James. Thank you. With all the sailing I've done as no more than an ordinary sailor, the anxiety before departure does not get easier with time. It completely settles down once underway but the pre departure nerves are real. When I am not nervous before casting off will be the time to stop. You should always be ahead of a situation and have time. Thank you very much for your kind comment and for watching. Stay safe. James
Terrific sail James. Inspiring. You called out the Cosco ship. I read in the news that due to US sanctions on China related to Iranian oil transport, Cosco tankers have been turning off their AIS. Bad news for safety. You have much more patience than I do with all of those tacks to get out of those estuaries. Good for you! I'm older than you, so time counts more for me. :-) Again, super sail -- well-documented.
Far too kind Patrick. Quite how I can inspire anyone after your wonderful videos will remain a mystery. I assume that AIS will relate to the waters where the troubles took place and that the ships, nonetheless, will be on red alert on radar. AIS was alive and well in the southern North Sea. You can't be older than me! You look so young :-)) I move around my ship like a very old man. Doc suggested that pretending to be ten years older would help avoid an unnecessary injury. I've trained myself to do that. A disabled single-hander disables the ship. I will always sail the boat. Even in the lightest of airs 'Talisker 1' will go well to windward with the much lighter stay sail. That's not a lot of work. Too many times I watch folk bashing to windward under engine and main while me & 'Talisker 1' pass them sailing and in a lot more comfort. Anchoring, picking up my mooring .... I sail if I can but one must still remember to exercise the engine. I'm looking forward to hearing more about your winter projects. Health and elderly relatives permitting I'm hoping to sail to high latitudes next year. Stay safe my friend. James
Hi Warren. Thank you very much indeed. As long as we inspire safety. I know Patrick thinks the same. Being safe. An unremarkable passage is a safe passage. ATB James
James, you take it all in your stride and make it look easy, which it most definitely is not. A fantastic cruise, with some serious weather to contend with. Keep up the good work! 👏🏻
Well done James. I was wondering when we would see another film from you. You have inspired me. Tomorrow I will take my C&C 35 out and cross the Georgia Strait. Btw, luv your Typhoon 37.
Great video! It might only be 80nm acrossed but this is one of the most challenging areas to sail in the world. Weather changes quickly as does sea state due to shallow depths. Thats not forgetting the shipping. Look forward to future videos!
Thanks for the video. That brings back memories. I used to do it a few times when I was a child, from Aldeburgh, down and across to Calais and then up the coast and straight back from Scheveningen, rather than Oostende. It took us three days once with a day of no wind and of course no GPS in those days. I remember foreign boats used to sometimes wait at the mouth of the Ore for a local boat and then follow them in!
What lovely memories. I am thankful to have sailed pre GPS too. We still have incidents at Orford Haven. Occasionally we will go and meet a boat and lead them in. It changes dramatically some winters and there could be an extra buoy now. A small group of us go down early in the season on a zero tide and take our own bearings from the beach. Are you still sailing? Thank you so much for watching the video. ATB James
I'm not sailing any more. I live in the mountains but my parents do and have a boat down in Plymouth so they spend their time sailing the Cornish coast rather than the East coast.
Your parents sail in a lovely part of the UK. I have family in Falmouth. It was lovey to sail in to St Mawes after an 11 day cruise from the Azores in 2018. I'd never sailed in Cornwall before.
A challenging cruise indeed. We are so lucky these days to have all the navigation gizmos at our disposal. I've done similar passages in the early 80's sans autopilot and only a hand held DF for navigation. Spent most of the time trying not to be run down by fast moving ships and zig zagging fishing boats. With flat coast lines its not easy to identify land marks, plus the minefield of shallows to negotiate. Great video, thanks for sharing.
Have done Ipswich to Ostend and back singlehanded for the Voor Anker festival, but in much nicer weather with a lot of motoring, and hardly saw a ship in the TSS. Very eerie sailing back through the ship anchorage off Ostend. Decided to buy an AIS transponder though!
