Need experienced sailor for boat relocation

Bonvivant

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Hello forum,
I recently bought a boat on ebay and now have problem relocating it. The trailer, that came with the boat, is apparently broken and unusable. Unfortunately I counted on the trailer to move the boat.

As it already is in the water and it is sea worthy I am now looking for someone with enough experience to sail her down from Maldon, Essex to Gillingham Marina. The boat in question is a Hurley Signet 20 with a bilge keel. About 6 metres long and 2.04 metres wide. Draft is 0.91 metres.
Word of the seller is that its ready to sail as the sails and the rigging is in prime condition but there is no engine on the boat apart from an 3.5HP outboard engine.

I am far too inexperienced to sail it on my own and need help. I would pay for this little adventure and accompany you on the boat and help as far as I can. Currently I am located in Canterbury.

The relocation is ASAP as I was let down a few times by companies and friends already and the boat is due to be moved. Please, contact me if you are interested in helping.
 

scotty123

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Hello forum,
I recently bought a boat on ebay and now have problem relocating it. The trailer, that came with the boat, is apparently broken and unusable. Unfortunately I counted on the trailer to move the boat.

As it already is in the water and it is sea worthy I am now looking for someone with enough experience to sail her down from Maldon, Essex to Gillingham Marina. The boat in question is a Hurley Signet 20 with a bilge keel. About 6 metres long and 2.04 metres wide. Draft is 0.91 metres.
Word of the seller is that its ready to sail as the sails and the rigging is in prime condition but there is no engine on the boat apart from an 3.5HP outboard engine.

I am far too inexperienced to sail it on my own and need help. I would pay for this little adventure and accompany you on the boat and help as far as I can. Currently I am located in Canterbury.

The relocation is ASAP as I was let down a few times by companies and friends already and the boat is due to be moved. Please, contact me if you are interested in helping.

Have you considered a trailer?
 

MoodySabre

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A nice trip in the summer. That's about 12 hours at least in a small boat - one outgoing tide from Maldon to the Whittaker (through the Spitway) and another tide incoming to take you into the Medway. That would need a good helpful wind or an engine that can keep you up to 4-5 knots. So not a great idea this time of year without a stopover, perhaps in Brightlingsea or even Bradwell. So is the boat equipped for overnights? This would be a bold trip in an unknown boat with cold cold weather and so few daylight hours.

Suggest you park it somewhere for the winter or get a boat shifter on the job. P.J. Downs& Sons are nearest to you. Once the mast is off it could be moved by someone with a HIAB and some strops. Or perhaps someone will lend/hire you a trailer.

Good luck.
 

LittleSister

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A nice trip in the summer. That's about 12 hours at least in a small boat - one outgoing tide from Maldon to the Whittaker (through the Spitway) and another tide incoming to take you into the Medway. That would need a good helpful wind or an engine that can keep you up to 4-5 knots. So not a great idea this time of year without a stopover, perhaps in Brightlingsea or even Bradwell. So is the boat equipped for overnights? This would be a bold trip in an unknown boat with cold cold weather and so few daylight hours.

Suggest you park it somewhere for the winter or get a boat shifter on the job. P.J. Downs& Sons are nearest to you. Once the mast is off it could be moved by someone with a HIAB and some strops. Or perhaps someone will lend/hire you a trailer.

Good luck.

What MoodySabre says makes good sense, and I thoroughly endorse his suggestions.

I would depart from his advice only in that:
- I doubt you would be able to maintain 5 knots in a boat of that size;
- I question whether you could sensibly carry enough fuel to run an outboard motor under load for 12 hours (plus a significant reserve for the unexpected); and
- I think doing this trip at this time of year in an unfamiliar and untested boat is not so much bold, as probably foolhardy.

Do not place any serious reliance on the word of someone selling a boat. He or she may know what they're talking about, and may be honest, or they may not. You need to sail the boat around a bit in sheltered waters to find out what works, what doesn't, or what works but only if you have the knack.

Be aware that the Thames estuary can be an unforgiving place. The cold, dark and less benign weather of the winter are stacking the odds against against a trip you could look back on with satisfaction.

