How much do you know about your boat's history?

Koeketiene

Koeketiene

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Location
Le Roussillon (South of France)
www.sailblogs.com
A remark from Moody Sabre (why the homeport of his boat was Southold) in another thread made me wonder: how much do you know about your boat's history?
Previous owners/where she was kept/where's she's been to/etc...

Like I said, just wondering....
 
I bought Karouise from the first owner who fitted out the hull originally on the Crouch.

He did sell the boat in the 70s and she had 3 owners before he bought the boat back and eventually sold to me. In the meantime she had been all round the UK and been based on the west coast of Scotland for a while.

The name is after his daughters Kar(en) and (L)ouise.
 
Haven't a clue a far as Brigantia (ex Anne of Arne) is concerned

Badger, our narrowboat, though came with a huge folder with tons of info right back to her launch in 1969
 
I missed the boat being delivered from France, but I caught it up about 5 minutes after it arrived.

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Then it was craned off the trailer....

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Then after a bit of hammering and banging, it was launched

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I think we know the rest too.....
 
OR4751 said:
A remark from Moody Sabre (why the homeport of his boat was Southold) in another thread made me wonder: how much do you know about your boat's history?
Previous owners/where she was kept/where's she's been to/etc...

Like I said, just wondering....
Click to expand...

we are the second owners so very easy
Wilhelm Jansen a Pharmacist from Munchen Gladbach (Sp) owned her for her first 18 yrs. we have met a friend of his in Zeirkezee one afternoon.
 
Was sitting on a pontoon at Levington the night before a trip (2008 I think) to Ramsgate or somewhere when there was the sound of someone talking. Looked out and asked 'er, can I help?' ' Oh, hello, I was the first owner of this boat in 1981!' A convivial evening followed and wine was taken.
 
Nothing apart from the name and address of the first owner which was in the engine handbook. She was neglected for some years at Blackwater Marina and had already had two names, I have re-named her. Bought her in 2010 and there were bottles of water aboard with sell by dates of 2007. Flares were dated 1997 as was the gas pipe. Got her cheap at the time and have been getting her sorted. Keeps me busy I suppose! The advantage is that when I have replaced things I know how old they are - rigging next!
 
Champagne Murphy said:
Was sitting on a pontoon at Levington the night before a trip (2008 I think) to Ramsgate or somewhere when there was the sound of someone talking. Looked out and asked 'er, can I help?' ' Oh, hello, I was the first owner of this boat in 1981!' A convivial evening followed and wine was taken.
Click to expand...

she was a Deben boat @ FF
 
We had searched unsuccesfully (phone directory/internet) for the original owner of our boat, then were contacted by him - his daughter had stumbled across us on the internet. It was particularly intersting to talk to him, as we knew he had spent 7 years fitting out the boat very nicely. It turned out he was more interested in the fitting out than the sailing, and had never been far in her and didn't keep her many years. We also discovered she had been launched a few hundred yards from where I used to keep an earlier boat of mine for a while when I lived in the West Country, and she lived on a mooring further down the river.

We know from the documents there have been two intervening owners, but have had no contact with them (including the one we bought from - it all went through the broker).
 
Phoenix of Hamble said:
Phoenix has had 3 previous owners.... i'm in touch with two of them, and have swapped emails with two people who know the third.... so have a good idea of her history and adventures!
Click to expand...

Great - care to share? ;)

Anyway, here's Guapa's colourful past (or what we know of it):

Most of what follows I learned in Antwerp two years ago when we had Guapa's deck done. Spoke to someone from the yard who knew some of her early history and in the Liberty Yacht Club bar I met up with a Dutch professional skipper who had 'encountered' her twice and was able to fill in he blanks.

Guapa was completed, launched and sold in 1984. The first owner was a rather well off carpet manufacturer from Kortrijk in Belgium.
He sailed her to the Caribbean (Martinique) where he kept her for the next 12 years. When he passed away, his children sold her.

The second owner was a Dutchman who had the bright idea to supplement his income by smuggling some drugs out of Colombia. His money making venture didn't last long and the boat was seized and impound by the Dutch Navy following a DEA tip-off.
After the owner's trial the boat was declared forfeit and sold by Dutch Customs in Curacao to yet another Dutchman with a bright idea. The boat would be just perfect for the Mediterranean.