Hello Pete. I love Oostende. I've got very good friends there from numerous visits. Oostende Voor Anker is a great event. Yes! Its an interesting stretch of water. That and the Thames Estuary. It can be very testing. Thank you so much for watching the video. Fair winds and stay safe. ATB James
Hi Mathieu. That is an awkward and tricky sail at the best of times. I've done it a number of times. I followed the racing fleet back to Oostende a few years ago. Their departure governed by the race officials!! Fair winds and stay safe James
Salt Spring island is a wonderful island, I have been there many times. You may be familiar with sailors Miles and Beryl Smeeton from the UK. They settled on SS and later sailed around the world. Their voyage was chronicled in "The Sea was our Village." A wonderful read. Theirs was one if the first offshore cruising books.
@@samingosailing John Guzzwell is mentioned numerous times in "The Sea Was Our Village." John sailed with the Smeetons around the horn when they were pitchpoled. I have read John's book, "Trekka." Great read.
Yes! I've read 'Trekka'. 'Once is Enough' is the book the Smeetons wrote about being pitchpoled. A remarkable story. I always feel that a sailor's ability to improvise is essential.
I must find a copy of "Once is Enough." In his book, "The Sea was our Village," Miles mentioned a cruising book he regarded highly written in 1956 by Annie Van de Wiele called "The West In My Eyes." Gotta luv that title. I found a copy on Amazon. I am trying to forget the price I paid. Ouch! If Miles thought highly of it I am sure it will be a good read.
Thank you for the post james. Great, as usual, and some more valubale insights into real sailing in challenging circumstances. I would suggest that some technical information would enhamce the learning potential, for example, stating close-reach, port tack etc, when applicable, just to provide demonstrable examples of the craft of sailing. Just a thought. Let me know your views on this. Once again, thank you.
Hi Joseph. My main message is just to demonstrate safe sailing, not to teach it. One of the tricky things to convey in a video is time. The arm chair viewer will probably not realise that a passage from the UK east coast, say Harwich, to Belgium is normally 11 to 15 hours of fairly intense concentration. I DO think my seamanship is sound and safe. What I really encourage is people sailing within their comfort zones. As they get more experienced the more challenging their voyages will become. The sea is not the place to find out how capable they are. I can admit that I was bricking the crossing to Oostende when anchored in the River Crouch the night before despite having done the crossing more than 30 times. I had no such feelings when underway. I was very happy doing what was to me 'routine business' managing the crossing. The film does not contain a demanding couple of hours outward bound and a tricky final three hours inbound to the UK. They were nothing more than routine BUT experience was needed to make those hours easy. Thank you so much for watching and sending such a kind comment. ATB James
Nice video, brought back some memories, when I use to sail accross from Ostend to Pin Mill (near Ipswich) . sometimes in really bad weather we had a couple of drink at the pub in Pin Mill. I sailed with a 30 ft gaff cutter made of steel.
Hi Dona. How lovely to hear your memories. I anchored in Buttermans Bay, just down river from Pin Mill when I got back to the Orwell on this cruise. Perfect in strong southerly winds. I've experienced all sorts of weather in the southern North Sea and Thames Estuary. F8 40 miles from land in the southern N Sea is not that much fun. I remember returning from Ostend in December and it was bitterly cold. Ice on the deck and the sheets crisp from the freeze. The wind veered north west about 15 miles from Long Sand Head and the long beat began. My nose was cold. I eventually arrived in the Orwell and went in to Suffolk Yacht Harbour. I woke the following morning with the boat surprisingly warm down below. She'd turned in to an igloo. 40cms of snow on the deck. Thank you very much for watching the video and taking the trouble to comment. Are you still sailing? James
@@samingosailing I no longer sail, althought I would like from time totime to sail again, I have a friend who is still sailing in a boat he made himself, it is a plan from french architect Villenave and it is a really nice boat, I will sail with him one of these days. I actually live in Ostend now, so you can imagine that the sea is Always on my mind. But I really would like to sail around my favourite island Corsica, this might happen next year, i found a skipper with a great boat (beaufort 14). I the meantime I Watch videos like yours. Thanks for posting them.
