Southampton to Norn Iron

Congratulations!
I had a neighbour with a Sweden 39 and that was a serious and well built ship, so I have no doubt yours will be too. I wish you many happy miles!
 
Hmm, sorry to put a damper on your plans but someone needs to highlight the problems of delivering a heavily discounted 30 year old new purchase a long way back home while still maintaining a demanding fulltime job.

Either hand it over to a pro delivery outfit or:

  1. Forget the holiday cruise intentions, you are about to embark on a high risk troublesome personal delivery. Remember many a 2 week family cruise from the Solent to the West Country in a full commission yacht gets no further than Weymouth.
  2. Bare in mind that weekly overstays in the Solent will cost you £200 to £300 at this time of year.
  3. Get the resident engineer at Swanick marina to suck the tank dry of old diesel and debris then new fuel filters plus standard service.
  4. Test the batteries using a 10 hour nav light load of known amperage. Barden batteries just up the road in Fareham will sort you out at a price.
  5. Book the local marine engineer for a second engine once over immediately post launch.
  6. There is a large supermarket just a mile up the road from Deacons, so stock up for a week once ready for the off.
  7. First trip out you need to stress the engine for a couple of hours, the Hamble and Southampton water can act as your drag strip. At the weekend there will usually be a RNLI rib milling around looking for some action.
  8. Next go through the sails to make sure all the reefing options work, any problems then duck back into Hamble point marina for a day where the local sail lofts can help you out. For rigging hardware problems best make contact with the resident riggers at Swanwick Marina.
  9. Next you need to get your sakes on. Wiggle your way down the western Solent and at the Needles either head for Weymouth or Alderney/Guernsey depending on wind direction.
  10. A zigzag from the Needles to the C.I.'s and then on to Salcombe can be faster than the Weymouth Route. I think sailors psychology plays a role here, there is a demonstrable tendency for skippers to become mentally harbour/storm bound in Weymouth for days due to the added complexity of the Portland Race and the deep rafts that form along the quayside in the summer.
  11. Once you get to Cornwall you can begin to relax in the knowledge you have a runner of a yacht. The choice spots are the Yealm, Fowey (for the Eden Project) and the Helford River. However I would not want to maneuver a 41ft yacht with unfamiliar handling in the Yealm.
  12. After Cornwall my choice would be Kinsale or the SE Coast of Ireland in one passage.
Edit-1: Join SeaStart who have good coverage for the early stages of your delivery trip. Must be a minor cost compared to hunting down a local marine engineer at random plus the cost of flying the crew back out to recommence the delivery.
 
Last edited:
Thanks. Last year I took a damp, slightly sinky 28 foot wooden boat to within a digestive biscuit of St Kilda in what can only be described as challenging conditions so hopefully I won't need the lifeboats in the Solent :)
I'm more of a PBO reader than YM so I tend to do my own engine services etc. I'll post on here if it all goes pear shaped :)
 
pmagowan said:
within a digestive biscuit of St Kilda in what can only be described as challenging conditions so hopefully I won't need the lifeboats in the Solent :)
Click to expand...
There be different serpents in the Solent. When you discover your heater exchanger is not working 200 meters beyond the Hamble fairway buoy and a floating tower block called the Queen Mary is giving you five, an inshore Hamble lifeboat will be a welcome sight.

pmagowan said:
I'm more of a PBO reader than YM so I tend to do my own engine services etc. I'll post on here if it all goes pear shaped :)
Click to expand...
Hmm. Your are a regular human being with normal fallibilities.

You will be overloaded with the demands of travel, trains, hire car, crew welfare, last minute equipment purchases, working out how the systems work, is that sticky seacock normal or a sign of impending failure, is the prolonged no charge alarm sound a sign of impending alternator failure. Just contemplating exiting Deacons against the ferocious current that squeezes past the bridge will unsettle the nerves of an experienced skipper.

This delivery is a big challenge and I suggest offloading some of the skippering stress with a cheque book. A pro engine service and SeaStart are a no-brain particularly in view of the extra costs of restarting the delivery trip a month later from say Falmouth.
 
jonjo said:
There be different serpents in the Solent. When you discover your heater exchanger is not working 200 meters beyond the Hamble fairway buoy and a floating tower block called the Queen Mary is giving you five, an inshore Hamble lifeboat will be a welcome sight.


Hmm. Your are a regular human being with normal fallibilities.

You will be overloaded with the demands of travel, trains, hire car, crew welfare, last minute equipment purchases, working out how the systems work, is that sticky seacock normal or a sign of impending failure, is the prolonged no charge alarm sound a sign of impending alternator failure. Just contemplating exiting Deacons against the ferocious current that squeezes past the bridge will unsettle the nerves of an experienced skipper.

This delivery is a big challenge and I suggest offloading some of the skippering stress with a cheque book. A pro engine service and SeaStart are a no-brain particularly in view of the extra costs of restarting the delivery trip a month later from say Falmouth.
Click to expand...

My perception of the risks associated with this passage is far closer to the OP's than to your rather doom-laden predictions. I'm sure he will comfortably cope with any unforseen circumstances that may arise.
 
Quiddle said:
My perception of the risks associated with this passage is far closer to the OP's than to your rather doom-laden predictions.
Click to expand...
No doubt but I am usually proven correct in at the end of the day. The last forum poster who ignored my advice to forget the holiday cruise, ended up taking months to complete a 36 hour delivery. They sold their boat at the end of season due to general dissatisfaction with their lovingly restored new yacht, I still think that had they got home in 36 hours with a delivery mindset they might have learned to appreciate their new yacht in home waters.

