Analysis of the past season

[capnsensible]

Personally, a very different one to usual.

Key thing was we sold our Moody 33 after 23 years of living aboard and 25 years of ownership. Happy and sad.

Only one longer trip, Madeira and back last Feburary on a friend's Hansa 445. Lovely trip. Bit bumpy but a fab run ashore.

Sailed our boat on a few day trips plus a long weekend down Fuertaventura before the goodbye.

Lots of short trips though on boats I look after, a Beneteau 331, Alpa 9.6 and Sigma 33 that is for sale but I'd better not mention that.
It's mostly year round sailing here in the Canaries so a bit more of that to come.

So that helps to keep one's hand in plus a few flying trips to the Peninsular to teach some theory courses.

 

[Buck Turgidson]

Cut short by a series of medical problems. Hope to be back in the saddle next season.

 

[capnsensible]

Cut short by a series of medical problems. Hope to be back in the saddle next season.

Know what you mean. Hope you get fixed!

 

[PhillM]

Bought Swift as a project in May. Safe to sail by end of June. 23 nights on board, about 600NM. Cost about £50 a day for the boat purchase and refit costs amortized over 5 years, and then just marina fees etc. I think the wine and meals out cost more than the boat and moorings put together. Being small and slow, I get more hours of fun per mile than all of my friends. Idyllic.

 

[Dutch01527]

Good year. First year on new to me boat in Dartmouth.

About 60 days on board roughly split 50:50 between cruising locally with wife, son and friends and “working“ on the boat alone. Working is a mix of doing some jobs, drinking beer and sleeping. Covered about 500 miles with about 70% using the engine either motor sailing or motoring unfortunately - difficult to avoid when trying to keep to a schedule with guests on board.

More money was spent on eating and drinking out, with company, than on mooring and boat maintenance/improvements but overall still cost less for the year than a decent summer holiday for two - maybe about £5k. Bargain really.

 

[rotrax]

Four month cruise to the East and North coasts of Ireland.Got as far as Lough Foyle/Londonderry.
Returned via the IOM for the motorbike racing and catching up with old mates.
1800 (approx) NM's covered. We had poor sailing conditions, mostly adverse winds, so used the engine a lot.
Two storms, one while in Srangford Lough, one in Newlyn. Tucked ourselves up for a week in both instances.
We ran two fridges and a freezer all the time. Our newly installed 400W of Solar just balanced. Used shore power when available but not the battery charger. When on shore power one fridge went to 240v, so reducing the 12v draw. The only charge into the 440 AH House bank has been Solar and the engine alternator. Used the 8KW genset when without shore power for hot water and 240v cooking.
Only kit failure was the shower/heads basin sump pump and we lost a nut off of the bow roller used when on a mooring.
First mate coped with several very tricky berthing situations. A minor bump leaving Portrush. We were against the wall and were being blown on. Springing off scraped the corner of the swim platform.
Well pleased with the comfort and performance of the boat. Especially pleased with the performance of the helmsperson. An Inverter is on the list for next season.

 

[oldmanofthehills]

We spent over 80 nights aboard afloat and about 7 in the yard pottering. Assuming the refurbished boat (probably about £22k) only lasts a year that is an eye watering sum of £250 per night, though still less than the £500 per night per person for some cruise ships

But the experiences we had were beyond costing, and the boat still lasts and awaits us for more of the same, and we can get places no cruise ship go

 

[dunedin]

How does that compare to previous years?
I've had a crap year by anyone's standards. I don't bother with day sails, if I can't get away for the best part of a week, I don't bother. This year, medical appointments stopped me getting away, fingers crossed for next year.

Why the self imposed ban on sailing for less than a week? You must be missing lots of great sailing.

Whilst we do longer spells on board, in autumn and winter we do a lot of opportunistic short 2-3 day cruises and great day sails.

For a day sail we can get from car to sails hoisted in around 30 minutes, and sails down to car in about 40:minutes with two people (slightly longer solo). That’s with a 38 footer, but with an efficient system. Have had many fantastic sails in short gaps between spells of rubbish weather. Clearly depends on distance to drive each way, which for us is around 90 minutes.

PS. 1,816 miles so far this year, including 17 day sails and three short trips