"Papillon" is a Robert Tucker designed 'Fantasie 19' and my first boat.. I've been sailing since the age of 15 (when I did my RYA Part 1 and 2 at Emsworth Sailing School) so I've been on the water (but more in it) for going on 30+ years now... this blog is about our adventures together - they may be small one's (because despite the years I have little experience in boats - I was mostly windsurfing!), but they are adventures none the less..

Saturday 29 May 2010

HURRAH!!

You guessed it - the insurance are going to pay - no assessor required...

Relieved??? You betcha...

Looks like I might get some sailing in this summer after all!!

HURRAH!!!!!!!!

smiley emoticons

Tuesday 25 May 2010

Quote is with the assessor..

..fingers crossed...

The quote from Chris came in yesterday and I banged it off straight away to the insurers..

Bad news is that the quote was bigger by some margin than the ad hoc quote he did me on the night, the good news is that it is still half the previous quote I had so well within the insured value of the boat...

I also managed to shave some costs out of the quote by being able to provide some of the parts myself (the roller furling sleeves), and by getting everything ready to go myself - I also said I would transport the mast to Chris's factory unit, but I may well let him collect anyway and I'll pay for that rather than the insurers..

...just got to wait now...

Picture is of "Barley II" by the way - no motor or trailer, but does have roller furling, and the owner is willing to do a deal for around the £500 mark...bargain! Contact details over there to the left in the "For Sale" section..

Friday 21 May 2010

"What a difference a day makes...

...24 little hours" etcetc...

Well not quite a day - more like a week... so what's been happening?? Well I can honestly say that I must have investigated every avenue known to man this week in an effort to get some kind of a rig back on "Papillon"... following the bad news from the insurance company with regard to the first quote (see previous post), I've:

  • Made an offer for the rig of another Fantasie 19 that was being sold as a renovation project - never heard back from the owner on that one...
  • Checked with Chichester Harbour Conservancy to see if they have any abandoned boats in their pen - too early in the season for that one, apparently they round them up at the end of the summer..
  • Put the word out on my sailing club forum.. no joy, but a couple of leads
  • Put the word out on the Practical Boat Owner forum... no joy, only a single response but a definite winner (more anon)...
  • Requested a quote from SailSpar - cheaper than ZSPAR, but still too expensive by the time I've transported it back home, paid to have all the bits transferred over, etc etc.
  • As a result of the lead on the PBO forum I spoke to a local chandlers called The Chandlery Barge [click here] based on the Hamble, who were very helpful people - they have a large number and quantity of used parts, and advised me that they had at least two masts of the right size for me. I was planning to go today, but decided that it really would be sensible to also get a second opinion on repairing the mast..
  • So I called Chris at Holman Rigging in Chichester, and as he was over my way last night, I met him down at the boat


Chris crawled all over the boat, I was able to explain to him what I thought had gone wrong, and push comes to shove he tells me "yeah, we can repair that no trouble..".

So, I'm thinking, "Yep, that's what the last chap said" thinking of the bill he had then promptly presented me with.

..and Chris goes on and says, "can't see it being much more than £300 or £400".. Smiley

Smiley

To say I'm delighted is a little bit like saying the Grand Canyon is a bit of a ditch... that's a third of the price of the previous quote... what he said he will do is:

# fabricate a new mast foot in stainless steel, with a long foot that will slide up inside the mast to provide bracing - to do that he'll remove the halyard exit and re-position it further up the mast..

# fix roller furling

# check/re-connect electrics

# replace bottlescrews all round, and

# new forestay

So - immediate plans for a visit to The Chandlery Barge are shelved (but I look forward to going another time as it sounds a fascinating place!) while I await the quote from Chris. I've informed the insurance company but to be honest, in my own mind I'm already ready to proceed, with or without them..

PS. I knicked the picture of Mr. Brooks's "Jelly Bean" off the Fantasie 19 owners site - lovely picture - hope he doesn't mind!...

Sunday 16 May 2010

Bit fed up..

Bit fed up - certainly no sailing being done, glorious sunsets or not..

I finally heard from the insurance company on Friday.. as I suspected, they have advised me that the insurers "are likely to deem the boat as a constructive total loss" because the cost of the repairs exceed the value of the boat..

So we can't repair the existing, and can't buy a new one, for less than the value of the boat - which only leaves the option of finding a second hand one...

For which the search has started...

If anyone is out there, and has knowledge of a cheap, 22', aluminium, deck mounted, mast... please leave a comment here!!

Saturday 8 May 2010

The meaning of BOAT...

...my sister tells me that the meaning of BOAT is "bring out another thousand", having seen the quote that has now arrived I'm inclined to think she may actually be right!!

It's in the hands of the insurers now but the repair company have given two options - a new mast (which is their recommendation) or repair the old. The repair option comes in at about £1200, the new mast option comes in at about £1800.... ouch!!!!

Oh, and that's excluding VAT!

What on earth will the insurers say???

I'm off to Southampton Boat Jumble tomorrow - may be that will cheer me up!

Thursday 6 May 2010

..no progress....

As it says - no real progress so far on the repairs... the repair company's man has visited the boat and is currently away putting together the quote... and has been now for getting on almost 3 weeks.

I keep chasing but no real progress other than the comment that they will be providing a quote that includes a new mast (from Z-Spars) as in their opinion the damage is of such significance that it would be cheaper to have a new one than repair the old... scuba diving

Not good news - I'm insured, but if we were talking in car terms I'm guessing we'd talking about "write off" (ie. where the repair costs more than the boat), and I don't know what the insurance company's take will be... we'll have to wait and see, but I know that I'll be trying very hard to get her back on the water in time for the next bank holiday...

...in the meanwhile I leave you with the following which was taken by my sister last week while on holidays in the Norfolk Broads...

I have no doubt whatsoever that my interest and love of sailing started as a youngster reading the books of Arthur Ransome, two of his books ("Big Six" and "Coot Club") dealt with the Norfolk Broads, and this was the kind of boat that featured heavily... isn't she beautiful???? free smileys