New Main Fits

To a slight feeling of relief, we successfully fitted the new main to Sarah G and we now have a dazzling white sail under our main cover. I dread to think how much it will show up the foresail but both of those still have a bit of life in them. We had thought about going for a bit of a sail today (Sunday) but Audrey has managed to get a bit lurgied so we didn't do that but will be down there asap to see how it sets.


Full marks to Chris Jeckells and his team for creating a first class sail though. If anyone is in the market for a sail, I would definitely recommend them. Not the cheapest but the true benefit of having your sailmaker based here was shown to us as he visited the boat himself to measure up.

Jeckells The Sailmaker

When we set to fold up and stow the old one on the dock, we realised just how tired it really was!


The only other stuff we really achieved was some measuring up for the ice box, the awning and the holding tank. Once the super duper sewing machine we bought on ebay arrives, I will be getting to work on making an awning to be proud of. Or wasting hundreds of square feet of acrylic depending on how I get along with the whole process. I am also devoting rather a lot of time to thinking about how to go about making a suitable ice box. More watch this space really.

Still, it was nice to get down to Devon and pat Sarah G on the coachroof and reassure her that we hadn't forgotten that she exists.

Boatshow comments

Well, we went to the London Boatshow yesterday and were frankly quite disappointed with it. They have made big changes this year, not least the inclusion of an outdoor show for things like walking, cycling and climbing along with a huge indoor pool for events. Frankly, this all mitigated against it being useful for us. The number of small exhibitors with specialist equipment had reduced considerably and, in particular, the big chandlers all had much smaller stands or weren't there at all in the case of Force4.


One of the things that we liked about the old style show was that we could walk around and talk to the experts of some of the smaller equipment as well as finding the occasional useful little thing that you never realised you needed like a new form of self amalgamating tape.

We actually went all geared up to spend plenty of money this year but wound up not buying much in the end. The biggest single "purchase" was to rejoin the Cruising Association. Our impression was that the purely boating area had been shrunk more than the quarter that the outdoor show took up and I suspect that rates had been bumped up substantially to exclude the small companies. I think that the organisers have made a mistake here. Well, at one level I think that they have as the offerings for serious boaters looking for useful stuff for the upcoming season will, in future stay away. However, I am sure that the new format will be good for the gate which will make them profitable - for the organising company at least.

We did buy a couple of admiralty charts covering the Bay of Biscay and the Atlantic coast of the Iberian peninsula. Now we have to find a source of detailed charts which at £21 a pop though Spanish charts are only €25. I will be keeping an eye on Ebay and other sources of second hand but if any of the millions of readers knows of a source contact me and I will be very interested - leave a comment!

I seriously doubt if we will be going next year though at the ROA AGM there was talk about having some representatives at the stand dedicated to Owners Associations and I quite like the idea of volunteering for that. Otherwise, we will probably stay away.

On other fronts, we have got hold of our liferaft off Ebay and have ordered a heavy duty one from the States over Ebay as well. That has been fun. We will also be selling our old rigid dinghy and a sailboard we aquired a few years ago.

Down to the boat next weekend so we want either nice late winter sailing conditions or a howling gale!

Rival Owners Association AGM

We have just got back from a very enjoyable time at the AGM in the East India Club. Guests of honour were Paul and Rachel Chandler. The usual business of the meeting was conducted but the most noticeable aspect of the whole thing was the presence of numerous strong personalities as you would expect amongst a group of boat owners but also an absence of much in the way of overly strong egos.

The dinner afterwards was also an enjoyable time with the chance to swap lots of notes about Rivals and different cruising plans. Now we just have to bring them to fruition so we can regale everyone with them at the next meeting!