Bru
Well-Known Member
Hello (soon to be) fellow East Coasters
Thought I'd pop in and introduce myself properly - I've been hanging about these forums for a few years now and posting here and there on topics I know summat about (and some I don't!) but finally, at last, (and to hell with the bank manager) me and the missus in partnership with our friend Rik have bought ourselves a yatchet. Our new pride and joy is a fairly elderly but very tidy 1969 Russell Marine Islander 23 called "Brigantia" (ex "Anne of Arne").
We're all three of us ex canal boaters with decades of experience of mud plugging in a wide variety of GRP canal cruisers and narrowboats of all shapes and sizes. Both Rik and I sailed dinghys when in our youth, Jane though has no previous sailing experience. We've a steep learning curve ahead of us!
Rik and I are both electronics engineers by trade and training although I spent most of my professional career in IT (networks and internet latterly) before an unsucessful attempt to run my own business which crashed and burnt! I now work part time at a local garage to earn the money to, well as it turns out, buy and run a boat whilst the dear lady wife brings home the bacon by working her socks off at a major supermarket distribution warehouse.
Brigantia is currently ashore at Woodbridge from whence she'll be moved by road at the beginning of April down to Fambridge Yacht Haven where she'll be on a swinging mooring. We've a couple of minor maintenance jobs to do by then and a coat or two of antifoul to slap on - some kind soul has already done the hard work of scraping and sanding the hull below the waterline. She's got most of the essential basic kit but the shopping list still adds up to a fairly scarey total (boat = hole in water + money) and I keep finding things to add to it
After due consideration we decided to get her moved by road (at a very reasonable cost I must say) rather than risk a maiden voyage over the Deben bar and through the Felixstowe shipping lanes in an untried boat with an inexperienced crew - I didn't fancy appearing on the local news being rescued by the RNLI or featuring in an episode of "Seaside Dickheads"! (Anyone want to buy that program idea off me???
). Once on the Crouch we can get her properly set up and carry out "sea" trials on the river before building up to more adventurous trips like sailing around to the Blackwater and such epic adventures!
So if, in the coming months, you see a 23 foot Bermudan sloop with a dark blue hull going sideways down the River Crouch in a tangle of confused rigging and even more confused crew, give us a wave and say hello!
Look forward to meeting (and hopefully not hitting) some of you over the coming months,
ATB
Bru (and Jane and Rik)
Thought I'd pop in and introduce myself properly - I've been hanging about these forums for a few years now and posting here and there on topics I know summat about (and some I don't!) but finally, at last, (and to hell with the bank manager) me and the missus in partnership with our friend Rik have bought ourselves a yatchet. Our new pride and joy is a fairly elderly but very tidy 1969 Russell Marine Islander 23 called "Brigantia" (ex "Anne of Arne").
We're all three of us ex canal boaters with decades of experience of mud plugging in a wide variety of GRP canal cruisers and narrowboats of all shapes and sizes. Both Rik and I sailed dinghys when in our youth, Jane though has no previous sailing experience. We've a steep learning curve ahead of us!
Rik and I are both electronics engineers by trade and training although I spent most of my professional career in IT (networks and internet latterly) before an unsucessful attempt to run my own business which crashed and burnt! I now work part time at a local garage to earn the money to, well as it turns out, buy and run a boat whilst the dear lady wife brings home the bacon by working her socks off at a major supermarket distribution warehouse.
Brigantia is currently ashore at Woodbridge from whence she'll be moved by road at the beginning of April down to Fambridge Yacht Haven where she'll be on a swinging mooring. We've a couple of minor maintenance jobs to do by then and a coat or two of antifoul to slap on - some kind soul has already done the hard work of scraping and sanding the hull below the waterline. She's got most of the essential basic kit but the shopping list still adds up to a fairly scarey total (boat = hole in water + money) and I keep finding things to add to it
After due consideration we decided to get her moved by road (at a very reasonable cost I must say) rather than risk a maiden voyage over the Deben bar and through the Felixstowe shipping lanes in an untried boat with an inexperienced crew - I didn't fancy appearing on the local news being rescued by the RNLI or featuring in an episode of "Seaside Dickheads"! (Anyone want to buy that program idea off me???
). Once on the Crouch we can get her properly set up and carry out "sea" trials on the river before building up to more adventurous trips like sailing around to the Blackwater and such epic adventures!So if, in the coming months, you see a 23 foot Bermudan sloop with a dark blue hull going sideways down the River Crouch in a tangle of confused rigging and even more confused crew, give us a wave and say hello!
Look forward to meeting (and hopefully not hitting) some of you over the coming months,
ATB
Bru (and Jane and Rik)
.
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