It's nearly time!

boatingdave

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Have part ex'd my P415 for a Fairline Squadron 43. Have had loads of refurbishment carried out on her at Essex Boat Yard. Went down to see the finished product today, very impressed by the workmanship at the yard and I'm quite fussy! Hope to get her on to the Thames in the next week or so. Really excited! :-)
 
Flippin eck, has that not happened yet:)
If this weather carries on you will have a great trip up.

Sadly not. Between SIB and them having to fit in the re-gelling of another boat (which has been reported on this forum elsewhere) it has taken a lot longer than anticipated. I'm trying to stay calm and patient. Next week looks good weather wise so hopefully at the tail end of the deal now.
 
Weather still looking OK for next week. Lot of fog here at the moment tho !
EBY is getting some good reviews over on MoBo chat.
Bought my present boat from them. No B/S and very straightforward outfit.
http://www.rochestercc.co.uk/index_files/webcam.htm

I should find out tomorrow. Silly things left now like she has the wrong anodes and the tonneau needed to be altered. I've commented on the mobo forum. It feels as if it's been months! :-). I was going to bring her back myself but may let them deliver her now as it's difficult to get time off now.
 

That is the very boat before we had her refurbished! :-) new beds, new upholstery, new covers, polished, antifouled, overhaul of various electrical panels, new electronics, new waste water tanks, engines serviced and re sprayed new high power bilge pumps with filters, boat safety, all teak renovated......etc etc. I would usually had done all that myself but decided to maximise the enjoyment rather than spending months doing it myself! Well spotted......
 
Getting really fed up now. We've now purchased and it's all come to a go slow. EBY 'found' a leak which is appears has been there for a while and whilst I'm glad it's being fixed still very frustrated it's still not been delivered. If I'd known it was unseaworthy last week when I went to see her I wouldn't have Transferred the funds. And now the weather has broken and I don't have the luxury of time or resources to transfer everything over from the old boat to the new. I did warn them of all this and everything I warned them about has come to fruition. I'm sure it will turn out ok but with all the other stuff going on I could have really really done without this. On the plus side I have some piccies that I will publish later, may cheer me up! :-)
 
Getting really fed up now. We've now purchased and it's all come to a go slow. EBY 'found' a leak which is appears has been there for a while and whilst I'm glad it's being fixed still very frustrated it's still not been delivered. If I'd known it was unseaworthy last week when I went to see her I wouldn't have Transferred the funds. And now the weather has broken and I don't have the luxury of time or resources to transfer everything over from the old boat to the new. I did warn them of all this and everything I warned them about has come to fruition. I'm sure it will turn out ok but with all the other stuff going on I could have really really done without this. On the plus side I have some piccies that I will publish later, may cheer me up! :-)

It matters not one jot wether yer new toy is 10ft or hundred, at some point the bit of thin string "AKA your patience" starts to wear perilously bit thin.
We have all been there. Well remember,when picking up my boat from them far too late in the year, was so keen to get it "home", set off in conditions that would normally seen me sitting by the fire looking out the window. :)
All the angst vanishes in a flash 30 secs after the delivery crew disappear in the car collecting them and you sit all alone at the helm flicking switches fiddling with an entire new set of knobs and planning those epic future voyages.
From here on in its all downhill and the boat will of course start to get smaller for some reason.
 
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It matters not one jot wether yer new toy is 10ft or hundred, at some point the bit of thin string "AKA your patience" starts to wear perilously bit thin.
We have all been there. Well remember,when picking up my boat from them far too late in the year, was so keen to get it "home", set off in conditions that would normally seen me sitting by the fire looking out the window. :)
All the angst vanishes in a flash 30 secs after the delivery crew disappear in the car collecting them and you sit all alone at the helm flicking switches fiddling with an entire new set of knobs and planning those epic future voyages.
From here on in its all downhill and the boat will of course start to get smaller for some reason.
Ha ha. Thanks Fred. I'll remember that when I'm fiddling. I can't get there for the delivery trip now but may try and head down somewhere to be picked up, probably around St Kats, so I can feel 'involved' however the weather forcast for the delivery day (Tuesday) is horrendous maybe I should sit in front of the fire gazing out of the window and leave them to it. :-). Dave
 
Boat looks great. I remember seeing her for sale for a while with EBY. Always makes me wonder why people don't put their boats up for sale in the condition you now have her, rather than tired and unloved.
 
Boat looks great. I remember seeing her for sale for a while with EBY. Always makes me wonder why people don't put their boats up for sale in the condition you now have her, rather than tired and unloved.

Thanks. I thought the same thing about her condition, even the bits that they were responsible for hadn't been done. We decided it was worth doing the work, didn't anticipate spending quite so much on her though but she's looking good. A couple of really minor things to do when she gets here but very little. Just in time for the boating season to finish :-).
 
Hope today goes well for you.think your gonna get salt on that beautiful shiny gelcoat you've got!
But as OG says,when she's on your mooring,you step back to admire her it will have all been worth it,enjoy:)
 
H - it was a bit of a saga. Yes and no. The boat got swamped crossing from the Crouch and took out the fly bridge screen and Tonneau. Steering packed up (the fans were rubbing on the hydraulic line that then split), throttles eventually started having a demonic life of their own (water ingress from the swamping, luckily only started a couple of miles from the marina) and the boat went astern at speed all on its own with no one at the controls at one of the locks and injured the delivery crew member that was trying to get on it at the time. We did pass through teddington very late on Tuesday (had to knock on the window to get the attention of the staff as he probably didn't anticipate anyone would come through at such an hour with no water!). However, all defects now fixed minus the screen and tonneau cover have now been fixed. Formally hand over the Princess tomorrow as the Fairline will be on the mooring when I get back later. Just had the telephone call from Kings Marine who have also been very good (working from instructions from EBY)
The delivery skipper was superb (took her a majority of the way just on engines as the steering went quite quickly in to the journey), we came up with the low water alarm bleeping most of the time, had the usual rowers shouting at us and a couple headed straight for us and ignored horns, shouting, waving etc and of course it was still our fault even though we had to follow the channel as the tide was out. They just don't expect other boats to be on the water. First of all I was angry but then just ignored them, its not my fault they are ignorant and rude.

All in all quite an experience, they picked me up from St Kats. I did try to get on at Greenwich but the pier master would not let me even though the boat was in touching distance. I thought I had asked all the right people for permission but as I he wasn't there when I first arrived I didn't know I had to ask him. Given the boat was having difficulty I think he was a bit jobs worth especially as some other boats had tied up and gone ashore (and we didn't even want to tie up!).
There are some of the works we commissioned that have not been done but I'll deal with EBY on that separately and it will be interesting to see how they respond.
 
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