Thank you so much for your comment. I hope you sail around your favourite island ... Corsica. I must have cruised to Ostend about 35 times now. I love the town and have Belgian friends as a result of sailing there so often. ATB James
Hi James, I'm a new subscriber to your channel. You certainly make good use of Talisker1. Can I ask what autohelm you use and if battery power consumption is a problem. Thank you for the uploads.
Hi. Thank you for subscribing. 'Talisker 1' has the Raymarine Evolution system with Linear Drive. It is extremely efficient. State of the art. I have quite a large domestic battery capacity but I also have large solar panels on a purpose built gantry. No problem for running the ship. The batteries are generally pretty full at dusk and much further south, with the longer nights, we manage pretty well. Summer time up north with nearly 24H daylight is no problem at all. ATB James
Hi Robert. Thanks for watching the video. I'm hopefully returning to even higher latitudes next year!! Your summer begins! Hopefully not too hot! ATB James
@@samingosailing Loved your video! Our coldest weather is like 5 degrees on the central coast of Queensland. in the middle of winter. Do most of our sailing in the nude! Good for a nice all-over tan.
Hi Ratus. Thank you for watching the video. Only the mast remain of the rig I bought in 2014. The inner forestay was fitted by me and that sail works the hardest. ATB James
@@samingosailing hi James. Would you be able to divulge what kind of round budget an inner stay (generic boat) might cost me in the UK plus sail? Would you call it a cutter rig now? Presume you had to go thru the deck to a plate on the bow? Thanks Bill
@@ratusbagus Crikey! How long is a piece of string? Boats can cost very little money. An informed purchaser can do very well on a very small budget. Young American friends sailed round the world on a 30' boat 'cutter rig' that cost them very little. They had enormous skills. Or you can buy an Oyster for £2,000,000 +. It's an impossible question to answer. My boat has devalued enormously with the second hand market in the UK taking quite a tumble. In 2014 a Typhoon might fetch £64,000. Today probably £45,000. My boat is worth a lot more to me than what I would get for it. Cutter actually means that you can sail with both head sails together. I've experimented with my set up for fun and it certainly looks good but adds no value. The value for me is a perfectly set stay sail and a perfectly set genoa. Used of course independently. So mine is NOT a cutter rig. I hope that helps! ATB James
@@samingosailing Sorry phrased the question a little loosely. So a little more accurately... Since you'd been there and might be only too painfully familiar, I was just asking about the amount of (feeble) Stirling it might take to add an inner furling staysail to a generic sloop. If you had gotten only that done instead of replacing everything bar the pole, you might have just been able to read it from the invoice. I want the ability to shorthandedly deploy a smaller headsail from the cockpit when the wind's up and the Genoa needs to be reefed past the point it has usable shape. It's a generic boat because mine is 6/9 months away. I think I want something more permanent and usable than a Solent. The market.... Actually I'd heard that prices were up in the decent but still affordable bracket, because the weak pound enabled dollar and euro earners to devour the UK market. Prices of the remnants were raised to match the exchange rate. So not great for we brits. You should get good resale value because yours is one of forty built! Also, l don't have enormous shipwright skills and not much time as I'm technically a pensioner. Sailed on and mostly off for decades. But I expect that my first vessel will be my last and hope to get the selection 70% right. I need it to be immediately serviceable and will refit or upgrade the shortfalls. No different to everyone else buying. ATB Bill