Good luck with getting your boat moved somehow or stored for the winter, and happy sailing when warmer weather comes round again.
 

Wandering Star

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I don’t sail in that part of the UK but what’s been said already sounds fairly sensible. The trailer which came with the boat must be in pretty dreadful condition to be unrepairable? In what way is it broken? Having things welded, changing wheel bearings or changing a tow bar hitch are all fairly simply achieved and unless the trailer is genuinely a real basket case, then at this time of the year that’s the solution I’d follow - repair the trailer and carry on with Plan A viz. tow the boat to it’s new home.
 

XDC

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The word of the seller is the boat is ready to sail.

Was a working trailer part of the deal?

If so:

"The trailer, that came with the boat, is apparently broken and unusable" and

"Unfortunately I counted on the trailer to move the boat" are conflicting.

Either you bought a boat and a trailer described as working that isn't or you somehow bought a boat and a non-working trailer ... which you are counting on.

If it's the first case how can you trust the sellers word?

Agree with all the comments above. It could be a death trap.
 

philld

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Personally, I would haul it out at Maldon or Heybridge and check + service all the equipment over the winter. If they can't fit you in at one of those locations I'd try Bradwell or Tollesbury.

It's just too late to be moving such a small boat down to the Medway by water. I guess the vessel doesn't come with modern electronic navigation aids. As someone else has mentioned the daylight hours are too short this time of year, I'd be worried about being not sure of my position in the Thames estuary in the dark, cold, and trying to dodge container vessels.

In the summer it would be no problem, and I'd make a little trip of it. I'd probably go Maldon to Brightlingsea, Brightlingsea to Roach, and then finish off with Havengore to Medway.
 

scotty123

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Personally, I would haul it out at Maldon or Heybridge and check + service all the equipment over the winter. If they can't fit you in at one of those locations I'd try Bradwell or Tollesbury.

It's just too late to be moving such a small boat down to the Medway by water. I guess the vessel doesn't come with modern electronic navigation aids. As someone else has mentioned the daylight hours are too short this time of year, I'd be worried about being not sure of my position in the Thames estuary in the dark, cold, and trying to dodge container vessels.

In the summer it would be no problem, and I'd make a little trip of it. I'd probably go Maldon to Brightlingsea, Brightlingsea to Roach, and then finish off with Havengore to Medway.

A handheld GPS & compass easily solves the navigation problem.
 

Triassic

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Some very sound advice on here for an inexperienced sailor, but it's not exactly a positive encouraging message for a new sailor to hear is it? The passage is not actually that demanding if approached in the right conditions with a little preparation and it seems to me that the OP is at least trying to make sure they get the support to see if that could happen.

The forecast and tides for this coming Friday and Saturday actually make this trip a genuine possibility. The high tide is a little bit late in the day but it should allow time to get off the mud in Maldon with two or three hours of daylight left to get down to Bradwell marina for the night. An early start the next morning on the last of the ebb will get you down to the Spitway in time to ride the flood up to the Medway, even the wind on Saturday is looking to have plenty of East in it, and not to strong either.

The only reservation I would have is that looking at the boat on the Ebay add you're probably going to want a bit more than Friday morning to rig and check it over so you need to be up there Thursday to do that, and then you can get a test sail in Thursday afternoon. Good luck.

Just to add, I'm not suggesting you attempt this on your own, you need someone on board who is confident with the sailing aspect and who knows the waters. What I am saying is that a passage is not out of the question and suitable conditions do arise even at this time of the year.
 
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steve yates

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Good post, I think there was a quite a bit of doom and gloom, he was never intending to do it himself, and is well aware he doesn't have the knowledge to try it, hence asking for some help.
I offered to sail with the op to get it back for him, but then went and done my back in. It was dependant on us checking out the boat together one day and then waiting for the appropriate weather window. I left him a message on his mobile but never heard back, so perhaps he found a trailer of some kind.
 

Triassic

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I live just up the road from them and would have been happy to have helped out that weekend which is why I pm'd them contact details. I did look at the Ebay advert for the boat and I suspect a trip at short notice with little time to prepare the boat might have been asking a bit much, but hopefully they came to a happy arrangement somehow.
 
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