Some weeks before the early days of August 1983 we had cycled from Canvey Island, up Benfleet Hill and along a leafy lane cutting through extensive woodland to the yard of A F Platt Ltd, based in its own woodland paradise on the Daws Heath/Hadleigh border.
Our son did the trip too, at a little over a year old he was snuggled up to mum in a baby carrier!
The story is told about at the beginning of a large chapter in my book, The Jottings of a Thames Estuary Ditch-crawler which is available from bookshops on line, where I detail the Alan Platt boat yard story.
Our visit was to cast a serious look at several boats that were currently in the Platt’s yard. There were three Finesse 24s in for various reasons among a couple of 21s too. It was only the ‘24’ we were interested in.
Our first boat, a Yachting World People’s Boat, was on the market and we felt she was about to be sold away to the Burnham river. The signs were very promising…
Although we had viewed these lovely twenty-four footers afloat while sailing, it all depended on whether the mate was happy with what she saw…
There were just three tick boxes!
- Standing head room.
- A flushing loo.
- Decent auxiliary engine.
We also studied the sales sheets and discussed our possible requirements with both Alan and Shirley Platt.
We went away with a plethora of details a whirl in our heads. Back home we made plans, we couldn’t avoid it: we were truly smitten.
We even had the un-ordered boat’s name ready…
So we did it!
We had a whole list of ‘extras’ as they are known in the ship and boat building world. The major of these was upgrading to a two-cylinder engine, a Yanmar 2GM, from the basic one-cylinder model. The unit lasted us until 2011 when we again upgraded to a fresh water cooled Yanmar 2YM.
More letters were to follow…
Clinching a marine mortgage, laying of the keel – a major, planking up etc…
Sadly, I was soon back at sea on a ship pootling around Caribbean waters working with an EU and USA fleet of warships on drug patrols, so consequently, I did not see any of the build processes – this was all left to co-owner, Christobel, the mate who wrote enthusiastically about her visits to view ‘chunks’ of wood…
My first view was of the completed boat at the end of March 1984, sitting ready for launching. One of our requirements discussed prior to my return to sea…
The ship’s good mate insists on there being another person in our long marriage – yes, she alludes to a mistress – but as I always point out, it is Christobel’s name on the ship’s papers!
However, more of that as the ‘build’progresses…
So, if ‘Ownership’ can be dated to the date of our order, yes, it is a day to celebrate with a huge dose of pride in a little ship that has served us well.
Thank you Alan, Shirley and all who worked on her.