@@ratusbagus I am sorry to have misunderstood. Please forgive me. First of all ... I like the Harken MK IV furling gear for its simplicity. There is a bit to think about. What rig does the boat have? Mine is fractional with swept back spreaders. I did not want to add running backstays. I avoided that by having the two forestays very close together at the masthead. Before going in to that, I was first concerned that a chain plate could be designed and made to take the incredible loads. The boat is strong. My rigger actually consulted Ed Dubois who approved the plan. Finally the sail maker. My furling gear cost about £1,800 in 2016/17. I hanked the stay sail on for the first couple of years. As it's the most heavily used sail and I'm getting old the furling gear was a no brainer once I knew how terrifically well the sail worked. It's so powerful in heavier weather on the beam and in front of the beam. To windward it performs wonderfully well with a double or triple reefed main in a blow. The chain plate and forestay costs have got to be added. And the expertise of a very good rigger. I knew what I wanted. The expert made it all possible. ATB James
Marvellous. An inspiration to those of us who are not so evidently calm and competent in all conditions
James. Thank you. With all the sailing I've done as no more than an ordinary sailor, the anxiety before departure does not get easier with time. It completely settles down once underway but the pre departure nerves are real. When I am not nervous before casting off will be the time to stop. You should always be ahead of a situation and have time. Thank you very much for your kind comment and for watching. Stay safe. James
Terrific sail James. Inspiring. You called out the Cosco ship. I read in the news that due to US sanctions on China related to Iranian oil transport, Cosco tankers have been turning off their AIS. Bad news for safety. You have much more patience than I do with all of those tacks to get out of those estuaries. Good for you! I'm older than you, so time counts more for me. :-) Again, super sail -- well-documented.
Far too kind Patrick. Quite how I can inspire anyone after your wonderful videos will remain a mystery. I assume that AIS will relate to the waters where the troubles took place and that the ships, nonetheless, will be on red alert on radar. AIS was alive and well in the southern North Sea. You can't be older than me! You look so young :-)) I move around my ship like a very old man. Doc suggested that pretending to be ten years older would help avoid an unnecessary injury. I've trained myself to do that. A disabled single-hander disables the ship. I will always sail the boat. Even in the lightest of airs 'Talisker 1' will go well to windward with the much lighter stay sail. That's not a lot of work. Too many times I watch folk bashing to windward under engine and main while me & 'Talisker 1' pass them sailing and in a lot more comfort. Anchoring, picking up my mooring .... I sail if I can but one must still remember to exercise the engine. I'm looking forward to hearing more about your winter projects. Health and elderly relatives permitting I'm hoping to sail to high latitudes next year. Stay safe my friend. James
Patrick Laine I'm looking forward to your next video!
@@valentinkovatchky8000 I shall pass your message on to Patrick
Patrick Laine You’re both an inspiration to the a lot of us.. definitely me anyway.!!
Hi Warren. Thank you very much indeed. As long as we inspire safety. I know Patrick thinks the same. Being safe. An unremarkable passage is a safe passage. ATB James
Great sail James !!! quite challenging the entry into your river !! always a pleasure to watch your videos ... Cheers from a wet and windy Coruna !!
Jesus. Your right! The river can be tricky but it was benign when I went in this time. Hope your keeping well. Fair winds and stay safe. James
James, you take it all in your stride and make it look easy, which it most definitely is not. A fantastic cruise, with some serious weather to contend with. Keep up the good work! 👏🏻
Thank you very much James. One day we will catch up! Looking forward to meeting your Storm. Fair winds and stay safe. James
Brilliant video... no music just the fantastic sound of the wind and sea. Thank you for sharing 👍⛵️⚓️
Warren s/y Legend
Hi Warren. Good to hear from you. Thank you so much for watching. Fair winds and stay safe. ATB James
Well done, I really enjoyed your video, It was was also nice to see my old RAF posting at Bawdsey Manor feature.
Thank you Paul. Bawdsey Manor to the south ... the endangered LH to the north means I'm nearly home. Thank you for watching. ATB James
Well done James. I was wondering when we would see another film from you.
You have inspired me. Tomorrow I will take my C&C 35 out and cross the Georgia Strait.
Btw, luv your Typhoon 37.
