I was busy working among the merry band of members at my yacht club yesterday (Saturday) at the weekend work party when I saw a boat in slings coming into a new section of yard we’ve taken over from a boat yard. We’re busy ripping out decrepit rickety finger jetties and rebuilding new sound ones – it has been a continuing job for over a year now, but progress is being made. The ‘powers to be’ have decided that the new yard will be used to lay up those boats which are either in long term lay up or seemingly approaching the abandonment point! It reminded me of something I saw which saddened me and my wife at a marina during the summer.
I know my last blog was about craft close to little hope of redemption, but all of us sailors must have seen craft afloat, that had the look of not being cared for.
So, how often do you look around as you wander back to your boat, after a shower say, with a chippy feeling that is curtailed as one’s eye catches the sight of a craft that has sat neglected for many months, if not longer?
The craft and its whereabouts will not be revealed, but I’m sure someone will recognise her, suffice to say I spotted her in the north of my east coast sailing grounds…
The mooring lines on the boat’s deck cleats caught my eye first. There is no way these had been removed and retied in many months – most probably last year or further into the past.
Mooring line solidified with verdigris…
Then my eye saw some of her fenders on the point dropping overboard due to frayed and sun rotted lines.
Rotting fender lines…
Then to a tangled mass of ‘congealed’ rope at the mast foot came into view … nothing in that lot had moved for a long time.
At the mast foot…
On the fore deck was another tangle with hanging coils of genoa sheet and mooring lines.
On the fore deck…
Walking along the mooring finger where this poor girl sat I saw that the growth on her rudder (she had two and the other was out of sight…) was so thick that it was clear she wouldn’t be able to go anywhere in a hurry: the bottom would be in same condition.
Hull growth…
During this summer, we had to beach Whimbrel on two occasions – the first to remove weed and copious layer of barnacles on the ‘flat’ bottom, and secondly, fresh weed growth around the wind/water area down to around half draft. For us, it is easy: we careen her over and get to it! It doesn’t take long on shingle of sandy bank and many people do this during their season. I remember an ‘old boy’ telling me up in the River Deben that he beached his boat three times in the sailing season for a scrub…
Whimbrel’s mate getting under…
I did note though that the vessel had been fitted with a clean mainsail cover and a modicum of cleaning had been done on deck with a scattering of ‘dropped’ tools, so, maybe, there is an owner about somewhere who has begun a long task…
I looked up on various sales sited for the class of boat seen and I was quite shocked. The list price for craft of her type dating to 2003-05 period ranged from £99,000 to £115,000. It caused me to swallow hard!
Apologies to the owner, if you should read this, but I was greatly saddened.