The start of the year was punctuated for us by the failure of our propeller key making it imperative for a lift out. This was our first at The Blackwater Marina.

It all went swimmingly well and the team listened to my ‘foiballs’ about chocking up… Beccs, the manager, kindly gave me a telephone number for a metal fabricator up the road in Latchingdon and I had a new key made (milled) up by the elderly owner that evening, on our way home from the yard. See blog for the story!

At the time we had not yet completed our first year in the yard, nor have we yet carried out the antifouling and other annual jobs on the slipway yet. These were all completed (early) whilst out end February to early March.

We have found sailing from our berth and returning simplicity in itself – no traumas or difficulty has been experienced. Only a hard easterly would cause, or likely to cause, any problems.

On many Saturdays in the early part of the year, we walked local to the boat, or just Christobel, while maintenance was carried out – often the second, third or fourth varnish coat etc.

During the autumn especially, we have enjoyed morning sailing with a delicious soup lunch at the bistro bar. The quality of the fare offered here has radically advanced since a change of proprietorship. I am even considering it a venue for the 2025 Finesse rally!

It has been an entertaining year all in all.

All my siblings have enjoyed the boat from the mooring including a cousin and extended family. All have commented on what a delightful place we are now based. For one thing, there is absolutely no bloody ‘club initiated stress’ to cope with!

The year has brought warnings from the authorities on boat safety, especially on the inland waterways where accident, fires and death have occurred. The RNLI has had a rise in rescues inshore caused in the main by paddle boarders and canoeists. Both past times grew during the pandemic exponentially. Large numbers of both are oft seen in Lawling Creek.

Yachting (sailing?) seems to have taken a dive around the east coast, although when visiting a cousin in Tarbert, Argyll, during Clyde Tarbert Weekend, the number of craft participating puts the ‘south’ to shame, I thought. I sailed aboard my cousin’s yacht on a dreek day, but boy it was enjoyable. water depth was in excess of 110 metres – unheard of in my locale!

The Olympics took place in France this summer too. The much heralded and grossly over funded Royal Yachting Association’s Team GB did crushingly poorly… It was disastrous. The RYA should get back to what its core membership used to be – cruising sailors and get a grip.

My membership was terminated over the Calor Gas bottle saga: the RYA were outstandingly useless. Calor themselves saw the light eventually, announcing purchase of new bottle stock and a continuation of supply of both propane and butane in the ‘small’ cylinder. That was a definite positive outcome for the year.

The numbers of empty moorings – buoys and marina berths – has seemingly continued to rise, with a resultant increase in craft laid up ashore. The laid up fleet is huge.

Active boats seem crewed by ‘older and older’ crews. To many this is worrying, but I believe is symptomatic of the way modern life has evolved. The youngsters of today, on the whole, do not want the hassle of maintenance and the trouble of running – looking after – a vessel. The growth in companies offering boats for short term use – essentially hired – is spreading to UK waters. It is a bit like going to the gym: there is no commitment to the equipment or premises. It is a case of use and go…

Be interesting to see how this develops.

One thing is for certain, many yards cannot cope with much more in the way of laid up craft being parked up and leave space for maintenance of regularly owned craft.

Whilst on holiday in Norfolk, we visited the Broads Museum where craft are being preserved, and, on another day visited the Norfolk Boat Rescue Centre where craft are being repaired and there was actually a new build nearing completion.

Sadly, a few weeks before the end of the year it was announced that the internationally famous Lowestoft Boat Building Centre is closing. This is a huge blow to the training of new specialists in wood. There are yards specialising in wooden construction and repair, but the numbers of trainees any one yard can support cannot be a substitute: the number of yards themselves is not high.

This last autumn I have had to make a new main section to my Genoa whisker pole – made from laminations of spruce. Also, a new gaff for Twitch’e lug sail. Both were jobs well within my capacity.

So, we are moving into 2025. For me it will be a a bit of a year: I reach the young age of seventy in June…

And, we would both like to wish all readers of this blog a very happy 2025, whether sailors or not, be happy and content with life and live it as it should be. Go…