Vancouver Island! My Uncle lived on Salt Spring Island. Fair winds. Most of all ... stay safe. James
Great video! It might only be 80nm acrossed but this is one of the most challenging areas to sail in the world. Weather changes quickly as does sea state due to shallow depths. Thats not forgetting the shipping. Look forward to future videos!
Sam T. Thank you for your kind comment and for watching the video. ATB James
Thanks for the video. That brings back memories. I used to do it a few times when I was a child, from Aldeburgh, down and across to Calais and then up the coast and straight back from Scheveningen, rather than Oostende. It took us three days once with a day of no wind and of course no GPS in those days. I remember foreign boats used to sometimes wait at the mouth of the Ore for a local boat and then follow them in!
What lovely memories. I am thankful to have sailed pre GPS too. We still have incidents at Orford Haven. Occasionally we will go and meet a boat and lead them in. It changes dramatically some winters and there could be an extra buoy now. A small group of us go down early in the season on a zero tide and take our own bearings from the beach. Are you still sailing? Thank you so much for watching the video. ATB James
I'm not sailing any more. I live in the mountains but my parents do and have a boat down in Plymouth so they spend their time sailing the Cornish coast rather than the East coast.
Your parents sail in a lovely part of the UK. I have family in Falmouth. It was lovey to sail in to St Mawes after an 11 day cruise from the Azores in 2018. I'd never sailed in Cornwall before.
A challenging cruise indeed. We are so lucky these days to have all the navigation gizmos at our disposal. I've done similar passages in the early 80's sans autopilot and only a hand held DF for navigation. Spent most of the time trying not to be run down by fast moving ships and zig zagging fishing boats. With flat coast lines its not easy to identify land marks, plus the minefield of shallows to negotiate.
Great video, thanks for sharing.
Years ago I did sail with the minimum of instruments and paper charts ... I still sail with the paper charts. Thank you for watching.
Have done Ipswich to Ostend and back singlehanded for the Voor Anker festival, but in much nicer weather with a lot of motoring, and hardly saw a ship in the TSS. Very eerie sailing back through the ship anchorage off Ostend. Decided to buy an AIS transponder though!
Hello Pete. I love Oostende. I've got very good friends there from numerous visits. Oostende Voor Anker is a great event. Yes! Its an interesting stretch of water. That and the Thames Estuary. It can be very testing. Thank you so much for watching the video. Fair winds and stay safe. ATB James
James I went aboard that Russian ship at the Southampton boat show.
But more exciting, tripped over Uma's lines... Electrickery is the future.
Just did Nieuwpoort-Ramsgate-Nieuwpoort solo this week :) You captured well the trip!
Hi Mathieu. That is an awkward and tricky sail at the best of times. I've done it a number of times. I followed the racing fleet back to Oostende a few years ago. Their departure governed by the race officials!! Fair winds and stay safe James
Salt Spring island is a wonderful island, I have been there many times. You may be familiar with sailors Miles and Beryl Smeeton from the UK. They settled on SS and later sailed around the world. Their voyage was chronicled in "The Sea was our Village." A wonderful read. Theirs was one if the first offshore cruising books.
'Once is Enough' is in my rather vast library of sailing books. Also John Guzzwell's splendid book. Yup! I read and I read.
@@samingosailing John Guzzwell is mentioned numerous times in "The Sea Was Our Village." John sailed with the Smeetons around the horn when they were pitchpoled. I have read John's book, "Trekka." Great read.
Yes! I've read 'Trekka'. 'Once is Enough' is the book the Smeetons wrote about being pitchpoled. A remarkable story. I always feel that a sailor's ability to improvise is essential.
I must find a copy of "Once is Enough."
In his book, "The Sea was our Village," Miles mentioned a cruising book he regarded highly written in 1956 by Annie Van de Wiele called "The West In My Eyes." Gotta luv that title. I found a copy on Amazon. I am trying to forget the price I paid. Ouch!
If Miles thought highly of it I am sure it will be a good read.