Of course, just because you buy a boat for a song does not mean you can run and maintain her on the cheap.
After 2 years the boat was impounded by the marina at Port Napoleon (south of France) and sold to settle unpaid marina and yard bills.

She was bought by a Dutch brokerage firm and sailed to Holland. After some minimal make and mend she once again had new owners. An elderly Belgian couple trading in an HR 312 for something bigger to be able to take the children and grandchildren sailing out of Breskens. Alas, most of the time they found themselves sailing on their own and the boat proved too much/big to handle.
After only 3 years, she was once again up for sale.

We then bought her in 2006 - 7 years ago this week.
I negotiated the whole deal whilst we were away on a second honeymoon in St Lucia.
Who says romance is dead? :o
 
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Papillon was first owned by Geraint Evans the Welsh baritone, after he was knighted. Thus she was called Y Marchog then. In his autobiography "A Knight at the Opera" he writes:
“We have the mountains there. We have the sea. I have my boat. And when I take it out from the little harbour, and I'm a fair way offshore and out of earshot....I might even sing a little.”
 
Lazy Kipper was launched in 1979 and along with her sister ship was responsible for bankrupting the yard that built them. There are only two or possibly three Veracity 35's in existence, they use the Colvic Watson 34 hull with a much larger sail plan and triple sleeping cabin layout. She was sailed in Scotland by her first owner and in the Baltic and Holland by her second. We bought her in a sad neglected state in Amsterdam but there has been some fun involved in doing her up a bit. In doing so we discovered a whiskey cabinet in the aft cabin, it has a special teak base with cut outs for the various shaped whiskey bottle bottoms and a slide out draw for whiskey glasses, the cupboard had been obscured by some old material and it's now functional. I'm not much of a drinker so it's no problem keeping it stocked and it's a nice connection to the Scottish yard that built her. Her sister ship was built with a very nice mirrored cocktail cabinet. Clearing out one cupboard we found a very old fax, five pages of snagging sent to the yard after her shakedown sail, very fastidious owner commenting on the shape of bottle screw attachments and nearly a page on the issue of guard wire adjustment. She was called Norsela until we bought her, she's now named after the old Manx proverb "The eager kipper swims to his grave, the lazy kipper rides the wave".
 
Well after three years from new in Southwold Sabre was sold to a family and was kept on the Orwell in the care of the sister who went by the name of Winter (related to Sailorman?:eek:). Sabre was coded and chartered from Levington for a few years. The sister went off sailing round the world and Sabre was taken over by the brother and moved to Plymouth. I bought her from him and she came back to the East Coast.

When I first went into Shotley they said they had loads of Sabres on the computer. Loads of charterers no doubt who got all the way from SYH :D
 
Present boat: we have about 100 photos of her during the build - the yard sent us photos weekly. We were there for her being loaded on a truck, and followed that truck to watch her launch. We watched her being rigged, and sorted out all the very minor problems, and sailed her home from the Baltic later that year. We visited the builders last year, and are staying in contact with them.

Last boat: she was launched at Levington and spent her first 10 years there owned by a man and his wife who sailed along the East Coast and to Holland and Belgium. We never met him, but still send him postcards and Christmas cards. He gave up sailing when he sold the boat, and clearly loved her and missed her. He really appreciated hearing of her adventures! When we bought her, there was a folder with all the receipts and details of everything he had done or bought. It really gives you confidence that a boat has been well maintained!
 
The boat in my avatar is 'Mirage of Thames', which Thames Marine raced off the east coast. I have the original Mirage 28 brochure which shows the same boat at sea, and a picture of the crew with trophies.
 
Errr... very little.
She was launched some time after 1975 (dates on one fire extinguisher and the back of the compass). In 1988, called Explorer she was imported into Holland from Germany. When I bought her in 2008 she may have been called Wunjo (Joy), but the dodgy italic script looked like Wunja and that is what she is today.
 
We bought our boat last year from a couple who had owned her from new since 1995, funnily enough we were berthed in the same place about 10 years ago and saw her on the water then. Our previous boat we'd had from new for 12 years
 
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