now which will be to our spec and should be reliable

If it sounds like she needs quite a lot doing, well yes, she does. None of it is particularly major and of course the price is right!

The next challenge is to sort out a date for the survey and sea trial. The broker (who has impressed so far) will organise the lift and hold for the survey, which won't be cheap at South Coast prices, but as it's a busy time of year for the yards out could be fun getting all the ducks lined up in a row!

Assuming the survey and sea trial are satisfactory, we'll need to fetch her back to Fambridge pdq. I don't want to be paying South Coast short term mooring prices for long!

More to follow later!

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