Thank you for the post james. Great, as usual, and some more valubale insights into real sailing in challenging circumstances. I would suggest that some technical information would enhamce the learning potential, for example, stating close-reach, port tack etc, when applicable, just to provide demonstrable examples of the craft of sailing. Just a thought. Let me know your views on this. Once again, thank you.
Hi Joseph. My main message is just to demonstrate safe sailing, not to teach it. One of the tricky things to convey in a video is time. The arm chair viewer will probably not realise that a passage from the UK east coast, say Harwich, to Belgium is normally 11 to 15 hours of fairly intense concentration. I DO think my seamanship is sound and safe. What I really encourage is people sailing within their comfort zones. As they get more experienced the more challenging their voyages will become. The sea is not the place to find out how capable they are. I can admit that I was bricking the crossing to Oostende when anchored in the River Crouch the night before despite having done the crossing more than 30 times. I had no such feelings when underway. I was very happy doing what was to me 'routine business' managing the crossing. The film does not contain a demanding couple of hours outward bound and a tricky final three hours inbound to the UK. They were nothing more than routine BUT experience was needed to make those hours easy. Thank you so much for watching and sending such a kind comment. ATB James
@@samingosailing fair enough, cheers James
Nice video, brought back some memories, when I use to sail accross from Ostend to Pin Mill (near Ipswich) . sometimes in really bad weather
we had a couple of drink at the pub in Pin Mill. I sailed with a 30 ft gaff cutter made of steel.
Hi Dona. How lovely to hear your memories. I anchored in Buttermans Bay, just down river from Pin Mill when I got back to the Orwell on this cruise. Perfect in strong southerly winds. I've experienced all sorts of weather in the southern North Sea and Thames Estuary. F8 40 miles from land in the southern N Sea is not that much fun. I remember returning from Ostend in December and it was bitterly cold. Ice on the deck and the sheets crisp from the freeze. The wind veered north west about 15 miles from Long Sand Head and the long beat began. My nose was cold. I eventually arrived in the Orwell and went in to Suffolk Yacht Harbour. I woke the following morning with the boat surprisingly warm down below. She'd turned in to an igloo. 40cms of snow on the deck. Thank you very much for watching the video and taking the trouble to comment. Are you still sailing? James
@@samingosailing I no longer sail, althought I would like from time totime to sail again, I have a friend who is still sailing in a boat he made himself, it is a plan from french architect Villenave and it is a really nice boat, I will sail with him one of these days. I actually live in Ostend now, so you can imagine that the sea is Always on my mind. But I really would like to sail around my favourite island Corsica, this might happen next year, i found a skipper with a great boat (beaufort 14). I the meantime I Watch videos like yours.
Thanks for posting them.
Thank you so much for your comment. I hope you sail around your favourite island ... Corsica. I must have cruised to Ostend about 35 times now. I love the town and have Belgian friends as a result of sailing there so often. ATB James
Hi James,
Great video. Are the CDs for stopping birds landing?
All my best,
Paul
Hi Paul. Yes! They keep the big uns away. Thank you so much for watching the video. ATB James
Hi James, I'm a new subscriber to your channel. You certainly make good use of Talisker1. Can I ask what autohelm you use and if battery power consumption is a problem. Thank you for the uploads.
Hi. Thank you for subscribing. 'Talisker 1' has the Raymarine Evolution system with Linear Drive. It is extremely efficient. State of the art. I have quite a large domestic battery capacity but I also have large solar panels on a purpose built gantry. No problem for running the ship. The batteries are generally pretty full at dusk and much further south, with the longer nights, we manage pretty well. Summer time up north with nearly 24H daylight is no problem at all. ATB James
Great video. No music, just sailing thanks
Your very welcome comments of a few years ago. Thank you for watching the video. ATB James
That looks way too cold for me! I'm spoiled living in Australia! Thanks for sharing.
Hi Robert. Thanks for watching the video. I'm hopefully returning to even higher latitudes next year!! Your summer begins! Hopefully not too hot! ATB James
@@samingosailing Loved your video! Our coldest weather is like 5 degrees on the central coast of Queensland. in the middle of winter. Do most of our sailing in the nude! Good for a nice all-over tan.