Delivery trips are notoriously problematic, trying to overlay the expectations of a holiday cruise on top of the essential challenge could end in tears.
 
Last edited:
jonjo said:
No doubt but I am usually proven correct in at the end of the day. The last forum poster who ignored my advice to forget the holiday cruise, ended up taking months to complete a 36 hour delivery. They ended up selling their boat at the end of season due to general dissatisfaction with their lovingly restored new yacht, I still think that had they got home in 36 hours with a delivery mindset they might have learned to appreciate their new yacht in home waters.

Delivery trips are notoriously problematic, trying to overlay the expectations of a holiday cruise on top of the essential challenge could end in tears.
Click to expand...

My interpretation of the OP was that he was not out for a cruise but information on decent stops along the South coast. The purchase survey or his own as he is obviously a competent sailor and experienced owner will take care of all the foreseeable problems with equipment and especially engine and fuel. Which will be prudent as he can expect 2 to 3 days motoring in adverse winds along the south coast. Solent to Plymouth is possible in 24Hrs I have done it twice with delivery of boats purchased in Chichester. Plymouth to Falmouth 8Hrs tops or 12 to Penzance. then it's take your pick Scillies or S Ireland both within 36Hrs. The trip is not a demanding one especially given the OPs home waters and experience.
 
pmagowan said:
I'm more of a PBO reader than YM so I tend to do my own engine services etc. I'll post on here if it all goes pear shaped :)
Click to expand...

Obviously there's usually a heightened risk of issues with a newly bought boat that has been on the hard for a while but Jonjo seems to be particularly pessamistic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EH1G4EwljM

With a bit of common sense and prudence it should be fine. I'd just plan short hops along the south coast to start with and give yourself enough time to fettle issues. If it were me I'd also make sure I had a crew that I could trust to sail the boat if I had to spend and hour or two down below working on something. Once you've got to Falmouth you should have beta-tested the boat enough to just go for NI in one leg (albeit it would be a shame to miss a visit to the Scillies).
 
lpdsn said:
but Jonjo seems to be particularly pessimistic.
Click to expand...
Someone here needs to counter all the "rah rah fabulous boat" platitudes posted so far.

There is a common failing on this forum of people recalling looking around a deluxe yacht design at the Southampton Boatshow in 1985 and then offering advice based on the assumption an example will be just as pristine and desirable today. Not matter what the design, a GRP yacht is just a collection of commodity manufactured bits and pieces most of which are scheduled to snap, shear, seize or short circuit within 30 years.
 
Last edited:
jonjo said:
Someone here needs to counter all the "rah rah fabulous boat" platitudes posted so far.

There is a common failing on this forum of people recalling looking around a deluxe yacht design at the Southampton Boatshow in 1985 and then offering advice based on the assumption an example will be just as pristine and desirable today. Not matter what the design, a GRP yacht is just a collection of commodity manufactured bits and pieces most of which are scheduled to snap, shear, seize or short circuit within 30 years.
Click to expand...

There's truth in that.
Luckily a great deal of the stuff that wears out or breaks etc isn't actually essential to sail a boat from A to B.
One issue which occurs to me is that the survey will inevitably pick up some faults, some of which may need to be fixed before the boat is insurable for such a trip? Maybe not actual faults but the suggestions to get X, Y and Z checked?
When I sold one of my boats, I ended up delivering it for a similar reason, I was prepared to do so insured TPO.
 
jonjo said:
Someone here needs to counter all the "rah rah fabulous boat" platitudes posted so far.

There is a common failing on this forum of people recalling looking around a deluxe yacht design at the Southampton Boatshow in 1985 and then offering advice based on the assumption an example will be just as pristine and desirable today. Not matter what the design, a GRP yacht is just a collection of commodity manufactured bits and pieces most of which are scheduled to snap, shear, seize or short circuit within 30 years.
Click to expand...

How many yachts have you delivered?
 
My gearbox coupling failed and I nearly wrecked the boat on a lee shore, in F7(9) breakwater on my deliver cruise home. Fortunately, I always prepare an anchor for launching when entering / leaving which saved the day. It was a result in the end as I ended up with a new shaft, engine mounts, and Halyard CV drive; the start of a long list upgrades over the years.
 
jonjo said:
42.

Have I said anything you wish to disagree with?
Click to expand...

Yes. If you have delivered 42 boats then you are delivering under entirely different circumstances than a new owner taking back his own boat. You gave a fair list of the checks to do before leaving but I would expect any owner top do them anyway. They are common sense, just not as common when you are hiring a delivery skipper. I have only ever delivered 4 boats, all new to me as the owner, and every delivery went fine because I sorted the boat before I left.

So yes you are being overly pessimistic.
 
wotayottie said:
Yes. If you have delivered 42 boats then you are delivering under entirely different circumstances than a new owner taking back his own boat. You gave a fair list of the checks to do before leaving but I would expect any owner top do them anyway. They are common sense, just not as common when you are hiring a delivery skipper. I have only ever delivered 4 boats, all new to me as the owner, and every delivery went fine because I sorted the boat before I left.

So yes you are being overly pessimistic.
Click to expand...

I would like to see the list of the 42 boats...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top