Robert. Fair winds and stay safe. Mind your tackle in the winches! ATB James
could the north atlantic be any more calm ??? i didnt know such calm seas were possible there
Any sea or ocean ... CAN be calm. This video is the southern North Sea. A nasty bit of water in the wrong weather.
Thanks. Enjoyed being your virtual passenger. Did you retrofit the inner headsail?
Hi Ratus. Thank you for watching the video. Only the mast remain of the rig I bought in 2014. The inner forestay was fitted by me and that sail works the hardest. ATB James
@@samingosailing hi James. Would you be able to divulge what kind of round budget an inner stay (generic boat) might cost me in the UK plus sail?
Would you call it a cutter rig now? Presume you had to go thru the deck to a plate on the bow?
Thanks Bill
@@ratusbagus Crikey! How long is a piece of string? Boats can cost very little money. An informed purchaser can do very well on a very small budget. Young American friends sailed round the world on a 30' boat 'cutter rig' that cost them very little. They had enormous skills. Or you can buy an Oyster for £2,000,000 +. It's an impossible question to answer. My boat has devalued enormously with the second hand market in the UK taking quite a tumble. In 2014 a Typhoon might fetch £64,000. Today probably £45,000. My boat is worth a lot more to me than what I would get for it. Cutter actually means that you can sail with both head sails together. I've experimented with my set up for fun and it certainly looks good but adds no value. The value for me is a perfectly set stay sail and a perfectly set genoa. Used of course independently. So mine is NOT a cutter rig. I hope that helps! ATB James
@@samingosailing Sorry phrased the question a little loosely. So a little more accurately...
Since you'd been there and might be only too painfully familiar, I was just asking about the amount of (feeble) Stirling it might take to add an inner furling staysail to a generic sloop. If you had gotten only that done instead of replacing everything bar the pole, you might have just been able to read it from the invoice. I want the ability to shorthandedly deploy a smaller headsail from the cockpit when the wind's up and the Genoa needs to be reefed past the point it has usable shape. It's a generic boat because mine is 6/9 months away. I think I want something more permanent and usable than a Solent.
The market.... Actually I'd heard that prices were up in the decent but still affordable bracket, because the weak pound enabled dollar and euro earners to devour the UK market. Prices of the remnants were raised to match the exchange rate. So not great for we brits. You should get good resale value because yours is one of forty built!
Also, l don't have enormous shipwright skills and not much time as I'm technically a pensioner. Sailed on and mostly off for decades. But I expect that my first vessel will be my last and hope to get the selection 70% right. I need it to be immediately serviceable and will refit or upgrade the shortfalls.
No different to everyone else buying.
ATB
Bill
@@ratusbagus I am sorry to have misunderstood. Please forgive me. First of all ... I like the Harken MK IV furling gear for its simplicity. There is a bit to think about. What rig does the boat have? Mine is fractional with swept back spreaders. I did not want to add running backstays. I avoided that by having the two forestays very close together at the masthead. Before going in to that, I was first concerned that a chain plate could be designed and made to take the incredible loads. The boat is strong. My rigger actually consulted Ed Dubois who approved the plan. Finally the sail maker. My furling gear cost about £1,800 in 2016/17. I hanked the stay sail on for the first couple of years. As it's the most heavily used sail and I'm getting old the furling gear was a no brainer once I knew how terrifically well the sail worked. It's so powerful in heavier weather on the beam and in front of the beam. To windward it performs wonderfully well with a double or triple reefed main in a blow. The chain plate and forestay costs have got to be added. And the expertise of a very good rigger. I knew what I wanted. The expert made it all possible. ATB James
Challenging conditions but very good crew
Thank you. Had a look at your videos. What is your ship? Fair winds and stay safe James
You do know, there is a tunnel ?
Your hilarious ...
Si ngled handed solo ? ?????? 😂
Bang to rights tautology!